The Environmental Protection Agency would give most nonattainment areas until Dec. 31, 2015, to meet a new air quality standard for ozone, under a proposed rule published Feb. 14 (77 Fed. Reg. 8197).Alternatively, the agency would give states until mid-August 2015 to meet the standard, but EPA said it does not prefer that approach.Compliance would be based on air quality data from the three most recent ozone seasons, which run from about April through October in a given year. That means compliance under the first scenario for most areas would be based on air quality from 2013, 2014, and 2015. Under the second scenario, compliance would be based on 2012, 2013, and 2014 data, which means states effectively would have only the latter two seasons to improve air quality.
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