he quality of the air Hoosiers breathe in southern Indiana is improving.
Experts with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management say that thanks to efforts by local leaders, businesses, and other initiatives to cut down on emissions in portions of southwest Indiana, the amount of pollutants in the air there is down 7-percent.
The Environmental Protection Agency designates certain areas of the country as “attainment” or “non-attainment” areas for meeting the standards of sulfur dioxide in the Parts of northern Pike County and southern Daviess County for a while has been non-attainment zones, meaning they were not meeting those standards.
IDEM says they are now and because of the new designation Pike County’s Economic Development Executive Director Ashley Willis said more opportunities are in store for southwest Indiana.
“What this means for economic development in Pike County is that we’ve had several industrial prospects that have been interested in developing in our community, but with the SO2 non-attainment status, it is seen as a bit of a barrier,” Willis said. “So what this does for Pike County is it opens our doors even greater than before for a pro-business community.”
Most of the rest of the state is also meeting emissions standards, but portions that aren’t include central Huntington County for sulfur dioxide emissions and all of Lake, Porter, Floyd and Clark Counties for not meeting Ozone standards.ind
