BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Nothing personal, smog-fighter Harry St. Clair assured forecasters on a conference call Tuesday, "but I hope I don't have to talk to you guys before next spring."
Mr. St. Clair and his team of advisers decided to lift the area's smog alert with hopes it will be the last of the season.
If the summer passes without a violation of federal ozone limits, Ohio and Kentucky can ask the Environmental Protection Agency to reclassify the Tristate as having attained the clean air standard. That would put off further restrictions for years as EPA decides how to implement its new stiffer 80 parts per billion ozone limit. The current limit is 124 ppb.
A violation -- more than three days over the limit at any one of the region's 10 ozone monitors -- could dump the Tristate into a "serious nonattainment" category and invite new restrictions on travel and industry.
So far, no monitor has the allowable three and only Middletown and Kenton County have two days over the top.
Friday, the forecasters recommended a weekend alert, and Mr. St. Clair and co-workers at Hamilton County's Department of Environmental Services agreed. The alert was extended for Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon was an anxious time for Mr. St. Clair, supervisor for air monitoring and analysis.
Midday numbers were rising faster than on Saturday, when the ozone count peaked at 122 ppb at Lebanon.
Little cleansing rain fell Monday night, despite the thunder and lightning; and winds died down just when he hoped they would blow pollutants away before the sun could bake them into smog.
Channel 19's Rich Apuzzo said a Canadian cold front was coming, but Dave Fraser from Channel 5 warned it could be "slow to get here." Even so, they and meteorologist Greg Tipton from the National Weather Service agreed that Hurricane Bonnie's spin could accelerate the cold front's southward flow and end the immediate smog threat. They decided to end the smog alert, although Mr. Fraser urged everyone to "keep your fingers crossed."
Luck held. The high reading Tuesday was 109 ppb at 5 p.m. in Lebanon.
