Back in March we noted that the
EPA had adopted a new, very stringent, threshold for determining what
is a ?high? or a ?code orange? ozone day. The standard was tightened
from .085 parts per million (ppm) to .075 ppm. Today the numbers for
the 2008 ozone season in North Carolina were released and the results
are quite interesting. This year North Carolina averaged 4.2 high ozone
days per monitor. There are 46 monitors across the state. This is
exactly the same as the annual average under the old, less stringent,
standard over the last 10 years. This shows how dramatically ozone
levels have improved in our state. Even under the new standard, we had
far fewer code orange days in 2008, almost three quarters fewer, than
we had under the old standard in 1998.