AP: “More than 100 million people living in 46 metro areas are breathing air that has gotten too full of soot on some days, and now those cities have to clean up their air, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday. The EPA added 15 cities to the sooty air list, mostly in states not usually thought of as pollution-prone, such as Alaska, Utah, Idaho and Wisconsin. That’s probably because of the prevalence of wood stoves in western and northern regions, a top EPA official said.”

December 22, 2008 – EPA has issued a final Federal Register notice designating areas throughout the US as “nonattainment” and “unclassifiable/attainment” for the 24-hour national air quality standards for fine particulate matter, also called PM2.5.

• Federal Register Notice (PDF) (202 pp)
• Fact Sheet
• Map of 24-hour PM2.5 Nonattainment Areas
• Table Showing Final Designations by State
• Timeline for Implementing the 24-hour PM2.5 Standard