Agency to decide on whether to expand emission-control zone

ST. LOUIS -- Some counties surrounding St. Louis are being considered for an air-pollution zone that could subject them to auto-emission controls. But the target counties' officials have made it clear they don't want to be invited.

"Once they get a grip on you, they've got you," said Jim Henson, presiding commissioner of St. Francois County. "The bottom line for us is that auto-emissions stuff. That would be very, very unpopular down my way."

A Missouri agency will announce May 16 whether it will recommend expanding the St. Louis metropolitan air pollution zone to outlying counties, a move that eventually could lead to the spread of pollution controls.

On Friday, staff of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources met with representatives of the counties of St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, Warren, Lincoln, and Washington. The state agency must recommend to the Missouri Air Conservation Commission whether any of those counties should be included in a wider St. Louis metropolitan air pollution district.

A tougher round of national air pollution standards, due as early as 2007, would include widening the geographical reach of urban air pollution controls on vehicles and industry.

The St. Louis zone now includes the city and county of St. Louis, and St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin counties in Missouri; and three counties in Illinois. Clean-air standards vary within that region, but all private vehicles must pass some kind of auto-emissions test. There also are controls on power plants, dry cleaners and other businesses.

The St. Louis zone met existing federal standards for the first time last summer, but state officials said the area would fail the tougher rules on the way.

The Air Conservation Commission has a public hearing on the issue set for June 26 in Jefferson City. The commission has until July to recommend new boundaries to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which is to announce its own decision in April 2004.