PHOENIX (AP) — Air quality officials say fewer construction industry trucks and workers kicking up dust may be one of the reasons the Phoenix area recorded fewer bad air days in the past two years. Two years ago, monitors in and around Maricopa County registered unhealthful readings for particulate pollution on 27 occasions. But since then, air pollution levels have exceeded the federal health standard far less often — only 11 times in 2007 and eight times so far this year. When the Phoenix region failed to meet a Dec. 31, 2006, deadline to clean the air, the EPA put it on a Five Percent Plan, a stringent mandate to reduce particulate levels each year by 5% until local air monitors record no more than three violations of the federal health standard over a three-year period. Failure to meet the standards could lead to the loss of several billion dollars in federal road building funds.
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