The number of days that Maine violates federal air quality standards due to ground-level ozone will improve from 4 days in 1995 to 0 days by 2000, and remain at zero. In 1996 there were no days that Maine's levels of ground-level ozone were higher than the federal standard. This is a substantial decrease from the previous summer that had 4 days in excess of the federal standard.
Air quality is important to long term economic growth for three reasons.
High levels of ground-level ozone are unhealthy for Maine people, causing lost work days and other costs associated with ill health. The air is extremely valuable for assimilation of pollution but the dirtier it is, the less it can perform that function, legally and ecologically. Maine benefits economically from its reputation for being pristine. Gaining a reputation for poor air quality would work against economic growth. The federal standard is that the air should not contain more than .12 parts per million of ground-level ozone as measured by looking at maximum hourly concentrations.