Yesterday four environmental advocacy organizations announced their intent to sue transportation planners for alleged illegal road construction in Georgia. The Atlanta metro region ranks among the nations' worst violators of federal standards for ground-level ozone, says a release issued with the public announcement of the suit.

Ozone is a highly reactive gas that forms when vehicle emission and pollution from other sources combine with heat and sunlight. During summertime "ozone alert" episodes, some metro Atlantans with respiratory ailments wind up in emergency rooms, and others suffer a range of breathing difficulties, a result of the ozone pollution, environmental advocates charge.

The Atlanta region violated federal air quality standards for ozone 22 days this year, almost twice its yearly average. On several days, Fayette County's ground-level ozone levels were the highest in the 13-county region being monitored. Cars and trucks are responsible for more than 50 percent of the pollutants that form ozone.

Federal law requires transportation policymakers to adopt a long-range plan that keeps vehicle emission within an established pollution "budget." According to the plaintiffs in the Georgia suit, the state and federal DOT and the Atlanta Regional Commission approved a transportation plan that illegally exploits a "grandfathering" loophole in federal air quality regulations. The transportation agencies claim that a substantial number of road projects were already in the pipeline and could therefore continue regardless of any negative effects on air quality.

Fayette's "grandfathered" projects targeted by the suit include a two-step widening of Ga. Highway 74 from Ga. Highway 54 all the way to Hwy. 85, plus the widening of two bridges: Hwy. 74 at Flat Creek and Hwy. 54 at the railroad crossing.

The legal action gives notice to stop abuse of the 1990 Clean Air Act and to require policymakers to work within their established pollution budget in accordance with federal law, lawsuit supporters said.

According to the environmentalists' statement, the suit could have repercussions in many U.S. cities where traffic-related pollution violates federal standards and jeopardizes public health including Washington D.C., Denver, Charlotte, N.C., Boston, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.