On June 21, the Louisville Air Pollution Control Board unanimously approved the Strategic Toxic Air Reduction (STAR) program to require industrial facilities to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants. The process that led to the program, which will be implemented July 1, demonstrates how invaluable public access to environmental information is in protecting the health and safety of communities. For years Louisville residents have been plagued with poor air quality. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air monitors throughout Louisville showed dangerously high levels of 18 hazardous air pollutants. Citizens and local officials connected the air monitoring data with information from the federal Toxics Release Inventory to identify the facilities responsible for the hazardous air pollution. This connection led directly to the city's formulation of the STAR program. According to Tim Duncan, a member of Rubbertown Emergency Action (REACT), "Without the air monitoring, and citizen access to that data, industries could have kept saying there is not a problem, and we would not have been able to push the city to deal with the industrial sources of our air pollution problems." OMB Watch comments on the STAR proposal Louisville Courier Journal STAR program article