Some Say Poor Air Quality Cost Eastern Arkansas Jobs

The director of Marion`s Economic Development Department said a poor air-quality label for Crittenden County from the federal Environmental Protection Agency recently cost the area about 600 jobs. Kay Brockwell declined to disclose the name of the company that refused to consider Crittenden County after the EPA leveled its non-attainment designation on it and Memphis` Shelby County next door. But she said it was like she had "thrown a switch" taking the county out of contention when she told the company executives about the EPA ruling. Also, this month, an executive at a steel company confirmed that the pollution designation scared his company away from building a steel mill in West Memphis that would have employed about 450 people. Crittenden County officials dispute the designation, which names only Crittenden and Shelby counties as non-compliant in the five-county Memphis area. Even officials in Memphis have said that Crittenden County only produces 10 percent of the pollution and should not be on the EPA list.