FAIRBANKS -- A measure connected to the perennial debate in Fairbanks over air quality will be on the Oct. 2 municipal ballot.

Passage of Proposition 3 would prevent the borough from regulating air quality in favor of state regulation.

The sponsor is a state representative from North Pole, Republican Tammie Wilson.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the proposition is opposed by people who worry about handing air pollution control to the state or to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA has imposed a 2014 deadline for the borough to meet federal air quality standards.

Former Mayor Jim Whitaker and physician Owen Hanley oppose Proposition 3. Hanley says its passage could mean a plan imposed by EPA or the state that would ban wood burning.