Kansas City, Mo. ? The Kansas City area soon could be in compliance with federal clean-air standards, causing local officials to worry that it will lose some funding it receives to help clean the air clean.

The news comes a year after local officials were almost certain the Kansas City area would be declared in violation of those standards by the end of summer 2004, which would have forced the region to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fix the problem. That didn’t happen because the summer was one of the coolest on record and not once did the city’s ozone levels exceed federal standards.

Now, those same officials are worried the metropolitan area could lose $4.5 million of the $9 million it receives annually to keep the air clean after it reaches the compliance plateau. That, they said, could make the area slip back into violation of federal standards.

“That’s the unfortunate part of it, we are so close,” said James Joerke, air-quality program manager at Mid-America Regional Council.

The declaration that the metropolitan area is in compliance with federal law is expected to come in the next few months, making Kansas City area the largest geographically in the country to be in compliance.

With the funding cut, the Missouri side of the metro area could lose some bus routes and won’t have money to install synchronized traffic lights, officials said.

Because of complex federal rules, the Kansas side of the metropolitan area would be able to keep its share of the federal money.

Officials on the Missouri side have asked their congressional delegation to step in and save the funding, which they said was vital to keeping Kansas City in compliance with federal rules.

David Warm, executive director of the Mid-America Regional Council, said in a letter to the federal government that the loss of funding was a “grave concern.”