Press Mention Palatka Daily News May 30, 2002
SACE Quoted
Health, environmental groups to sue EPA for failure to enforce air standards
In this mention
Health and environmental groups, including the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, announced plans to sue the EPA for failing to enforce stricter ozone pollution standards set five years prior. According to SACE, 59 cities or counties in the Southeast are not meeting the tougher eight-hour ozone standards, exposing more than 23 million people to unhealthy air quality. The groups plan to file suit within 60 days to force EPA implementation of the standards.
We've got an excessive amount of cities and counties violating the eight-hour ozone standards. We very clearly have a problem in the Southeast.
Ulla Reeves
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Health, environmental groups to sue EPA for failure to enforce air standards
Associated Press
Health and environmental groups from eight Southeastern states announced Thursday that they intend to take the Environmental Protection Agency to court for failing to enforce air pollution health standards set five years ago.
The groups, including the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the American Lung Association and the Sierra Club, plan to sue the EPA in federal court within 60 days to force the agency to begin implementing stricter standards for ozone pollution, the main component of smog.
In the Southeast, 59 cities or counties that monitor ozone aren't meeting the tougher standards, according to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
"We've got an excessive amount of cities and counties violating the eight-hour ozone standards," said alliance spokeswoman Ulla Reeves. "We very clearly have a problem in the Southeast."
More than 23 million people in an eight-state region from North Carolina to Mississippi are exposed to unhealthy levels of ozone pollution, a component of smog, according to the American Lung Association.
Pam Lewis, executive director of the Alabama chapter, said Thursday's action is the first step in cleaning up the region's air quality by forcing the EPA to designate which areas fail to comply so the states "can start making plans to get the air clean."
The EPA had delayed designating the areas that aren't in compliance because of industry lawsuits challenging the tougher standards. But the last legal challenge was struck down in March.
Kay Prince, chief of air planning at the EPA regional office in Atlanta, couldn't comment on the group's intent to sue, but said her agency has already started the process of implementing the standards and will begin to formulate ways to help states improve regions of poor air quality.
"We expect to publish a final notice in 2003. Once that notice is published, we'll give states the opportunity to comment," said Prince.
States would then have three years to comply.
The new regulations limit ozone to 0.08 parts per million instead of 0.12 parts per million and requires ozone levels to be averaged over an eight-hour period instead of the current one-hour period.
The tougher standards will increase the number of counties and cities out of compliance.