EPA and US environment groups reach deal on smog
Date: 15-Nov-02
Country: USA
Author: Chris Baltimore
The consent decree requires the EPA to determine which areas of the United States fail to meet national ozone standards by April 2004, and then make plans for reductions.
Environmental groups said 38 states will likely be out of compliance.
Individual states must now tell the EPA which areas within their boundaries violate its ozone level standard, set in 1997, of 0.08 parts per million over an eight-hour measurement period. The agency has never enforced the standard because of court challenges from industry claiming the measures were too strict.
EPA applauded the decree, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington.
"This enables us to focus on advancing the work on the designation instead of spending time fighting lawsuits," said agency spokesman Joe Martyak.
Nine environmental and state groups, including the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, sued the EPA to force the government to enforce the new rules.
"The long wait since 1997 has meant that our air has stayed dirty far too long and many more people have suffered," said John Kirkwood, president of the American Lung Association.
The association has estimated that 141 million people - half the U.S population - live where smog levels are high enough to cause serious health problems such as asthma, eye and throat irritation and headaches.
In some cases, states will be forced to instigate stricter pollution control measures for industries.
"States have to start developing some serious pollution-control measures and crack down on polluters more," said John Walke, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Some areas will be found out of compliance for the first time."
