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PROTECTING THE NATION FROM OZONE, CONT'D...
area, several automatic controls are to be put into place, and the state and local air pollution offices begin work on a plan to reduce air pollution by a specified date. However, because the EPA has not yet designated the nonattainment areas more than five years after the tougher standards were adopted, the states have not yet begun work on their plans, and are still relying on the same weaker standards in used since 1979.
On May 20, 2002, the American Lung Association and eight environmental groups took legal action against the EPA to force them to start designating nonattainment areas. On November 13, 2002, the EPA agreed that it would make those official designations by April 2004. However, standards that are not enforced do not protect our citizens. Cleaning up the pollution from ozone is a long process, since many changes must be made. Under current conditions, the states will not have to submit their plan for cleaning up the air until 2007, 10 years after the standards were established.
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Complying with the Standards. In settling the industry lawsuit challenging the 1997 standards, the courts determined that the EPA’s plan to implement the ozone standard had failed to meet certain Clean Air Act requirements. To address that problem, the EPA is revising its guidelines for implementing the standard. These guidelines are EPA’s instructions to the states on what steps they must take and what timetable they must meet to reduce the ozone pollution so areas can meet the standard. EPA began revising its implementation plan with public meetings in the winter of 2002. The American Lung Association is very concerned that these guidelines provide the most aggressive, proven provisions for reducing ozone and will continue to participate in discussions and planning for them. |
As of early 2003, the EPA timeline for attaining the ozone air quality standard is as follows: in 2003, EPA will announce its guidelines for implementing the standard to the states, and states will recommend to EPA areas that do not attain the ozone standard. In April 2004, EPA will designate areas as nonattainment or attainment, and in 2007, states will submit implementation plans for nonattainment areas. Deadlines for attainment of the new ozone standard will not come until between 2009 and 2021.
Early Action Compacts. In view of this long process and to avoid some of the long-term requirements of being labeled onattainment, some local and state governments have signed agreements with EPA, termed Early Action Compacts. These state and local governments have offered to impose some controls voluntarily, earlier than under the normal schedule. In
return, EPA would delay some of the requirements of long-term control on these areas, assuming that these early actions will enable them to meet the ozone standard. The American Lung Association favors local and state governments taking steps to voluntarily clean up ozone air pollution because of the benefit to the health of that community. However, the emission reduction mechanisms that would be forfeited are potential critical tools to prevent ozone from returning as a problem in the future. Of grave concern is that the Early Action Compacts fundamentally contravene the Clean Air Act. The American Lung Association will continue to express its concern and will closely observe these agreements and retain the option of challenging them in the future.
Failure to Review the Standards. Research around the world uncovers new information about the harm of ozone and other air pollutants on an ongoing basis. In recognition of this, the Clean Air Act requires that every five years the EPA must review the research on the health effects and review the standards themselves to see whether they reflect the requirement to “protect
human health with an adequate margin of safety.” EPA has failed to begin or complete that review during the five years since the last review was completed in 1997.
On December 24, 2002, the American Lung Association and eight environmental groups wrote to EPA Administrator Christine Whitman informing EPA of plans to sue the agency in 60 days for its failure to review the science and the standards for ozone
and fine particles as required by law. At the time of this report, the issue was still unresolved.
Threats to Roll Back Clean Air Act Provisions
New Source Review. The American Lung Association is concerned about efforts to delay or derail a provision of the Clean Air Act called New Source Review. Added in the 1977 amendments to the Clean Air Act, New Source Review requires approximately 17,000 of the nation’s oldest and dirtiest power plants, oil refineries, and other industrial facilities to meet the
same emissions standards as a newly built one (i.e. a new source) by installing up-to-date pollution control devices if modifications to the plant significantly increase air pollution. Congress had assumed that such facilities, including power plants and refineries, would be replaced over time. To forestall industry attempts to keep adapting or enlarging these plants
without cleaning them up, Congress included the New Source Review requirements.
In 1999, the EPA took dozens of the most egregious utility violators to court, and initiated administrative action against others. A few cases had been settled when the Bush Administration announced plans in May 2001 to review the New Source Review process. The EPA held public hearings to receive comment on the process while the Department of Justice reviewed
the legality of EPA’s authority to act. On Jan. 15, 2002, the Justice Department confirmed EPA’s authority to enforce the NSR provisions.
On December 31, 2002, the Bush Administration formally proposed changes to New Source Review that represent a major setback to public health and roll back key provisions of the Clean Air Act. The changes, which go into review without further notice and comment, include:
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Allowing industrial plants to claim credit for
controls installed 10 years earlier
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Exempting controls implemented in the last 15
years from upgrade if they were in compliance
when installed
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Allowing plants to avoid having to clean up all
pollutants if they clean up one
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Severely limiting actions that states and local
governments can take to stop transported
pollution.
On February 28, 2003, the American Lung Association and five environmental organizations notified EPAof the intention to sue in 60 days over the Agency’s proposals. At this writing, attorneys general from fifteen states, primarily in the Northeast, have
also sued EPA over the NSR provisions.
In addition, EPA proposed to redefine a seemingly simple but key trigger of the New Source Review process: routine maintenance. Under the procedures, if a company were only performing routine maintenance on its facilities, the company would not have to comply with the New Source Review requirements. EPA is proposing to allow a much broader definition of
routine maintenance which would allow the cost of the activity and not its effect on pollution to exempt it from review. The American Lung Association opposes this definition as too broad and not reflective of the purpose of the Clean Air Act. EPA held public hearings in five cities on March 31, 2003 to take public comment on this proposal. The Lung Association and environmental allies testified at the hearings and continue to offer comment to EPA throughout the comment period, which closes May 3, 2003.
Power Plants. Power plants have become the single biggest industrial cause of unhealthy air. The death, disease, and environmental destruction caused by power plant pollution continue to mount as the emission of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide has increased and the emission of mercury and carbon dioxide has gone unabated.
Since 1970, the Clean Air Act has exempted the oldest, dirtiest coal-burning power plants from complying with modern emissions standards. As a result, these power plants are permitted to emit as much as 10 times more nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide than modern coal plants. Even worse, the entire industry is currently allowed to emit unlimited amounts of mercury and carbon dioxide. Power plants remain the largest unregulated source of toxic mercury air emissions.
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