[US] Environmental groups file motion to impose deadline for EPA ozone rule.

Environmental Groups including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Defense Fund have filed a motion for summary judgment against EPA seeking a court ordered deadline of December 1, 2014 for EPA to issue a proposal updating its National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone.

The Clean Air Act directs EPA to establish and periodically review primary and secondary NAAQS for criteria pollutants that endanger the public health and welfare.  The primary standard is meant to protect the public health, while secondary standards are meant to protect public welfare such as soils, water, crops, vegetation, and climate.  Once a NAAQS has been established, EPA must review, and if necessary, revise every five years.  Ozone, a major component of smog that is linked to respiratory and health problems, is a criteria pollutant with a NAAQS subject to five year reviews.

In 1997, EPA established the primary and secondary ozone NAAQS at 0.080 parts per million (ppm).  A review of the 1997 standard was initiated in 2000, and in 2008 during the George W. Bush administration, the EPA issued the 2008 Ozone NAAQS at 0.075 ppm.  During the review of the 1997 standard, EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) submitted a report recommending a primary ozone NAAQS of between 0.060 ppm and 0.070 ppm.  During the 2008 rule making process, EPA acknowledged the CASAC report but proceeded with the 0.075 ppm primary ozone NAAQS, citing scientific uncertainties in health benefits of the stricter standard.  EPA also set the secondary ozone NAAQS at 0.075 ppm.

Shortly thereafter, health and environmental groups filed suit, contending that the 0.075 ppm 2008 Ozone NAAQS failed to adequately protect the public health and welfare.  While the case was put on hold in early 2009 after a pledge by President Obama to reconsider the Bush era standard, the case resumed in 2011 when Obama announced that the EPA would not move on reducing the ozone standard until its next periodic review in 2013.

The Sierra Club lawsuit alleges that EPA has failed under the Clean Air Act to review the ozone NAAQS within five years of their last promulgation on March 12, 2008.  The environmental groups are requesting that the court order EPA to complete the ozone review by signing a notice of proposed rulemaking by December 1, 2014 with a final rulemaking of October 1, 2015.  The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, is Sierra Club American Lung Association, Environmental Defense Fund, and Natural Resources Defense Council v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Case Number 4:13-cv-02809-YGR.

Philip Pulitzer, EHS Legal Counsel at Red-on-line

Source:

Sierra Club American Lung Association, Environmental Defense Fund, and Natural Resources Defense Council v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Case No: 4:13-cv-02809-YGR, (filed January 21, 2014)

Philip Pulitzer, Health and environmental groups file suit against EPA over ozone rules, Red-on-line USA, June 28, 2013

Philip Pulitzer, Court upholds EPA 8-hour primary ozone air standard but orders review of the public welfare limit, Red-on-line USA, July 24, 2013