The Sierra Club is unhappy about the dirty air hovering over Texas and is suing the Environmental Protection Agency to do something about it.
The environmental conservation group is seeking civil action against the EPA because “Sierra Club members’ ability to enjoy the aesthetic qualities and recreation opportunities of [Dallas] is diminished by ozone pollution,” according to the suit filed with the DC District Court. The complaint accuses the EPA of not holding the Dallas area to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
“National Ambient Air Quality Standards, or NAAQS, can be hard enough for states to attain given the sources of air pollution within their own borders,” wrote environmental lawyer Myriah Jaworski for the Renewable Energy Post.
The NAAQS, which limit the amount pollutants in the air over a certain period of time, has been a sticky subject for the EPA and states over the years. This isn’t the first time the DC District Court heard arguments about the NAAQS’ ozone rule, which according to Lee Beck, the court “mostly deferred to EPA in a scientific battle pitting State against State over EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone (O3), a colorless, odorless gas that is not a direct product of human activity but instead forms when other atmospheric pollutants react in the presence of sunlight.”
According to that court ruling,
[The] EPA finds itself in a situation reminiscent of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. On one side, Mississippi argued that EPA is too stringent with its ozone NAAQS; on the other side, the governmental and environmental petitioners argue that the NAAQS is too lax.
The Sierra Club, however, is alleging that the EPA hasn’t done enough to clean up north Texas’ air, not that the standards are too lax. They’re arguing that the EPA isn’t adhering to standards passed in 1997, 17 years ago, which the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is not too happy about, reports the Dallas Morning News.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which writes the state’s clean-air plans, noted that the suit deals with a … federal standard that was superseded by a tighter standard in 2008.
For now at least, the 1997 standard remains in effect for metropolitan areas, such as Dallas-Fort Worth, that failed to meet its requirements.
The tougher 2008 standard is also in effect, creating overlapping requirements for metro areas that violate both standards. Dallas-Fort Worth is among them.
The Texas environmental commission suggested that the lawsuit over an old set of rules is a distraction from more pressing concerns.
The EPA is also in the process of revisiting its ozone pollution standards, according to environmental counsel Joe Koncelik for the Ohio Environmental Law Blog.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required to review the ozone standard every five years. In 2008, the Bush Administration set the new ozone limit at 75 parts per billion (ppb). That was tighter than the existing regulations, but considerably weaker than the 60 to 70 ppb recommended by the Clean Air Science Advisory Committee. …
On February 3rd, EPA release two reports- its draft risk and exposure assessment and the Second External Review Policy Assessment for the New Ozone Standard. Both of these reports confirm what was known five years ago- the recommendation is to lower the standard to somewhere between 60 to 70 ppb.
The 1998 standard is 0.85 ppm, which dropped to 0.076 in 2008. Even if standards continue to drop “[i]n reality, the States have very little ability to significantly reduce ozone pollution through state specific regulation,” continued Koncelik.
Regardless of what ozone standards Texas and the EPA holds it to, North Texas may have serious pollution problem. Energy lawyer Charles Sartain for Energy and the Law points to a study done by the University of North Texas that areas near fracking sites have a higher ozone pollution.