| ENS 062204: US Supreme Court decides USEPA must add Imperial Valley to non-attainment list, particulate air pollution controls now required |
US Supreme Court decides USEPA must add Imperial Valley to non-attainment list = $ and resources for air pollution control
WASHINGTON, DC, June 22, 2004 (ENS) - In a victory for the Sierra Club, the United States Supreme Court has let stand a federal appeals court ruling in favor of stronger clean air protections for Imperial County, California.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to add the Imperial Valley to a list of communities with the worst air quality in the United States, a designation that would require it to budget more money for air pollution control.
The Supreme Court justices declined, without comment, to review the appeals court decision.
Imperial County is located in southeastern California, and shares approximately 80 miles of border with Mexico including Mexicali, an industrial city with a population of one million.
In 2001, the EPA allowed Imperial County to avoid stronger Clean Air Act requirements because the county argued that the region's air quality violations were caused by cross-border pollution from Mexico.
In a suit brought by the Sierra Club, the appeals court ruled last fall that the EPA waiver violated the Clean Air Act because the facts did not show that all violations on U.S. territory were due to Mexican pollution.
Now that the Supreme Court has, in effect, upheld the appeals court ruling, the EPA will have to reclassify the air pollution status of the Imperial Valley to trigger stronger air pollution requirements for particulate pollution.
"This is great news for public health," said attorney David Baron of Earthjustice, which represented the Sierra Club in court. "We hope the state and the county will now move on with the job of adopting the stronger anti-pollution measures required by the law.
But the Imperial Valley's $1 billion a year farm economy is the dominant industry on the U.S. side of the border, and it produces clouds of dust. Blowing dust from dirt roads along the tops of levees, and huge livestock feedlots that emit dust, chemicals and ammonia from cattle excrement.
"The primary cause of particulate matter in Imperial County is wind blown dust from unpaved and paved roads, disturbed vacant lands, agricultural fields, and border activities," the EPA wrote in 2001.
The Imperial Valley has exceeded federal health standards for airborne particulates hundreds of times over the past 10 years, according to EPA estimates, with pollution levels sometimes reaching more than double the allowed amount. Scientific studies link airborne particulates to premature deaths and respiratory illnesses.
The Imperial Valley has one of the highest childhood asthma rates in the state, and its death rate from respiratory diseases has at times been more than double that of California as a whole, according to the California Department of Health Services.
"EPA has allowed Imperial Valley residents to breathe unhealthy, polluted air far to long," said Sierra Club activist Edie Harmon. "We hope the Supreme Court's action will help protect the health of our families and communities."
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| Date posted: 06-22-2004 |
| Posted by: Community Action to Fight Asthma |
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