As promised, a coalition of environmental groups has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to issue all designations for the 2015 ozone standard as required on Oct. 1.
In a Dec. 4 complaint filed on behalf of environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club, Earthjustice asked a federal district court to compel EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to carry out his "overdue legal obligation" to name the areas of the country that are out of attainment with the 70 parts per billion ozone standard. The groups notified the agency of their intent to sue just days after the missed deadline.
That deadline passed without comment from the EPA until Nov. 6, when it issued designations for more than 2,600 areas that are currently meeting the standard. But the agency passed on naming those areas that are not meeting the standard, which drew the ire of environmental groups who asserted that the decision left the public unprotected in regions that are not yet meeting the standard.
"The areas that have not yet been designated are those that are most polluted, where tens of millions of people live and work," the environmental groups said in the complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
In a separate filing, the environmental groups asked for summary judgement and a motion to compel the agency to act. The groups want the court to declare the EPA has failed to perform a nondiscretionary duty and order the agency to issue the remaining designations within 180 days.
"This is a straightforward mandatory duty lawsuit," the motion for judgement states. "Those designations trigger actions at the state level to reduce emissions contributing to unhealthy air quality, and therefore EPA's delay seriously endangers the health and well being of millions of people who are exposed to unhealthy air."
Also signing on to the complaint are the American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, American Thoracic Society, Appalachian Mountain Club, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Law and Policy Center, National Parks Conservation Association and West Harlem Environmental Action.
A different coalition made up of state attorneys general had also pledged to sue the EPA over the missed deadline and similarly followed through on that pledge by filing its own lawsuit later in the day Dec. 5. The states are California, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.
