Clean Air Act Program Protecting Public Health At Risk

(31 March 2003 - Salt Lake City, UT)  Today Environmental Defense testified at public hearings across the country - from Albany to Salt Lake City - urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw proposed loopholes to the Clean Air Act’s “new source review” program.  EPA’s own data indicates that pollution from industrial sources contributes to unhealthy air pollution levels nationwide, affecting millions of Americans.  EPA’s proposed loopholes will only hamper the ability of states and local governments to address this air pollution and achieve cleaner, healthier air.  

“EPA is proposing to eliminate a long-standing clean air safeguard at a time when millions of Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of smog and fine particle pollution,” said Environmental Defense senior attorney Vickie Patton.  “We are asking EPA to withdraw this proposal because instead of improving the program’s performance in protecting public health cost-effectively, EPA’s proposal eliminates critically needed public health safeguards.”

The Clean Air Act’s new source review program sets requirements to upgrade pollution control equipment at thousands of aging power plants and industrial facilities when they take action to significantly increase air pollution in surrounding communities. 

Under EPA’s proposal, these industrial facilities would be allowed to increase air pollution by thousands of tons so long as the changes that cause the increased pollution do not exceed an arbitrary cost threshold, rather than a health standard.  This cost threshold would be an annual or multiyear “maintenance” allowance that is the product of the total capital costs of the facility and a fixed maintenance percentage that could range as high as 20%.

Pollution emitted from industrial stacks includes nitrogen oxides (NOX), sulfur dioxides, and particulate matter.  These pollutants contribute to fine particles that have been associated with serious adverse health effects including premature death and hospitalization; ground-level ozone or “smog” that contributes to asthma, and decreased lung function, as well as haze and acid deposition in pristine wilderness areas and national parks.  Recent new source review enforcement actions against power plants will lead to a 90% reduction in sulfur dioxode and an 80% reduction in nitrogen oxides at PSEG’s Mercer power plant in New Jersey.  But under EPA’s proposal, the kinds of pollution-increasing activities that were the basis for these enforcement actions would become lawful.