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Policy

Court Orders EPA To Control Toxics Emissions

by Cheryl Hogue
August 14, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 33

AIR POLLUTION

EPA has failed to regulate hazardous air pollutants from smaller facilities and from some commercial and consumer products as required by the Clean Air Act, a federal court ruled this month.

Calling the agency "grossly delinquent," the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia set a schedule that EPA must follow to catch up on regulation of hazardous air pollutants, also called air toxics.

Through the 1990 Clean Air Act, Congress required EPA by 2000 to regulate emissions of some 190 air toxics, which are chemicals that can cause cancer or other health problems. Most of the agency's action on air toxics thus far has focused on limiting releases from large industrial facilities, such as chemical plants. But EPA has done little to regulate emissions from smaller facilities, such as dry cleaners, or from products that release hazardous air pollutants, the court found.

The court said EPA neglected the Clean Air Act's deadlines on air toxics. Instead, the agency followed its own priorities rather than those set by Congress, the court determined. EPA "currently devotes substantial resources to discretionary rulemakings, many of which make existing regulations more congenial to industry," the court said, endorsing an argument by the Sierra Club, which brought the suit.

EPA said in a statement that it "is diligently working to meet new deadlines set by the court."

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