Settlement Would Cut Harmful Smog In Polluted Cities

A proposed court settlement stemming from a case brought by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and five other groups would require clean air plans to protect public health and control severe smog in a number of the nation’s most polluted urban areas no later than 2002. The settlement would resolve a lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the District of Columbia by the Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Conservation Law Foundation, Clean Air Council, Natural Resources Council of Maine, and the Sierra Club.

The case charges that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated the law for failing to create smog control plans by the Clean Air Act deadlines. The states’ failure to submit adequate plans triggered EPA’s obligation under the law to create its own smog control plans for these areas. EPA did not fulfill this obligation. Today’s proposed settlement allows communities to craft solutions first by giving states additional time to correct deficiencies and adopt sound smog control plans. If states fail to submit plans, EPA will be forced to create clean air plans for cities with inadequate smog control plans.

EPA has found that smog air pollution damages lung tissue, reduces lung function, and makes the lungs susceptible to other irritants. Smog not only affects people with impaired respiratory systems, such as asthmatics, but harms healthy adults and children as well. It is estimated that during the summer of 1997 smog pollution was responsible for over 50,000 respiratory-related hospital admissions, over 150,000 emergency room visits, and over 6 million asthma attacks in the Eastern United States.

“The goal of the Clean Air Act is clear: to ensure clean healthy air. But the law simply is not being enforced in many major cities,” said EDF attorney Vickie Patton. “The bottom line is that the government, state and federal, must be held accountable for cleaning up the unhealthy air in these communities.”

The urban areas covered by the settlement are: metropolitan New York/Northern New Jersey/Long Island; the Greater Connecticut area (Hartford); metropolitan Philadelphia/Wilmington/Trenton; the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; the Baltimore metropolitan area; the Springfield, Massachusetts area; metropolitan Houston/Galveston/Brazoria, Texas; the Atlanta metropolitan area; the metropolitan Chicago/Gary/Lake County area; and the Milwaukee/Racine metropolitan area. The plans are necessary to comply with EPA’s long-existing public health standard for smog.

“The time for footdragging and delays is over, and the time to protect our children, elderly and other vulnerable populations has arrived,” said EDF federal transportation director Michael Replogle. “This settlement is designed to prompt action by states to strengthen the smog control plans in places like Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago. If the states fail to carry out this important responsibility, this settlement would obligate EPA to step in.”