Sierra Club Wins Appeal on Suit to Speed Up
Beaumont-Port Arthur Clean Air Plan

AUSTIN—Residents of the Beaumont-Port Arthur area won a major victory in a ruling by the U.S. 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals that the EPA is in violation of the Clean Air Act for delaying the implementation of a clean-up plan for the area's dirty air.

"This is a major victory for every resident in the Golden Triangle," said Neil Carman, Ph.D., Clean Air Program Director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. "You usually can't see this pollution but it affects all of us, especially the elderly, the sick, and kids with asthma. It shortens lives, and for lots of kids it makes it unsafe for them to play outside. It's just a shame that it takes a court ruling to make the EPA carry out the law the way it was written."

In July 2001 the Sierra Club filed suit to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to speed up the deadline it had given the Beaumont-Port Arthur area to comply with national ozone standards.

"Adults with asthma and other lung conditions are also hard-hit by ozone," said Carman. "Breathing in too much ozone is like getting a sunburn on the lungs. It physically damages the tissue and kills lung cells."

The ruling, which came late yesterday, addressed two questions.

The first issue was whether EPA had violated the Clean Air Act by granting an extension of the statutory deadline for meeting national standards for ozone pollution in the Beaumont area, and in approving a "SIP," (State Implementation Plan) for the area based on that extension. The SIP is the comprehensive plan for cleaning up the region's air.

The Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 established November 15, 1996 as the compliance deadline for areas like Beaumont-Port Arthur. In December 2000 the EPA extended the region's compliance deadline until 2007. With that deferral the EPA had effectively given industry in the Golden Triangle an 11-year pollution extension.

The Court sided ruled in favor of the Sierra Club on this question.

The second question considered by the Court was whether the EPA had reasonably interpreted the Clean Air Act as not requiring any additional air pollution control measures in the Beaumont area's SIP. The 5th Circuit said that the Reasonably Achievable Control Measures (RACMs) approved by EPA complied with the Clean Air Act. But since the SIP extension has been ruled illegal and remanded back to EPA, this second ruling is legally moot because now EPA will have to require a new SIP for the region, including a new set of control measures.

The Triangle's serious ozone problem is caused primarily by heavy emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from industrial point sources of pollution.

More than 20 years ago the Beaumont-Port Arthur area was classified as "non-attainment" by the EPA for the one-hour ozone standard by exceeding the standard four times or more in a three year period. The region has exceeded the one-hour standard on numerous days each year.

For the purposes of enforcement of the Clean Air Act, the Beaumont-Port Arthur ozone region is comprised of Jefferson, Hardin and Orange Counties.

PR 02-047 [NR]