Lawsuit Launched Against Trump’s EPA for Failing to Protect Marylanders from Dangerous Coal Pollution

BALTIMORE, MD — The Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Health filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today for failing to ensure that seven states, including Maryland, have effective plans in place for reducing harmful sulfur dioxide air pollution being emitted from coal-fired power plants.

Today’s notice was triggered by acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler’s failure to require the localities to take the legally required steps to reduce air pollution, which is driven primarily by dirty coal plant emissions.The notice highlights that the EPA has already determined that 12 areas have coal-driven sulfur dioxide pollution at levels that exceed EPA’s health-based air quality standard designed to prevent asthma attacks, induce premature births and harm natural wildlife like fish and forests.

The polluted area in Maryland is around the Herbert A. Wagner coal plant in Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties. Currently, the Wagner coal plant lacks the modern pollution safeguards to limit sulfur dioxide that its neighboring plant, Brandon Shores, has installed. During the first two quarters of 2018, the larger coal unit at the Wagner plant pumped out sulfur dioxide pollution at rates approximately 10 times higher than the adjacent Brandon Shores facility.

“It’s disgusting that coal-loving dinosaurs like Trump are forcing children to breathe dirtier, unhealthy air,” said Robert Ukeiley, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Our kids, the elderly and our most imperiled wildlife and fish will pay a steep price for this willingness to prop up dirty, outdated coal.”

Measured as sulfur dioxide, sulfur pollution causes a range of public-health and environmental problems such as: asthma attacks, developmental problems in children, and increased risk of heart and lung diseases. The pollutant is particularly threatening to children and the elderly and contributes to acid rain and haze, damaging lakes, streams and ecosystems throughout the United States and decreasing visibility in national parks.

The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to identify and set air-quality standards to protect human health and the environment, and then ensure plans are in place to reduce that pollution to meet these health-based standards in areas, such as Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties, that are violating them. Maryland drafted regulations in 2014 to address the sulfur dioxide pollution issues coming from its coal-fired power plants, including Wagner and Brandon Shores, but did not finalize those regulations and has failed to finalize an enforceable plan to bring Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties back into attainment of the air quality standards.

“Maryland residents are getting left behind with dirty air as one of our local coal-fired power plants is allowed to pollute without modern safeguards limiting dangerous sulfur dioxide,” said David Smedick, Campaign and Policy Director at the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter. “The state of Maryland has been sitting on draft rules since 2014 that would have avoided this problem, and now it has failed to submit a plan on time to the EPA to remedy the air quality violations. Unsurprisingly, with coal-industry friend Andrew Wheeler at the steering wheel, the EPA has ignored deadlines and let our coal plants slide by without this plan in place. The law requires that the Trump administration act to cut dangerous sulfur dioxide pollution from the air we breathe, but they have ignored those deadlines for protecting the public and are instead turning a blind eye to corporate polluters.” 

Beyond Anne Arundel and Baltimore Counties, which surround Baltimore City, the areas where the EPA has failed to make sure proper air-pollution plans are in place include: Jefferson County, Kentucky; St. Clair, Michigan; Hayden and Miami, Ariz.; Allegheny, Beaver, Indiana and Warren, Pa.; Marshall, W.Va.; and Alton Township and Williamson County, Ill.

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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.6 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

The Center for Environmental Health works with parents, communities, businesses, workers, and government to protect children and families from toxic chemicals in homes, workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods.