North Texas Environmental Justice Community Leaders Join EPA at 5th Circuit Court to Defend Coal Pollution Standards

New Orleans - Today, Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice, and supported by environmental justice advocates and community members from Northeast Texas, joined the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in New Orleans to present oral argument at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals defending EPA's final sulfur dioxide (SO2) nonattainment designation for the area around Martin Lake, a coal-burning power plant in Northeast Texas. The State of Texas and the plant’s owner, fossil-fuel company Vistra, continue to challenge this designation, even though the state’s own monitor and reliable modeling data demonstrate that this area is appropriately designated as out of compliance with the public health standards for SO2. 

In EPA’s final nonattainment determination in 2016, the agency concluded that Martin Lake’s sulfur dioxide pollution creates an area deemed to be in “nonattainment,” or out of compliance with the public health standard for SO2. Instead of reducing this dangerous pollution after EPA finalized the nonattainment designation for this area, Vistra allowed Martin Lake’s SO2 emissions to nearly double by 2019 and continued to fight the designation.

Exposure to elevated levels of sulfur dioxide pollution for just a short time can make it hard to breathe, and prolonged exposure to persistent levels of sulfur dioxide can make it easier to get sick and harder to smell over time. Children, the elderly and people with asthma are most affected by high levels of sulfur dioxide pollution. Chronic exposure is associated with deadly lung and heart conditions. And sulfur dioxide pollution contributes to fine particulate matter which travels downwind, endangering families across Texas.

In 2020, years after the designation was finalized, EPA took comment on a proposed rollback of the designation requested by the State of Texas, and after reviewing the record, the agency instead moved forward with a finding reaffirming the designation and requiring the State of Texas to submit a plan to address pollution from Martin Lake. EPA and Sierra Club demonstrated today in arguments to the court and in written briefs filed earlier, that the designation was lawful and required by the Clean Air Act. 

The next steps for addressing this pollution are already underway, as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) submitted a proposed state implementation plan (SIP) for consideration by the EPA that is meant to address the nonattainment area at issue. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must now review the plan over this summer and either approve it or issue a federal plan to address the pollution, as required by the Clean Air Act. 

Josh Smith, Senior Attorney with Sierra Club, said:

“This is a straightforward case. Martin Lake is the largest emitter of harmful sulfur dioxide in the country, and all credible data demonstrates that the area around the plant did not meet health safeguards in 2016, and it still does not meet those safeguards now. In fact, since EPA designated the area as being in nonattainment, emissions from Martin Lake have doubled and Texas’s own verified monitoring data now conclusively demonstrates that pollution from Martin Lake is causing violations of the health standard. EPA’s nonattainment designation will ensure needed pollution reductions from this outdated, poorly-functioning plant, and it should be upheld.”

Deborah Thomas, a community health advocate living near Martin Lake, said: 

“We’ve been living under Martin Lake’s Pollution for too long. Too many people in our community have suffered from chronic health issues because of this coal plant’s toxic pollution, and we will keep being harmed if Texas continues to avoid its responsibility to protect us. But we deserve to breathe. Our future generations deserve healthy lives in our community. Our health should not be up for negotiation.”