Late yesterday, Sierra Club and Downwinders at Risk Education Fund (Downwinders at Risk), represented by Earthjustice, announced their intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failure to appropriately classify two regions of Texas as moderate ozone nonattainment areas, as is required by the Clean Air Act.
In 2018, EPA designated numerous counties across the country as being in marginal nonattainment under the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS), including Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Galveston-Brazoria. The NAAQS, a public health and environmental standard, for ground-level ozone pollution is 70 parts per billion. The goal of the standard is to protect at-risk groups including children, those working outdoors, and people with health conditions like asthma.
Under the Clean Air Act, these marginal nonattainment areas were required to meet the health-based standard by August 3, 2021. For areas that failed to meet the deadline, EPA is required to redesignate those areas to “moderate” nonattainment, requiring more stringent pollution reductions, by February 3, 2022.
Texas missed this deadline, meaning the EPA is now required by the Clean Air Act to “bump up” the nonattainment designation for both Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Galveston-Brazoria from “marginal” to “moderate” so that additional pollution control measures can be implemented and the ozone levels can be reduced. EPA failed to do so, and missed the February 3, 2022, deadline. The Sierra Club and Downwinders at Risk intend to file suit to enforce EPA’s duty to protect the health of everyone living in these areas from excessive, dangerous ozone pollution, unless EPA takes action in the next 60 days.
“We have been a nonattainment area for decades,” says Evelyn Mayo, Chair of Downwinders at Risk, a local watchdog air pollution group based in Dallas, Texas. “Residents in North Texas deserve to breathe clean air and we expect this administration to do more to that end”
“Both Texas and EPA missed their deadlines to take action, leaving millions of everyday Texans like my family at risk,” added Misti O’Quinn, North Texas organizer with the Sierra Club. “I live and work in Dallas and this pollution is very real for me and my kids, who suffer from asthma. People in ozone-affected communities like Dallas shoulder the expense of smog pollution through those extra visits to the hospital and missed school and workdays. It’s disappointing that, yet again, Texas and EPA aren’t doing enough to protect us here in Dallas.”