14 states sue EPA for overdue ozone designations

Source: Sean Reilly, E&E News reporter • Posted: Wednesday, December 6, 2017

New York and 13 other states filed a lawsuit today to compel U.S. EPA to issue remaining attainment designations for its 2015 ground-level ozone standard.

The designations were legally due at the beginning of October.

While EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last month effectively declared about 85 percent of counties in compliance with the 70-parts-per-billion standard, he hasn’t made designations for New York City; Sacramento, Calif.; and other parts of the country where ozone pollution is “a particular problem,” the suit said.

Like a similar lawsuit brought yesterday by a coalition of public health and environmental groups, the states’ complaint asks a judge to require Pruitt to make the remaining designations by a fixed date. Both suits were filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Greenwire, Dec. 5).

All 14 states either have Democratic governors or attorneys general; the District of Columbia is also a plaintiff.

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