EPA Sued for Not Enforcing Ozone Mandates

lawsuit

In a lawsuit filed in California by a coalition of environmental and public-health groups, it is alleged the Environmental Protection Agency failed to enforce 16 states and the district of Columbia to finalize plans to reduce ozone pollution.

Oklahoma is not one of them.

“Millions of people are relying on the EPA to protect them from smog and ozone pollution, to say nothing of the wildlife and environment damaged by it,” said Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity which filed the suit in Oakland, California.

The suit claims the EPA did not make the states live up to mandatory deadlines to develop plans to achieve and maintain air-quality standards. The Center for Biological Diversity was joined by the Center for Environmental Health and Clean Air council and demands the EPA correct the violations of air-quality standards set in 2008.

The 16 states include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, ,New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.