Cases

In a series of carefully selected cases, Earthjustice has filed suit to force EPA to establish more effective regulations for key categories of industrial polluters. Current cases include challenges to EPA’s inadequate standards for emissions from PVC plastics plants; steel mills; small municipal waste combustors; and brick kilns.

Among the toxic air pollutants emitted by these sources are arsenic, benzene, chlorine, chromium, dioxins, lead, hydrogen chloride, methanol, selenium, and vinyl chloride. Emissions from these facilities potentially affect millions of Americans in every corner of the nation.

Past air toxics cases included challenges to EPA’s regulations for medical waste incinerators, hazardous waste incinerators, commercial and industrial waste incinerators, and cement kilns. These sources (combined with small municipal waste combustors) account for more than 80 percent of all dioxin emissions, more than 75 percent of all PCB emissions, and more than 50 percent of all mercury emissions.

In three of these suits, the United States Court of Appeals ordered EPA back to the drawing board to redo key air toxics rules for medical waste incinerators, cement kilns, and hazardous waste combustors. Faced with these decisions, EPA has voluntarily agreed to redo its regulations for commercial and industrial waste incinerators.

A challenge to EPA’s standards to control toxic emissions from mobile sources, including cars, trucks, buses and all terrain vehicles, led EPA to voluntarily set a new deadline for proposing revised regulations. But EPA missed that self-imposed deadline, forcing Earthjustice to make plans to take the agency back to court. (see Air Toxics: Enforcing Deadlines) Each year, mobile sources emit nearly two million tons of benzene and other hazardous air pollutants that are known to cause cancer, birth defect and other serious diseases.