9th Circuit Backs EPA's 'Exceptional'Air Events Policy In Rejecting Challenge

摘要

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is supporting EPA's policy granting states retroactive regulatory waivers for "exceptional" air pollution events, rejecting a lawsuit by Arizona residents challenging the agency's 2019 redesignation of the Phoenix-Mesa area as in attainment with the 2008 ozone standard. "Because of a major wildfire in southeast California in 2015 (the 'Lake Fire'), six air quality monitors in the Phoenix region registered abnormally high concentrations of ozone, in excess of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS)," states a summary of the July 28 ruling by the circuit panel. "If not for those six exceedances, Arizona would have been able to demonstrate it had attained the ozone NAAQS by July 2018."The ruling in Sandra L. Bahr; Jeanne Lunn; David Matusow v. Michael Regan, et al. could set a precedent for what constitutes adequate proof that an event caused air standards violations in distant locations. The fire was about 400 miles from Phoenix.