EPA Exemption for Incinerators Ruled Illegal
WASHINGTON, DC (ENS) - A federal court has thrown out an attempt by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA to exempt tens of thousands of waste incinerators from the controls of the Clean Air Act.
In a decision June 8 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a panel of three judges ruled that facilities that burn waste are incinerators, not 'boilers' or 'process heaters' as claimed by the EPA, and so must meet the Clean Air Act's incinerator standards.
The case was brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, and the Environmental Integrity Project.
Many industrial facilities, including chemical plants, refineries, metal smelters, and paper mills, burn the waste they generate in on-site incinerators.
Among the wastes they burn are chemicals, industrial sludges, plastics, agricultural waste treated with pesticides, chemically treated wood wastes, and used tires.
Emissions from these incinerators include mercury, lead, arsenic, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, and other highly toxic pollutants. Exposure to these emissions can cause cancer, birth defects, neurological problems in young children and babies, and lung and heart problems.
EPA attorneys argued that the agency could set less protective standards for these incinerators by treating them as though they were 'boilers' or 'process heaters' that burn only fossil fuels.
The court rejected that argument.
'EPA has been caught perpetrating a bait-and-switch operation by proposing incinerator rules while exempting nearly every incinerator from the rules,' said Marti Sinclair, chair of Sierra Club's National Air Committee.
'EPA needs to quit trying to con the public and start protecting communities, human communities and natural communities, from the ongoing deluge of toxic emissions released by incinerators,' said Sinclair.
'EPA's illegal rules are being struck down in courts with the frequency of characters getting whacked on The Sopranos,' said John Walke, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. 'The agency should get back to enforcing the law against big polluters, not join their ranks.'
The court's decision will require the EPA to rewrite its rules for thousands of industrial boilers and process heaters that burn fossil fuel.
Among the provisions vacated by the ruling is a controversial decision by EPA to allow sources to avoid controlling their emissions of hydrochloric acid and several other air pollutants that Congress listed as 'hazardous' in the Clean Air Act.
'Once again, a court had to remind EPA that it cannot rewrite the Clean Air Act to suit this administration's anti-environmental policies,' said James Pew, the Earthjustice attorney who argued the case in court.
'Congress enacted very protective emission standards to protect Americans from incinerator pollution,' said Pew. 'EPA may not deprive us of that protection, no matter how badly it wants to help out the administration's friends in industry.'
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