EPA Narrows Loophole That Allows Mega-Polluters to Dodge Control Requirements

By Zahra Ahmad. Earthjustice.

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took steps to limit the damage from a Trump-era Clean Air Act giveaway, which had allowed nearly half the nation’s hazardous air pollution sources, some 4,000 individual polluters, to shut down their pollution control systems, stop reporting their toxic emissions, and escape critical permitting requirements.

In today’s final rule, EPA says that chemical plants, refineries, and other mega-polluters that account for significant portions of the most toxic emissions must continue to control these emissions and meet permit requirements.

“Communities living near mega polluters have long been forced to endure a toxic mix of deadly chemicals that are well-known to cause cancer and other severe health issues,” said Earthjustice Vice President of Healthy Communities Patrice Simms. “The action EPA took today is a major victory for these communities. No corporation should ever be allowed to shirk its responsibilities and pollute with impunity. No community should ever be left to bear the deadly burden of unchecked pollution.”

Under the Clean Air Act, “major sources” of hazardous air pollutants are required to reduce their toxic emissions to the maximum achievable degree, obtain permits to operate, and monitor and report their emissions to the EPA and the public. The Trump-era rule allowed sources to reclassify to be “area sources” that don’t have to meet any of these requirements.

“In the absence of affirmative action by the Biden-Harris administration to fix this Trump-era rule, over half of all the major sources facilities of hazardous air pollutants in the country would have avoided the duty to reduce their toxic pollution,” said California Communities Against Toxics Executive Director Jane Williams. “Many of these facilities are in or impact environmental justice communities. This action today puts us on a path toward reducing dangerous pollutants like PCBs, dioxins, and mercury and renewing the safeguards that help protect environmental justice communities.

EPA’s rule does not prevent major sources from reclassifying as area sources. Instead, it makes clear that, whether they reclassify or not, sources of the most toxic and persistent pollutants, such as mercury, dioxins, and PCBs, must continue to reduce their emissions to the maximum achievable degree and continue to meet all applicable monitoring, reporting, and permitting requirements.