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Clean Air Act

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This article is part of the Coal Issues portal on SourceWatch, a project of CoalSwarm and the Center for Media and Democracy.

The Clean Air Act, as amended in 1990, has been targeted for elimination by the Bush administration, as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is "considering doing away with" the "health standards that cut lead from gasoline, widely regarded as one of the nation's biggest clean-air accomplishments," John Heilprin reported December 6, 2006, for the Associated Press. "Battery makers, lead smelters, refiners all have lobbied the administration to do away with the Clean Air Act limits."

See the EPA Fact Sheet: First Draft Staff Paper for Lead dated December 2006.

The EPA "says revoking those standards might be justified 'given the significantly changed circumstances since lead was listed in 1976' as an air pollutant," Heilprin wrote. "The EPA says concentrations of lead in the air have dropped more than 90 percent in the past 2 1/2 decades."

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), "the incoming chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, called on the agency to 'renounce this dangerous proposal immediately,' because lead, a highly toxic element, can cause severe nerve damage, especially in children. ... 'This deregulatory effort cannot be defended,' Waxman wrote EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson," Heilprin wrote.

"Although lead use has decreased since the push to reduce the chemical in gasoline began in the 1980s," a 2005 report by the Commission for Environmental Co-operation, "an international body created by the North American Agreement on Environmental Co-operation", stated that lead is "still the top toxicant sent into the air by industry in Canada and the United States," The Globe and Mail (Canada) reported May 24, 2005. "Canada accounts for 42 per cent of all lead air pollution in North America, ... the study, which looked at data it received from nearly 25,000 facilities in both countries, said that although Canada has far fewer factories using lead and lead compounds than the United States, Canada pumped out 13 times more lead into the air on a per facility average basis. ... Overall though, the United States still produces more lead air pollution, a spokesman for the CEC said."

Although "the amount of lead contributing to air pollution from car emissions is down significantly (it fell by 94 per cent between 1983 and 2002), lead concentrations are still being released from smelters and electric utilities at a high rate in North America," The Globe and Mail reported. In 2004, Canada's Environment Ministry "tabled legislation that proposed a program be put into place to reduce emissions from smelters by 30 per cent by 2008 and 60 per cent by 2015." By May 2005, it had "not yet been established."

In 1982, a "cost-benefit analysis" prepared by Joel Schwartz of the EPA "did not support an easing of the lead levels, estimating that elimination of the standard would save the refining industry $100 million per year but would cost between $140 million and $1.4 billion per year to treat an additional 200,00 to 500,000 children for the lead poisoning that would be caused by the higher lead levels." Robert Kennedy, Chief of the EPA's State and Local Controls Program Section, said in an internal memorandum "that lead air pollution monitors had repeatedly underestimated the lead content of air because they were located 'at sites which were not designed to measure maximum lead concentrations." [1]

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2004 Smog-Reduction Rules Sent Back for Reworking

On December 22, 2006, the "[s]mog-reduction regulations proposed by the Bush administration in 2004" were ruled as being "too weak" by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, "sending the rules back to the Environmental Protection Agency for reworking." [2]

In a 40-page ruling, the court said that the "EPA's proposal to set an eight-hour standard for ozone emissions violates the Clean Air Act." [3]

About Lead Air Pollution

According to ambient air quality information provided by the Sierra Club, "Lead pollution can affect humans when they breathe lead air pollution or ingest food, soil, water, or dust that has been contaminated by lead that has settled to the ground. When absorbed by the body, lead accumulates and can cause a range of health problems from organ damage to developmental problems. Specifically, lead can cause reproductive disorders, seizures, mental retardation, behavioral disorders, memory problems, high blood pressure, heart disease, and damage to the kidneys, liver, brain, and nerves. Primary sources: Industrial processes, especially metal processing, incinerators, and battery manufacturing." [4]

The Natural Resources Defense Council writes that "Though banned from gasoline and paint, lead remains a significant risk to children. Lead affects virtually every system in the body and is particularly harmful to the developing brain and nervous system of fetuses and young children. Low levels of lead can decrease IQ, cause reading and learning disabilities, reduce attention span, and cause behavioral problems. These effects persist until adulthood and may be irreversible. For children, the primary sources of exposure are lead in old paint in homes, lead in dusts and soil from paint chips, leaded gasoline exhaust, industrial emissions, and lead in drinking water from pipes. Some 900,000 children under the age of six in the United States are estimated to have lead levels higher than the Centers for Disease Control's level of concern."

National Ambient Air Quality Standards

"The EPA is required to set and review the standards every five years, and must base their analysis and policy changes on the most current scientific studies.

"Currently, the NAAQS cover six major air pollutants, known as criteria pollutants: sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, ozone, lead, and carbon monoxide. After the EPA sets or revises each standard and a timeline for implementation, the responsibility for meeting the standard falls to the states. Each state must submit an EPA-approved plan that shows how it will meet the standards and deadlines. These state plans are known as State Implementation Plans (SIPs)." [5]

Also see Clean Air Act Part A on Air Quality and Emission Standards and particularly the section on National ambient air quality standards.

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