Clean Up Your Act North Dakota

Court battles against North Dakota continue, why is it so hard to just comply to rules and make this a safe state to live in? It is our right to have CLEAN AIR.

EPA Spars With States, Industry Over Request To Stay SO2 Air Standard
INSIDE EPA ONLINE MAGAZINE - Posted: November 16, 2010
EPA is urging a federal appeals court to reject North Dakota's request to stay implementation of the agency's novel approach for determining whether states are attaining its strict new sulfur dioxide (SO2) ambient air standard, but critics say a stay is vital because of problems with "conservative" modeling EPA is relying on to make attainment decisions.
But EPA in a Nov. 8 response opposes a stay of the rule either in its entirety or of the June 2 deadline for attainment designations, saying North Dakota has not satisfied the "stringent requirements" for obtaining a stay of agency action. The state fails to address any elements of the revised SO2 standards itself and instead targets an "advisory discussion" in EPA's final rule about its anticipated approach to implementing the NAAQS, EPA says.
The American Lung Association (ALA), intervening in the lawsuit to defend the NAAQS, in a Nov. 8 filing also opposes a stay of the standard's implementation. North Dakota "wholly ignores the serious harm from a stay to the health interests of other parties and the public, particularly children, senior citizens, and asthmatics, who are at special risk from the kind of SO2 pollution that EPA's standard limits," according to ALA's filing.

Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency in federal court in San Francisco, asserting the EPA did not adequately enforce provisions of the Clean Air Act.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday by the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians  claims that the agency has failed to crack down on states that did not develop develop and submit plans for meeting air-quality standards. Known as national ambient air quality standards, or NAAQS, the rules limit pollution in order to protect human health and the environment.

The suit states that the EPA has been remiss in following up on the failures of numerous states and protectorates -- among them North Dakota, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands  Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington -- to submit localized plans for meeting air-quality standards.