Lawsuit Challenges Delays by EPA in Cleaning Up Dangerous Smog Pollution in Phoenix, Yosemite National Park Area
Contact: Benjamin Rankin, Center for Biological Diversity, (202) 849-8402, [email protected]
Emily DiFrisco, Center for Environmental Health, (510) 655-3900, [email protected]
OAKLAND, Calif.— Conservation and public-health groups sued Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin today for failure to take action to reduce smog pollution in the Phoenix metro area and Mariposa County, California, home to Yosemite National Park.
Both areas are failing to meet air-quality standards for ozone pollution, commonly referred to as smog, threatening the health of more than 8 million people who live in and visit those areas.
“The EPA must curb the filthy fossil fuel and industrial pollution that’s endangering the health of millions of people,” said Benjamin Rankin, environmental health attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Trump administration needs to do its job and reduce the ozone pollution that’s putting our children and the elderly at greater risk of poor health and even death.”
The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set “national ambient air quality standards” for pollutants such as ozone. The EPA set air standards for ozone in 2015, but a decade later it is failing to ensure that Phoenix and the Yosemite area are reducing ozone pollution to healthy levels.
“The Administration’s inaction on ozone pollution is increasingly putting people at risk for chronic diseases, including children,” said Shakoora Azimi-Gaylon, senior director of toxic exposures and pollution prevention at the Center for Environmental Health. “This government must be held accountable so that the millions of people that live in these areas can breathe clean air.”
People exposed to excess ozone are at risk of reduced lung function and increased respiratory problems like asthma, suffering more emergency-room visits and premature deaths. Ozone can also harm people in short time periods, putting Yosemite’s more than 4 million annual visitors at risk, especially during the peak seasons of summer and fall. The area around Phoenix that’s failing to meet ozone standards has a population of around 4 million people who are chronically exposed to ozone pollution.
Ozone causes widespread environmental harms, including at Yosemite, where it can degrade air quality, reduce visibility and threaten health. Cumulative ozone exposure stunts tree growth, damages leaves and increases susceptibility to disease, insect damage and harsh weather. Sensitive tree species at greatest risk from ozone exposure include black cherry, quaking aspen, ponderosa pine and cottonwood.
Despite its location in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, Yosemite is polluted by smog that spills over from the neighboring San Joaquin Valley, which has some of the nation’s worst ozone levels due to oil and gas drilling and auto emissions. Phoenix suffers from high levels of ozone due to industrial pollution, auto emissions, and extreme heat.
Today’s lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Environmental Health, demands that the EPA get the greater Phoenix area and Mariposa County on track to reduce dangerous ozone levels. If the EPA finds that the two areas are failing to meet healthy air-quality standards, as demonstrated by air pollution monitoring, they will need to develop stricter pollution control plans to reduce ozone pollution.
An EPA study found that Clean Air Act programs to reduce fine particle and ozone pollution prevented more than 230,000 deaths, 200,000 heart attacks and 2.4 million asthma attacks in 2020 alone. For every dollar spent Americans have received more than $30 in economic benefits in return.
While protecting the health of Americans, the Clean Air Act has also helped to keep the U.S. economy healthy by creating jobs, with an estimated 1.6 million Americans employed in the environmental technology industry helping to keep our air clean.
This lawsuit is part of an ongoing effort to compel the EPA to protect people and the environment from air pollution, including ozone pollution, in compliance with the Clean Air Act.
More information about the fight against air pollution is available at Protecting Air Quality Under the Clean Air Act.