APCD Sues EPA

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. —Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District announced today that it is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the EPA’s failure to regulate pollution from large ship engines, as required under the federal Clean Air Act. “EPA has had many chances to change course, and to meet its own deadlines to regulate these ships. Instead we’ve seen one delay after another over a period of several years. Now we are forced to file another suit to achieve regulation of this huge source of air pollution off our coast,” says District Director Terry Dressler.

He estimates that large ships passing through the Santa Barbara Channel emit more than 45 percent of the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the county. While not all of this pollution affects onshore air quality, he notes that, if left unregulated, the ships could contribute almost 75 percent of the county’s NOx pollution by 2020.

On January 17, the District’s Board approved the plan to file the lawsuit against the EPA in the United States Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia. The suit will challenge the rule adopted by EPA on December 4, 2007, in which EPA gave itself another extension, this time for two more years, to December 31, 2009 to regulate air pollution from large ship engines.

The District previously filed a “deadline” lawsuit against EPA on December 24, 2007 in district court in Washington D.C., over EPA’s failure to adopt substantive air pollution control standards by the deadline of April 27, 2007. The District’s deadline lawsuit was filed in D.C. in order to coordinate with lawsuits previously filed by Friends of the Earth and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The second suit is being filed as a safeguard to counter EPA’s contention that the district court loses jurisdiction over this issue now that EPA has adopted a rule, even though the rule’s only purpose is to extend the deadline. The District and the other plaintiffs maintain that EPA has not met its mandatory duty under the Clean Air Act unless actual standards are adopted. Typically, under the Clean Air Act all challenges to EPA rules must be filed in the Court of Appeals within 60 days of the effective date of the rule.

Large ships are one of the last uncontrolled and unregulated major sources of air pollution. Their massive two-stroke engines produce as much power as a small power plant and burn residual fuel oil, a particularly dirty fuel. Dressler remarks, “Every time we do an inventory of air pollution in this county, we see emissions from ships growing even as other sources are reducing their pollution. This can’t continue. EPA must regulate this huge source of pollution to ensure that we can sustain our clean-air progress.”

For more information, including copies of the District’s letters to EPA, and District Board Actions in this area since 2001, see this page .

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