A court battle over a controversial waste incinerator rule was ruled upon last Friday in favor of the plaintiffs NRDC, Sierra Club, Louisiana Environmental Action Network and Environmental Integrity Project. The groups were represented in court proceedings by EarthJustice and NRDC lawyers.
The EarthJustice article is so full of pertinent and poignant comments it was difficult not to just copy it all over. A few choice excerpts follow but the whole article is must read stuff.
"EPA's illegal rules are being struck down in courts with the frequency of characters getting whacked on The Sopranos," said John Walke, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The agency should get back to enforcing the law against big polluters, not join their ranks."
[...]
Many industrial facilities, including chemical plants, refineries, metal smelters, and paper mills, burn the waste they generate in on-site incinerators. Among the wastes they burn are chemicals, industrial sludges, plastics, agricultural waste treated with pesticides, chemically treated wood wastes, and used tires. Emissions from these incinerators include mercury, lead, arsenic, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and other highly toxic pollutants.
EPA had argued that it could set far less protective standards for these incinerators by treating them as though they were "boilers" or "process heaters" that burn only fossil fuels. The court rejected that argument, making clear that facilities that burn waste are incinerators and must meet the Clean Air Act's highly protective incinerator standards.
"EPA has been caught perpetrating a bait-&-switch operation by proposing incinerator rules while exempting nearly every incinerator from the rules," said Marti Sinclair, Sierra Club's National Air Committee chair. "EPA needs to quit trying to con the public and start protecting communities, human communities and natural communities, from the ongoing deluge of toxic emissions released by incinerators."
"Once again, a court had to remind EPA that it cannot rewrite the Clean Air Act to suit this administration's anti-environmental policies," said James Pew, Earthjustice attorney. "Congress enacted very protective emission standards to protect Americans from incinerator pollution. EPA may not deprive us of that protection, no matter how badly it wants to help out the administration's friends in industry."
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