San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Back in Court

Filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the lawsuit challenges an EPA October 2006 final rule waiving the remaining obligations of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to continue its fight against the grainy dust and soot.

Even though air quality monitors in the valley show that the federal standards are not being met, the EPA and the local air district claim that these recurring violations are natural and need not be addressed through further controls.

"EPA regulators had to write new rules with special loopholes just so they could ignore the Valley's PM-10 pollution," said Kevin Hamilton a respiratory therapist and representative of Medical Advocates for Healthy Air, one of the appellant groups.

"Listening to the coughing and wheezing of my patients I wonder how their lungs and hearts can get in on the deal," said Hamilton. "Come on EPA, we're not stupid here."

One source of particulate matter in the San Joaquin Valley. (Photo credit unknown)

The public health, community, and conservation groups argue that better particulate matter controls are not only needed, they are required under the federal Clean Air Act.

"The air is still not clean. More than half of Latinos in the San Joaquin Valley report that they suffer from respiratory problems," said Nora Vargas of the Latino Issues Forum, one of the groups appealing the rule.

"Latino families suffer disproportional health and economic impacts from air pollution as asthma is the leading cause of absenteeism from school or work due to chronic conditions," she said. "Air quality affects everyone, every resident of the valley deserves clean air."

The San Joaquin Valley is the area of California's Central Valley that lies south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Stockton. Most of the valley is agricultural, but it also contains the cities of Stockton, Fresno, Visalia, Tulare, Turlock, Hanford, Modesto, Bakersfield, and Merced.

Surrounded by mountains and with few winds to disperse air pollution, the San Joaquin Valley has long registered some of the worst air pollution in the country.

Sources of particulate matter pollution include activities that generate dust and soot such as field-tilling for cotton, vegetables, nuts and fruits, agricultural operations such as dairies, and vehicle pollution.

The EPA has long recognized that exposure to elevated ambient air concentrations of particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter, referred to as PM-10, can cause impairment of lung function, impacts on respiratory defense mechanisms, aggravation of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality.

The EPA adopted national ambient air quality standards for PM-10 in 1987 and directed all areas not meeting these standards to adopt state plans, including specific control measures to regulate sources of PM-10.

According to the California Air Resources Board, particulate matter is the most deadly air pollutant, estimated to kill more than 1,200 valley residents each year.

Dust over the mountains surrounding the San Joaquin Valley reflects the setting sun. (Photo by Jim Rowley)

Still, the EPA persistently argues that the San Joaquin Valley has attained the PM–10 standard.

"This is a classic case of trying to sweep the dust under the rug," said Paul Cort of the nonprofit law firm Earthjustice, who is representing the coalition against the federal agency.

"The air is not clean and the agencies have not done their job to protect public health. EPA's decision is factually and legally flawed and must be overturned," said Cort.

"The San Joaquin Valley is a region where industry special interests hold sway," said Kevin Hall of the Fresno Sierra Club, another appellant group. "As we said at the time of the finding, it was either a miracle or they were lying. As more data came in, we became convinced it was the latter."

For nearly a decade, community groups have been going to court to make sure the Clean Air Act is fully enforced in the San Joaquin Valley. These citizen's legal actions have successfully ended illegal exemptions for agriculture and oil refineries and forced new clean air rules for industrial polluters and wood burning.

Clean air advocates won a court order that set a deadline for EPA to adopt missing measures for addressing the PM-10 problem in the valley.

Yet, rather than establish these required measures, the appellant groups argue that the EPA instead chose to "manipulate data from air monitoring stations to determine the valley had attained the national PM-10 standards."

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