WASHINGTON, DC, February 25, 2009 (ENS) – A federal appeals court Tuesday ruled that Bush-era clean air standards were insufficient, sending them back to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be rewritten in a way that will better protect public health. The court decided that the Bush EPA had acted illegally in issuing weak air pollution standards for fine soot.

A coalition of 18 states and cities, led by the State of New York, claimed a major victory in their challenge of the Bush standards for fine soot pollution that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said wholly failed to protect public health, particularly for children, elderly people and other vulnerable populations.

“In an epic victory for New York State and the entire country, my office has ensured that politics don’t come in the way of public health and environmental protection,” said Cuomo.

“The EPA is charged with protecting the environment, yet the Bush administration had misconstrued the purpose of this agency, using it as a tool to facilitate pollution instead of combating it. As a result of this victory, millions of New York residents will have a chance to breathe easier. My office will work with the new Obama administration to make sure that new more protective soot standards are issued quickly.”

Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, filed a separate lawsuit on behalf of the American Lung Association, Environmental Defense Fund, and National Parks Conservation Association. The two suits were consolidated by the federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which issued a decision on them both.

The Bush administration had rejected recommendations by its science advisors for stronger airborne particulate standards, and the court ruled that this action was arbitrary. The standards at issue limit levels of soot, smoke, and other airborne particles linked to tens of thousands of premature deaths each year.

“This is a huge victory for anyone who breathes,” said Earthjustice attorney Paul Cort. “Particulate matter is one of the most deadly forms of pollution out there today. The Bush EPA refused to follow the advice of leading health advocates as well as its own scientists who argued that a stronger standard was needed to protect public health. Today’s ruling corrects that injustice.”

Sooty air hangs over Shreveport, Louisiana. (Photo credit unknown)

In October 2006, the EPA rejected the advice of its own scientific advisory panel and staff scientists for a stronger annual standard for fine particulate matter air pollution.

The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee had recommended strengthening the existing annual standard of 15 micrograms per cubic meter for fine particulate matter, originally set in 1997, to between 13 and 14 micrograms per cubic meter.

According to the court opinion, “In sum, the EPA did not adequately explain why an annual level of 15 micrograms per cubic meter is sufficient to protect the public health while providing an adequate margin of safety from short-term exposures and from morbidity affecting vulnerable subpopulations.”

The court held that “in several respects,” EPA’s refusal to adopt stronger standards was “contrary to law and unsupported by adequately reasoned decisionmaking.”

“This victory is especially important, because the public health threat posed is so grave,” said Janice Nolen, assistant vice president for national policy and advocacy with the American Lung Association. “Particulate matter can kill, and shortens the lives of tens of thousands every year.”

“We encourage EPA to return to the clear scientific evidence and adopt standards that will protect the millions living in areas plagued with unhealthy levels of air pollution as the Clean Air Act requires,” Nolen said.

Large portions of New York State, including New York City and Long Island, have levels of fine soot pollution above the level recommended by EPA’s science advisory panel and rejected by the Bush EPA. Scientists in Cuomo’s Environmental Protection Bureau told the court that strengthening the annual fine soot standard by just 1 to 2 micrograms per cubic meter could prevent hundreds of premature deaths in the New York City area annually and save hundreds of millions of dollars in health care costs.

The court also overturned the Bush administration’s refusal to adopt a separate, stronger standard to protect visibility that is often impaired by particulate pollution. Again, EPA science advisors and EPA’s own staff had recommended a more protective standard to prevent the clouding of urban skies with polluted haze. The court held that EPA had failed to justify its rejection of these recommendations.

“This decision is long overdue for our national parks. One in three parks is clouded in haze due to this type of pollution,” said Mark Wenzler, clean air and climate director at National Parks Conservation Association. “We’re hopeful that EPA’s new leaders will use this decision as an opportunity to restore clear vistas to America’s treasured scenic landscapes.”

Airborne particulate matter is comprised of tiny particles of smoke, soot, metals and other chemical compounds emitted from sources like power plants, factories, and diesel trucks that can become lodged deep in lungs.

It is linked to the aggravation of respiratory illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, chronic obstructive lung disease, and pneumonia, and to premature deaths from other causes, such as lung cancer and heart disease.

“We hope America’s new leadership responds swiftly to protect the elderly and the children who are especially hard hit by lethal particulate pollution,” said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. “By following the science where her predecessors faltered, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson can reclaim lost ground in protecting Americans from the death and disease caused by particulate pollution.”

The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to adopt primary air quality standards for particulate matter pollution to protect public health and secondary standards to protect public welfare, including visibility. The EPA must review these standards every five years and revise them based on the latest scientific information.

The states, cities and other state agencies joining in the lawsuit are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Rhode Island, Vermont, the District of Columbia and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The states of Arizona, Maryland and Massachusetts also joined as friends of the court.

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 9, 2008 (ENS) – A coalition of farmworker advocates and environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Friday, seeking to force a halt to the use of four organophosphate pesticides.

Some of these pesticides have been detected in California’s rural schoolyards and homes, Sequoia National Park, and Monterey Bay.

The four organophosphates at issue in the case are methidathion, oxydemeton-methyl, methamidophos, and ethoprop. They are used primarily in California on a wide variety of fruit, vegetable, and nut crops.

“These four pesticides put thousands of farmworkers and their families at risk of serious illness every year,” said Patti Goldman, an attorney for Earthjustice, the environmental law firm that represents the coalition in the case, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

“It is inexcusable for EPA to allow use of pesticides that they know are harming people, especially children.”

Farmworkers are at risk of poisoning from
pesticides. (Photo courtesy OSHA)

The lawsuit alleges that the four pesticides were registered and are used in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Endangered Species Act.

The plaintiffs seek a ruling that requires the EPA to make new re-registration eligibility decisions for the four pesticides.

The EPA has documented that children are especially susceptible to poisoning from organophosphates. Exposure can cause dizziness, vomiting, convulsions, numbness in the limbs, loss of intellectual functioning, and death. Some organophosphates also cause hormone disruption, birth defects, and cancer.

“Farmworkers and people living in and near agricultural regions, especially children, are at great risk of neurological and developmental damage due to exposure to these toxins,” said Dr. Margaret Reeves, senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network North America, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The EPA has long recognized that the four organophosphates can poison farmworkers. Yet in 2002 and 2006, the agency decided that growers could continue using these poisons without considering the risks posed to rural children and families when these four pesticides drift into schoolyards, outdoor play areas, and homes.

“EPA knows that children in rural communities are exposed to these poisons, yet EPA has not even attempted to assess the risks resulting from such exposures,” said Shelley Davis, an attorney for Farmworker Justice. “By ignoring the risks that pesticides pose to our children, EPA has failed us all.”

The lawsuit was brought by Earthjustice and Farmworker Justice on behalf of Pesticide Action Network North America, United Farm Workers, Teamsters Local 890 in California, Sea Mar Community Health Centers, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, Beyond Pesticides, Natural Resources Defense Council, Farm Labor Organizing Committee. California Rural Legal Assistance is also participating in the case on behalf of Moises Lopez, an individual farmworker in California.

The four poisons at issue in the lawsuit are all organophosphate pesticides derived from nerve gas developed during World War II.

They harm humans and wildlife by inhibiting the ability to produce cholinesterase, an enzyme necessary for the proper transmission of nerve impulses.

Symptoms include muscle spasms, confusion, dizziness, loss of consciousness, seizures, abdominal cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, cessation of breathing, paralysis, and death. Acute poisonings can cause long-term effects, such as permanent nerve damage, loss of intellectual functions, and neurobehavioral effects.

In addition to cholinesterase inhibition, which is common to all organophosphates, each of the pesticides targeted in the lawsuit poses unique risks to children, farmworkers, and wildlife.

Exposure to methidathion is believed to cause cancer. In 2008, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation listed methidathion as a toxic air contaminant because of methidathion’s carcinogenicity and neurotoxic effects.

Methidathion has been found in the air far from the farm fields where it is used, such as in Sequoia National Park.

In 2004, EPA estimated that 90 to 95 percent of methidathion use occurred in California. About 48,000 pounds of methidathion are applied in California annually, primarily on artichokes, oranges, almonds, peaches, and olives.

Oxydemeton-methyl is a reproductive toxin and is associated with decreased size and viability of offspring, decreased fertility, decreased size of reproductive organs and birth defects.

This pesticide is documented as causing die-offs in migratory birds. According to the EPA, oxydemeton-methyl poses severe risks to threatened and endangered species.

Approximately 130,000 pounds of oxydemeton-methyl were used in California in 2005, primarily on broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, corn, cabbage, and brussels sprouts.

The EPA says methamidophos “poses one of the highest risks to workers of any organophosphate insecticide currently registered.”

It is one of the pesticides that EPA has designated for screening as a potential endocrine disrupting chemical.

This pesticide is believed to affect honey bees. A field study of the effects of methamidophos on honey bees demonstrated that the chemical can reduce the foraging activity of bees for a long time after application.

In 2000, approximately 640,000 pounds of methamidophos active ingredient were used in the United States. Most of this use was on potatoes, with lesser amounts used on cotton, tomatoes, and California alfalfa grown for seed.

Ethoprop is listed as a “known carcinogen” under California’s Proposition 65 Carcinogen List. The EPA has found that ethoprop poses cancer risks to farmworkers far exceeding what the agency considers acceptable for pesticides.

About 700,000 pounds of ethoprop are used in the U.S. annually, primarily on potatoes, sugarcane, and tobacco. When released into the environment, ethoprop degrades into other toxic chemicals that also pose cancer and non-cancer toxicological risks of concern.

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HONOLULU, Hawaii, March 21, 2008 (ENS) – One of Hawaii’s longest-standing water disputes was settled this week when the state Commission on Water Resources Management decided in a unanimous vote to designate four waterways on the island of Maui as a “water management area” under the state Water Code.

The designation, effective once public notice is published, puts the commission in direct control of these waterways, known by their Hawaiian name, Na Wai ‘Eha – the Four Waters.

Since the plantation era, two companies have controlled most of the stream flows of these four waters – Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar, a division of Alexander & Baldwin, which operates one of the last sugar plantations in Hawaii on Maui’s central plain; and Wailuku Water Company, formerly the Wailuku Sugar plantation, which sold off all its former agricultural lands for development and is now in the business of selling water.

The commission’s ruling came on a petition filed in December 2006 by public interest environmental law firm Earthjustice on behalf of two Maui grassroots community groups, Hui o Na Wai ‘Eha and the Maui Tomorrow Foundation.

The four waterways – the Waikapu, ‘Iao and Waiehu Streams and the Waihe’e River – are perennial streams that traditionally supported a native aquatic ecosystem and the largest continuous area of taro production in the Hawaiian Islands.

The groundwater of the ‘Iao Aquifer, which underlies much of four waters area, serves as the principal source of drinking water for Maui.

But large-scale diversions by sugar plantations have drained the streams dry for over a century and continue unchecked despite the modern decline of the sugar industry.

According to the ruling, water use from now on will be allowed only by commission permit.

“For too long, a few companies have treated Na Wai ‘Eha stream flows as their private property, while public instream uses have gone ignored,” said John Duey, longtime resident of the ‘Iao Valley and president of Hui o Na Wai ‘Eha.

“Now the Water Commission will be able to monitor and regulate water uses and ensure they are truly in the public interest,” he said.

While present users of the four waterways have a one year window to apply for “existing uses,” by law those uses are not grandfathered in.

During the commission’s multi-step process extending over a year, numerous parties expressed their strong support for state control, including the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and the former and present mayors and water directors, and the entire County Council of the County of Maui.

“We’re proud to be a part of this collective effort to achieve the first-ever designation of streams for public management,” said Irene Bowie, executive director of Maui Tomorrow. “Hopefully this will lead to similar progress for the many other streams and communities statewide needing proper stewardship.”

The decision to designate Na Wai ‘Eha is the first time the state has designated streams as a water management area. Previous designations have concerned only groundwater.

“Designation is a critical step in public management of the precious waters of Na Wai ‘Eha,” said Isaac Moriwake, an attorney with Earthjustice. “But it is only an initial step. We must remain vigilant to ensure that the many community members living in these valleys are empowered to have their water needs recognized, and that the precious waters of Na Wai ‘Eha are used justly for the benefit of all the people, not just a handful of private interests.”

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