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Ohio Residents to Breathe Easier in Wake of Court Victory
Case Updates:
February 4, 2010
Residents of Ohio will enjoy cleaner air as the result of a Sierra Club legal victory. A federal judge has ruled that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency violated the Clean Air Act for more than three years by allowing state polluters to fall short of federally mandated pollution standards. Since late 2006, the state agency had exempted businesses emitting less than 10 tons per year of certain air pollutants from installing the "best available" pollution filtering equipment. Families in Ohio, already burdened by high pollution levels, suffered the effects of this illegal exemption. Sierra Club sued the state agency in 2008, seeking enforcement of stricter standards. On February 2, Magistrate Judge Mark Abel sided with the Club, ruling that the state agency violated the law and must now return to the more stringent, U.S. EPA-approved rules.
Details and Documents:
Order of Magistrate Judge Abel
February 2, 2010, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
News Articles:
Ohio EPA's small-business exemptions violated U.S. law, court rules
February 3, 2010 by Gabriel Nelson, E&E News
More Info:
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