Air Quality Update

March 20, 2002

EPA Extends HAPs Emissions Deadline
NOx Trading Subject of California Lawsuit
Toyota, CARB Reach OBD Settlement

EPA Extends HAPs Emissions Deadline

Not able to set a new round of emission standards, EPA has extended a deadline for controls on a variety of sources of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 required EPA to set limits for a vast array of industrial categories that generate these pollutants.

The CAAA gave EPA regulators ten years, until November 15, 2000, to set new standards for any source category that emitted more than 10 tons of a single HAP or 25 tons in combination. Congress also set a "hammer" trigger whereas the states would be obligated to set individual standards for these facilities if EPA failed to do so within 18 months of the deadline. That hammer deadline is set for May 14, 2002.

After ten years, a host of facilities across nearly 80 industrial categories remain unregulated and subject to these requirements. To remain in compliance with the CAAA, managers or operators of each emitting facility in each of the categories will need to have submitted a permit request by the hammer deadline in May.

Environmental advocacy groups are disturbed by the delay, especially since the agency had ten years, some environmental groups claim that the extension adds even more to the excess inventory of such harmful pollutants as dioxins, mercury, and PCBs.

NOx Trading Subject of California Lawsuit

Some citizens and environmental advocacy groups are not happy with recent trends in pollution control that place greater emphasis on emissions trading programs. At least a pair of these groups has decided to sue nine Los Angeles area companies for emitting several tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) without acquiring the corresponding emissions trading credits.

Attorneys for Our Children's Earth Foundation and Communities for a Better Environment filed suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleging that the companies generated more than 350 tons of NOx while failing to secure the credits required in the RECLAIM program. The Regional Clean Air Incentive Market issues RECLAIM Trading Credits (RTCs) for each participating facility, ostensibly, an emissions budget for the year. Any emissions totals over the RTC figure must be acquired via the RECLAIM process.

Officials with both groups reported that they had notified the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and the U.S. EPA about what they identified as a trading shortfall. They elected to move toward litigation when the agencies "failed to act" on the situation.

The advocacy groups have been especially mindful of breakdowns in trading programs for large point source-related industries. While electric power plants and petroleum refineries have increased NOx emissions in recent years, these industrial classifications are two of the more active participants in the trading program.

The SCAQMD and a host of industries reached agreement on the RECLAIM program in 1993. The Los Angeles area still suffers with one of the more acute ozone problems in the country.

Toyota, CARB Reach OBD Settlement

In a legal settlement between Toyota and the State of California, the auto manufacturing giant has agreed to pay almost $8 million in support of various environmental efforts. The settlement was over disputed on-board diagnostics (OBD) technology.

Officials with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) ordered a recall of more than 300,000 Toyota vehicles covering model yeas 1996-1998. The central claim from CARB was that the OBD systems featured in the vehicles failed to detect fuel vapor leaks resulting in excess hydrocarbon emissions.

Since Toyota disputed the CARB allegations, the matter was turned over to an administrative law judge. The California judge found that the vehicles were not out of compliance as CARB charged but that Toyota failed to disclose some required information during the certification process.

The compromise settlement of $7.9 million handed down by the administrative law judge will be directed to a number of state air pollution control funds and to bolster other more general environmental support projects. Toyota also agreed to introduce some advanced vapor control technology on selected models earlier than is required by upcoming CARB standards, which are set near zero for evaporative emissions.