Overview:
- The Sierra Club is taking legal action against the EPA's decision to reclassify Detroit as meeting federal air quality standards for ozone.
- The lawsuit contends that the EPA's exclusion of high-ozone days due to wildfire smoke and the subsequent re-designation ignores local ozone pollution, endangering residents' health.
- The outcome could set a crucial precedent for future air quality standards enforcement and lead to stricter measures against ozone pollution nationwide.
Advocates continue to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of Detroit’s reclassification as meeting federal air quality standards for ozone in court.
The Sierra Club presented an oral argument against the EPA before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in December, contending that the decision ignores local ozone pollution and leaves residents vulnerable to serious health risks. Sierra Club filed the suit in July of last year.
No immediate outcome came from the hearing. A written order or opinion from the court could take several months. If successful, the lawsuit could force stricter pollution controls and set a precedent for how air quality standards are enforced nationwide
Two issues underpin the Sierra Club’s case, first, the EPA’s exclusion of high-ozone days caused by wildfire smoke, and second, allowing Detroit to be re-designated as meeting federal air quality standards. In 2022, Detroit experienced its worst ozone year in a decade.
Nick Leonard, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center representing Sierra Club, said the case boils down to the state’s role in addressing ozone pollution in Metro Detroit.
“This is basically EPA and Michigan seeking to avoid utilizing their regulatory power to address air pollution,” Leonard said. “This was essentially a pro-industry, pro-business decision.”
EGLE spokesperson Hugh McDiarmid said the state’s use of the exceptional event request was in line with legal and regulatory requirements and that the Canadian wildfire smoke that affected air monitors in June was “an event beyond the control of state regulators.” He said the omission of a “very small portion of data” due to the 2022 fires was compliant with state and federal law and “met all EPA criteria for protecting all Michiganders.”
“This portion of the program is not in place to avoid protecting public health,” McDiarmid said. “Rather, it exists to ensure states and their residents aren’t saddled with the responsibility for solving a problem they cannot address, while still protecting their health.”
But health professionals and environmental organizations Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action and MI Air MI Health, represented by the Sierra Club, argued in an amicus brief that the decision overlooks the severe health impacts of ozone pollution, particularly for Detroit communities already burdened by chronic respiratory conditions. Detroit ranked third worst city for asthma nationwide last year, moving from fifth-worst in 2023.
Kindra Weid, a registered nurse and coalition coordinator for the advocacy group MI Air MI Health, said it’s important that health professionals make the connection between what they see “at the bedside” with high ozone levels in the air.
Ozone is an airway irritant that can cause coughing, inflammation and “acute exacerbations” or flare-ups of chronic lung conditions. That can lead to increased hospital visits, emergency room visits, and overall reduced quality of life, Weid said.
“All of us try to help the public understand that this has real connections to climate emissions, to air pollution,” Weid said. “These health impacts on these days are not something that can be thrown out.”
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High ozone days excluded
Sierra Club’s principal argument is that the EPA wrongly excluded particulate matter samples on June 24 and 25, 2022 at an East 7 Mile monitor in its analysis. Particulate matter pollution drives ground-level ozone formation.
EGLE argued that the data reflects an “exceptional event” and should be excluded from the analysis because of the contribution of Canadian wildfires to particulate matter on those days.
Excluding the two days in June enabled Michigan to argue that the Detroit area met federal ozone standards, avoiding its classification as a non-attainment zone and the stricter industrial pollution controls that would have followed.
Leonard contends that wildfire smoke was not present in the Detroit area on the two days in question. “That evidence points back that high ozone levels were due to local pollution sources, rather than wildfire smoke,” Leonard said.
Elena Saxonhouse, managing attorney for the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program, said Michigan had not fully implemented the required emission control technology rule for volatile organic compounds such as gasoline, or nitrogen oxide, a colorless, odorless gas before the EPA reclassified Detroit from non-attainment to attainment. VOCs and nitrogen oxide also drive ground-level ozone pollution.
Under the Clean Air Act, an area must meet all requirements before being reclassified from non-attainment to attainment, Saxonhouse said.
“They very much were using this redesignation to say we actually don’t have to enforce this against polluters,” Saxonhouse said.
If the court rules in favor of the Sierra Club, it could lead to Detroit’s reclassification as a non-attainment area for ozone pollution, Leonard said. This would trigger a series of regulatory requirements under the Clean Air Act, compelling the state to take measures to reduce pollution. Alternatively, the court could return the case to the EPA.
McDiarmid said the region continues to make progress towards reducing ozone.
“Sustained efforts have reduced ozone pollution across all of Michigan during the past several decades, leading to the attainment designation for southeast Michigan,” McDiarmid said.
The outcome of the case could set an important precedent for how future air quality standards are enforced and could pave the way for more stringent measures to combat ozone pollution nationwide, according to Leonard.
“Lungs don’t care where pollution comes from. People don’t care. We’re going to take the steps necessary to protect residents, regardless of the source,” Leonard said.