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EPA itself has stated that, without adequate monitoring, pollution limits are little more than paper requirements. Without monitoring, there is no way to determine whether or not facilities are complying with their limits and, consequently, no way to take enforcement action against those who violate their limits.
Industry groups, in particular utilities, have been fighting for years to scale back EPA monitoring requirements. In January of this year, EPA gave in to industry and adopted a rule gutting the monitoring requirements for federal air permits. In some cases, EPA is now willing to accept such poor monitoring of smokestacks as a once-per-year "Method 9" test, which merely requires a trained employee to go out and look at the stack and determine whether they think it is emitting too much pollution. This kind of inadequate monitoring jeopardizes public health and is in clear violation of the Clean Air Act's requirement for monitoring sufficient to determine compliance.
EIP, together with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, Our Children's Earth Foundation, Clean Air Council, Northwest Environmental Defense Center, and Hilton Kelley, have petitioned for review of EPA's rule in the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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