By Elizabeth Whitman | Phoenix New Times
Three environmental groups are threatening to sue a laggard Environmental Protection Agency for failing to do its job in ongoing efforts to clean up the Valley of the Sun’s notoriously polluted air.
The agency has missed more than 50 deadlines in recent months under the Clean Air Act to approve or disapprove of Arizona’s plans to reduce ozone in metro Phoenix. It has also failed to review, by another deadline, the ozone levels of more than a dozen of the smoggiest regions in the country, including our own Valley, according to two separate notices of intent to sue EPA, which were sent to the agency Monday and Tuesday.
“Every day of delay … that’s all the longer that we’re waiting for clean air,” said Sandy Bahr, Grand Canyon chapter director of the Sierra Club, which co-signed the intent to sue over delayed ozone-level reviews. That letter was sent to EPA director Andrew Wheeler on Monday.
