Air pollution regulators in Texas and California are failing to keep tabs on potentially significant industrial air polluters within their borders, EPA’s in-house watchdog concluded in a new audit.
The report by Inspector General Sean O’Donnell’s office also faults federal officials, saying that an EPA oversight gap “potentially increased the public’s risk of exposure to air pollution.”
The two states rank among the largest in the United States both by landmass and population. Between them, they have millions of residents living in areas that are flunking national air quality standards for smog and soot.
The report focuses on two particularly influential regulatory agencies and their handling of an obscure but important corner of Clean Air Act permitting: High-emitting “synthetic minor facilities” capable of spewing pollution at levels that would subject them to the more stringent controls required of major sources of air pollution, but instead agree to keep their releases below those thresholds.
