Environmental groups in Wisconsin are suing the state’s Department of Natural Resources, claiming that the agency hasn’t done its job in implementing recent federal air pollution regulations.
Clean Wisconsin and Midwest Environmental Defense Center Inc. filed a lawsuit last week that aims to force the DNR to comply with Environmental Protection Agency regulations for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulates (soot). The EPA updated its rules for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in 2010, and its rules for particulate matter in 2012. But according to the groups, Wisconsin hasn’t updated its statewide regulations on these pollutants.
“The protection of the federal Clean Air Act and Wisconsin air pollution statutes are not fully recognized unless and until the Department of Natural Resources undertakes is [sic] legal obligation to implement the law by updating air quality standards,” the groups write in the lawsuit. “The DNR has failed to do so.”
Exposures to the three pollutants cited in the lawsuit can contribute to a range of health effects. Short-term exposure to sulfur dioxide can lead to “an array of adverse respiratory effects,” according to the EPA, including asthma. Nitrogen oxides, which are emitted from cars and fossil-fuel burning power plants, can cause major health problems: exposure to high levels can cause difficulty breathing, throat spasms, headache, fatigue, and even death. Low-level exposure can cause irritation of the eyes and throat, fatigue, shortness of breath, and nausea. Particulate pollution has been linked to respiratory problems, heart attacks, and irregular heartbeat.
The DNR’s failure to act on the new standards has come “despite finding sufficient time and resources to adopt numerous other regulations at the behest of polluters,” the groups write.
“We thought the delay had been too long,” Elizabeth Wheeler, an attorney for Clean Wisconsin, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “They say they are moving on the rules, that’s great, but we would have hoped that they would have moved on this more quickly.”
The Wisconsin DNR told the Journal Sentinel that it is working on updating the pollution standards, and that most of the state complies with the most recent standards: there’s only one region in violation of the new standards, and the problems facing that region are being addressed, the DNR said. Still, the environmental groups want the agency to move faster in implementing new limits on the pollutants.
The lawsuit isn’t the first time in recent years that the Wisconsin DNR has come under attack. A Journal Sentinel investigation from earlier this year found that enforcement of environmental rules at the DNR under Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has dropped off.
Under Walker, who was elected governor in 2010, the DNR has issued an average of 257 violation notices each year — a 47 percent drop from the 488 yearly violation notices issued on average under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. The agency has also held fewer enforcement conferences — events where the DNR meets with parties accused of an environmental violation and which are sometimes open to the public — under Walker, and has sent half the yearly number of cases to the Justice Department than Doyle’s administration did.