Association of Irritated Residents v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
Opinion
Opinion
Schroeder, J.
This is an expedited review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s May 26, 2004 final approval of the San Joaquin Valley’s 2003 PM-10 Implementation Plan (Plan). 69 Fed.Reg. 30,006. In approving the Plan, the EPA has set a new deadline for the Valley to attain the national ambient air quality standard for PM-10 pollutants, which are various airborne fine particles of less than ten microns in diameter. The new deadline is 2010.
The petitioners, whose challenges have been consolidated, are the following groups and non-profit organizations: Association of Irritated Residents (AIR), Latino Issues Forum, Medical Advocates for Healthy Air, and the Sierra Club. They maintain that under the Clean Air Act, the absolute outside deadline for PM-10 areas to attain the air quality standard is 2006.
Petitioners raise a number of issues, but the most significant is the EPA’s authority to set a deadline that extends past 2006. We deny the petitions for review because we hold that the 2010 deadline was authorized within the structure of the Act, and that petitioners’ other challenges to the Plan do not warrant judicial intervention.