California ex rel. California Air Resources Board v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

California and Nevada each petition for review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of the other’s state implementation plan (SIP) for attaining air quality in the Lake Tahoe Basin under the Clean Air Act. 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401-7642 (1982). The League to Save Lake Tahoe also challenges the Nevada Plan. 1

The bone of contention which precipitated this feud is the proposed construction of two casino parking garages in the town of South Lake Tahoe. If completed, they would increase the legal number of parking spaces available in the town by twenty to twenty-five percent. Such structures can be indirect sources of carbon monoxide, one of the pollutants for which the Clean Air Act sets attainment standards.

In 1977 the Lake Tahoe Basin was designated a nonattainment area for carbon monoxide. A nonattainment area is an area that has been shown to exceed the national ambient air quality standard for a particular pollutant. 42 U.S.C. § 7501 (2). Once an area has been designated a nonattainment area for carbon monoxide, the state is required to promulgate a plan to achieve attainment of the national ambient air quality standard by December 31, 1982. 42 U.S.C. § 7502 (a)(1), (2).…