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 VICTORY DOCKET
Air
Water
Other
For over three decades, Earthjustice has
been protecting public health by defending
our air and water
from pollution. Here is a list of the many legal victories we have
won across the nation and worldwide
in our efforts to safeguard the environment.
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Clean Air |
IMPROVING AIR QUALITY
NATIONWIDE Earthjustice successfully forced EPA to
agree to a
schedule for reviewing national standards for soot and smog pollution
levels
and strengthening them
if appropriate. The Clean Air Act requires
these reviews every
five years to ensure that the public is
protected from
dirty air.
CRACKING DOWN ON
OZONE POLLUTION
We have settled a case with EPA that will
require the
agency to determine, by April 2004, which areas have smog that
violates
the 1997 national air quality
standards for ozone. State and
local governments will also
be called on to prepare cleanup plans to
reduce ozone pollution.
PROTECTING THE HEALTH
OF THE CENTRAL VALLEY Earthjustice is settling a case
with EPA
that will
require the agency to develop a plan to regulate particulate
matter
pollution in the San Joaquin Valley by July
2004. Particulate
matter is the most deadly
form of air pollution in the valley.
CLEARING PITTSBURGH’S
SKIES Earthjustice has settled a lawsuit with EPA that will
help prevent future
violations of ozone standards in metropolitan
Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh
has a long history of violating federal
health
standards for ozone, one of the precursors
to smog.
IMPROVING
PHILADELPHIA’S AIR Earthjustice won a case requiring
Pennsylvania to
strengthen a
program to clean up air pollution from cars
and trucks in the five-county
Philadelphia area. The judge
ordered state
officials to start using stronger emission limits
for vehicle inspections
by September 2003.
INCREASING PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION IN THE BAY AREA
Earthjustice successfully
forced
the
Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission to agree to increase ridership
levels of public
transportation systems by November 2006. The
victory will help improve air
quality in the Bay Area by
reducing the
amount of cars on the road.
POLLUTION FROM
MEXICAN POWER PLANTS
We won a case against the Department
of Energy and
Bureau of Land Management for failing to fully analyze the
environmental
impacts of constructing and
operating transmission lines
linking Mexican power plants to
US power grids. Environmental groups are
concerned the transmission lines would
encourage companies to build power
plants right on the border to
avoid US clean air
regulations.
SAVING LA OROYA, PERU
Earthjustice and our Peruvian partners have come to the aid
of La Oroya,
a
small Andean town that is suffering from toxic air pollution from US-based
mining company, Doe Run.
The Peruvian government has promised to address
the problem
and the company is promising to cooperate.
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Clean Water |
CLEANING CALIFORNIA’S
WATERWAYS We won a case that will require California
water
authorities to
ratchet down the levels of highly toxic pollutants being
discharged
by major industrial and municipal polluters
into surface waters
throughout the state.
PROTECTING SAN
FRANCISCO BAY FROM DIOXINS Earthjustice convinced the San
Francisco Superior
Court to rejected a permit request by the Tesoro
Petroleum Corporation
to increase its dioxin discharge into
the bay
fivefold. Dioxins are extremely toxic and can
cause cancer.
STOPPING DC SEWAGE
Earthjustice successfully won a case that will force the DC Water
and
Sewer
Authority to adopt controls to curb sewer overflows to the Anacostia
River, the
Potomac River and Rock
Creek. Every year, millions of gallons
of raw sewage empty into
these waterways.
CLEANER WATER FOR HAWAI`I
We won a case that will force the EPA to identify and
clean up
polluted
waterways in Hawai`i. Despite the islands’ idyllic reputation, many of
their
waters do not meet state water
quality standards.
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Other Work |
UNIVERSAL RIGHT TO
HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT Earthjustice recently submitted a report
to
the UN
on the link between human rights and the environment. The 2003
"Human Rights
and the Environment"
report presents a review of recent
developments and case studies in
over 20 countries.
OUR RIGHT TO KNOW
Earthjustice succeeded in forcing the Bush administration to reveal
documents
concerning the secretive new trade agreement between the United
States and
Chile. Environmental groups
worry that environmental concerns
will be scuttled in secret negotiations.
DEFENDING FARMWORKERS’
RIGHTS We settled a case with Amvac Corporation and the
distributor of
Phosdrin, a highly toxic pesticide that injured over two
dozen farm workers in Washington in 1993. They
have agreed to compensate
the workers for their injuries.
STOPPING UNSAFE
SHIPMENT OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS
Earthjustice successfully forced
the
Department of Energy to abandon its plans to transport plutonium in
unsafe canisters
from Colorado to
California. The original plan would have
posed too great of a risk to
communities living along the route.
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