Our summer dust storms have been known to cause asthma attacks and car accidents, among other things. They’ve also led to conflicts between the state and federal regulators.
Some state and Maricopa County officials say those at the EPA have been using a flawed Exceptional Events rule—leading to air-quality related penalties that the state hasn’t deserved.
On Dec.8 at the office of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, the EPA will host a hearing to get input from the public and stakeholders about the Exceptional Events rule.
To learn more, we spoke to Professor James Anderson of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability.
Anderson said there is some of what he’d characterize as ‘tricky’ language—some of which is related to how individual states’ implementation plans are compatible or not with how the EPA characterizes events.
