EPA is moving to impose a federal plan for limiting incinerator emissions on California, Hawaii and eight other states that have so far failed to pursue their own blueprints for meeting the guidelines.
Prodded by a Sierra Club lawsuit, EPA on Wednesday formally published the final rule for implementing guidelines that were initially issued more than a decade ago and have since been amended.
The guidelines cover existing commercial and industrial solid waste incinerators and were designed to nationally cut releases of lead, mercury and a half-dozen other pollutants from those units by thousands of tons per year, according to the original EPA estimates.
The plan published Wednesday does not add any pollution control requirements but “will ensure that emissions reductions are demonstrated in states where no state plans exist,” according to an accompanying summary.
