Nearly two dozen environmental and advocacy groups are urging the EPA to issue an emergency rule within seven days that would require public notice of any relaxed air and water quality monitoring and reporting due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Environmental Protection Agency’s non‐enforcement policy announced on March 26 creates an immediate and serious risk to people and communities affected by pollution,” the groups said in their petition Wednesday. “That risk is heightened by EPA’s broad invitation to regulated industries to suspend monitoring and reporting without public disclosure and without adequate justification or oversight.”
But the EPA said its enforcement ...