A coalition of groups related to the public health industries and environmental concerns recently filed a law suit in federal court against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator, Stephen L. Johnson.

The suit charges that the agency and its administrator have failed to enforce regulations setting air pollution standards for existing coal- and oil-fired electricity generators by Dec. 20, 2002, and their negligence is harming school children who live near those plants. It asks that new standards be put in place no later than Dec. 20, 2010.

Specifically affected in the Lower Hudson Valley are children attending the Buchanan-Verplanck Elementary School, Stony Point Elementary School, two schools in Montrose and the now-closed Immaculate Conception School, also in Stony Point. All the schools are within the air quality reach of the Mirant Lovett plant in Tomkins Cove.

A press release from Earthjustice, said the suit is based on one successfully brought by New York and 13 other states.

“We are far past both the legal and, indeed, the moral deadline for EPA to take action to control toxic air emissions from this enormous industrial source of mercury and other poisons,” said Clean Air Task Force attorney Ann B. Weeks in the press release. “At the same time we are hopeful that the Obama administration will act quickly to mandate the deep cuts in this pollution, as the Clean Air Act requires.”

To see the entire suit, visit:

www.earthjustice.org/library/legal_docs/power-plant-pollution-dec-08-complaint.pdf