by Mark Abramowitz (Coalition for Clean Air) It was the summer of 1984, and I was a young air quality scientist for CBE, then called Citizens for a Better Environment (now Communities for a Better Environment). I had been an active and critical voice on air quality issues in Los Angeles, the smog capital, when the call came into CBE’s Pico Blvd., Los Angeles office.
It was Lucille Van Ommering, a staff person from EPA Region 9. Lucille, who retired from the California Air Resources Board just a few years ago, became my secret “Deep Throat” in a call that changed the future of air quality in Los Angeles.
Lucille told me that EPA had approved the air quality plan for Los Angeles, and that there was less than a week for someone to challenge that approval in court. And unless the plan was challenged, it was “game over” for air quality in Los Angeles.
You see, the plan as designed projected improved air quality until the early 1990’s, after which growth would overtake that progress and air quality would continue to deteriorate. That was our blueprint for the future.
I immediately contacted my director at CBE, and needed an answer by the next day. The response was discouraging – the organization didn’t know how it might affect its reputation and didn’t want to proceed. I was, however, given permission to proceed on my own.
The other active environmental groups in the area also declined to join the lawsuit – Coalition for Clean Air (where I served on their board), Sierra Club, American Lung Association, etc. With no “reputation” to harm, I decided to jump in feet first.
I contacted the Center for Law in the Public Interest, where attorney Fred Woocher agreed to help me file the papers needed to challenge the air plan under the citizens suit provisions in the 1977 Clean Air Act. It was a simple one paragraph declaration of war: “I hereby challenge the approval ….”
All hell broke loose. READ MORE