Clean Air in Atlanta
Background
On January 20, 1999, SELC filed suit in federal court charging that local, state and federal transportation officials violated the Clean Air Act when they approved a massive highway-construction plan for metro Atlanta the month before. It was the first step in a long legal battle to hold the officials accountable for the air pollution shrouding the region resulting from a decades-long road-building spree.
The lawsuit was also the first national test of key provisions in federal clean air and transportation laws, and helped set a precedent for how other U.S. urban areas - including Charlotte, Birmingham, Washington DC, Chicago and Los Angeles - deal with the growing problem of traffic-related air pollution.
In the summer, Atlantans breathe some of the worst air pollution in America - with serious public health consequences. It's no coincidence that commuters here also drive more miles per capita than elsewhere in the country, about 35 miles per day. Ill-planned roads have led to rampant commercial and residential sprawl development, destroying rural landscapes, natural resources, urban centers and local communities, and wasting citizens' time and money. By some accounts, Atlanta is the fastest sprawling city in the world.
All those roads means more cars and trucks. Vehicle exhaust is responsible for half of the pollutants that form ground-level ozone, a colorless, odorless gas that damages lung tissue. During hot summer days when ozone is severe, many Atlantans with respiratory ailments wind up in emergency rooms, and countless others experience breathing difficulties.
Metro Atlanta had been in violation of health-based standards since 1970, when Congress had passed the Clean Air Act. Under the 1990 amendments to the law, the region was required to adopt a long-range transportation plan to reduce ozone pollution - rated as 'serious' on the EPA list - and comply with the standards by 1998.
In late 1997, facing the loss of federal highway construction funds for missing the deadline, the Georgia Department of Transportation, the Atlanta Regional Commission, and the U.S. Department of Transportation rammed through a transportation plan that included 61 new highways. Against the law, they had failed to consider the impact on air quality from additional traffic generated by the new roads. The following year, the region's federal highway funds were cut off.
In 1999, SELC - on behalf of The Georgia Conservancy, the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Georgians for Transportation Alternatives - filed suit challenging $700 million of planned road construction in the region's long-range plan. In a landmark settlement six months later, 44 of the projects were suspended, and more than $300 million was re-directed to transit and other transportation projects that would not worsen air quality.
Over the next several years, SELC and a range of partner groups - including the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice, the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, and Environmental Defense - for continued to take legal action (see Litigation Timeline) to ensure that the various agencies complied with the Clean Air Act. We continue to work with health groups, conservation groups, the business sector and government agencies to take the necessary steps toward cleaning the air.
