Third Circuit Limits Air Pollution Reporting Requirements

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals this week affirmed a lower court ruling that facilities with a Clean Air Act (CAA) permit are exempt from reporting to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency airborne releases of hazardous substances that would be otherwise subject to reporting requirements under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). 

As described in Clean Air Council v. United States Steel Corporation, after two fires at its Mon Valley Works plant near Pittsburgh, U.S. Steel reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, as required by its air permit, that emissions from the fires violated U.S. Steel's CAA permits. It did not, however, report the releases pursuant to CERCLA because U.S. Steel believed that CERCLA expressly exempted the reporting of air emissions under a CAA permit or regulated by the CAA. The Clean Air Council brought suit, arguing that U.S. Steel should have reported the