EPA faces fresh calls to tighten landfill gas rules

The US Environmental Protection Agency could soon find itself embroiled in another legal fight after an environmental group said it would sue the organisation if it does not meet its commitment to revise standards over greenhouse gas emissions from landfills.

The Environmental Defense Fund, a non-profit group dedicated to defending environmental rights, has told the Agency that it will sue if it does not update 12-year-old standards for landfill emissions. The standards are supposed to be updated every eight years under the Clean Air Act, and were due to be revised in 2004, according to the Fund.

"The current standards provide a higher threshold," said Kevin Lynch, junior attorney for the EDF, who added that technology to help reduce landfill emissions has advanced considerably since the standards were last reviewed in 1996.

"The emissions have multiple impacts, including smog levels, and unhealthy air pollution, and it contributes to climate change," he said.

Landfills emit methane and CO2 as their solid waste decomposes. They can be modified with equipment that captures the methane and uses it to generate energy. Several projects to generate energy from landfills have already emerged, including a 7.1Mw installation at Lopez Canyon, near Los Angeles.

Utility giant Duke Energy will also begin producing power from a landfill in Durham, North Carolina, next year.

Lynch added that the EPA has 60 days from the statement of intent to sue, issued last week, to respond to the EDF and begin working on updating landfill standards.

It needs to review standards for new landfills and also to revise standards for existing ones, he warned, adding that the EDF would still like to work on the problem constructively with the Agency.

The EPA did not return calls yesterday.

The latest legal action continues a challenging year for the EPA, which has faced a glut of suits over its refusal to allow states to set their own tighter emissions standards, failure to impose tighter environmental standards on oil refineries, and its failure to respond to a Supreme Court order requiring it to reach a formal decision on whether or not carbon emissions should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.