The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final action notice regarding the Clean Air Act. On December 11, 2020, the EPA Administrator granted a petition to object to a state operating permit for the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority's facility in Montgomery County, Maryland. This petition was submitted by the Environmental Integrity Project and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network due to concerns about monitoring requirements for hydrogen chloride emissions. The EPA's decision to grant this objection highlights deficiencies in the original permit that did not ensure continuous compliance with emission limits.
Simple Explanation
The EPA, which helps keep the air clean, decided that a special permission for a trash-burning place in Maryland needed to be better because it might not have been checking its smoke carefully enough. Some groups said the rules weren't strong enough, and the EPA agreed with them.