Citizens Sue to Halt Funding for Polluting Roads
Atlanta becomes testing ground for national clean air laws

February 13, 2001-Atlanta- A coalition of national, regional and local citizens groups filed suit in federal court today to stop metro Atlanta transportation officials from spending millions of taxpayer dollars on sprawl-inducing highways before cleaning up the region's notorious smog. The lawsuit is the nation's first to seek enforcement of the Clean Air Act's prohibition against funding new highway projects in areas such as Atlanta where air pollution exceeds national health standards.

Environmental Defense, the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, and the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. The defendants are agencies responsible for developing, adopting and approving a transportation spending plan for the 13-county Atlanta metropolitan area ¾ the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Atlanta Regional Commission.

"It's unconscionable to spend another dime on more roads that will add to this region's air pollution while thousands of people struggle for a breath of clean air. Moreover, it's illegal," said Wesley Woolf, director of the Atlanta office of the Southern Environmental Law Center, which filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs. "We want to ensure that our limited transportation resources are invested in projects that clean the air, not make it worse."

The Clean Air Act prohibits federal funding for new highways until metro Atlanta reduces pollution from motor vehicles to levels set in Georgia's air quality plan. In their lawsuit, the coalition says the region failed to attain clean air standards by the federal November 1999 deadline, and then adopted a 25-year Regional Transportation Plan that illegally extends the deadline to 2005. The lawsuit seeks to stop funding for more than $400 million in new highway projects included in Atlanta's transportation plan. The Clean Air Act would still allow the region to continue using federal funds for transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities and other alternatives to driving personal autos, Woolf said.

"Atlanta has become one of the most dangerous places to walk, breathe and drive in the United States. The solution to teen driving deaths, highway gridlock and polluted air is to give people safe alternatives to automobiles for travel," said Bryan Hager, Director of the Georgia Sierra Club Challenge to Sprawl Campaign. "Atlantans deserve better than a transportation plan that allows air pollution and congestion to increase while access to transit declines."

Metro Atlanta has been in violation of national standards for ozone, a harmful lung irritant that is a byproduct of vehicle exhaust, since 1971 when the standards were set to protect against numerous respiratory diseases. Compared to Los Angeles, where ozone violation days have been reduced by 85% since the 1970s, little progress has been made in reducing Atlanta's bad air. In fact, the pollution is spreading over a larger area, now reaching from Gainesville to Griffin. In the summer of 1999, Atlanta violated national ozone standards on 66 days, almost half of the 5-month ozone season.

"Building new roads won't solve the region's congestion problem, but will further deteriorate the region's health, so does it really make sense to build them?" said John Bowman with the Atlanta office of Environmental Defense.

With vehicle emissions accounting for more than 50% of the region's air pollution, metro Atlanta's dirty air is more related to transportation problems than in almost any other U.S. city. The region has emerged as the nation's "poster city" for sprawl at its worst ¾ massive traffic jams, the most miles driven in the country (35 miles per day person), loss of open space at a rate of 50 acres a day, water pollution from construction runoff, auto emissions bad enough to send people to the hospital each summer, and a transportation system that largely bypasses the region's low-income, minority communities. Metro Atlanta's almost-exclusive reliance on highways leaves many without access to jobs, medical services, schools, housing opportunities and public services, which are mostly being developed in suburban areas under-served by transit. Seven out of 10 jobs in the region are not accessible by transit, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission. (fig. 1&2)

"Ozone pollution is a problem for everyone, but especially for the elderly, children and people with asthma. African American children in Atlanta are at even greater risk from ozone and go to the hospital often for asthma," said Richard S. Bright of the Georgia Coalition for a People's Agenda.

"A transportation plan for metro Atlanta that conforms to state and federal standards should have been in place over a year ago. We have waited more than long enough before insisting that the air we breathe is clean and healthy," said Sherrill Marcus of the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice.

The Clean Air Act requires that metro Atlanta meet the state's limits for vehicle emissions. Georgia's air quality plan for the region limits vehicle emissions of nitrogen oxides ¾ the pollutant that contributes most to the ozone that plagues the region from May through September ¾ to 214 tons per day. The Atlanta Regional Commission's own studies show these emissions are currently 264 tons per day, and independent expert analyses using actual travel speeds rather than lower speeds used by the Commission indicate emissions may be more than 300 tons per day.

Last year, the defendants approved a Regional Transportation Plan that was based on faulty emissions projections and illegal deadlines for meeting clean air standards. Among other things, the plan failed to adequately fund alternative transportation projects that would reduce air pollution, and instead committed more than half a billion dollars to expand the region's network of highways. In their lawsuit, the coalition of environmental and civil rights groups asks the court to stop implementation of the plan, which would halt federal funding for new highway projects in metro Atlanta.

The lawsuit comes after Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes abruptly abandoned negotiations on January 2 between transportation officials and the citizens groups as the two sides were close to reaching a settlement. The groups had agreed to suspend litigation and the state stopped all highway funding in the region during the negotiations last fall.

On January 16, the groups filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, arguing that the agency failed to upgrade metro Atlanta's air quality non-compliance status from "serious" to "severe" when the region failed to meet clean air standards in 1999. The higher designation requires stricter air pollution controls. That suit is still pending.

For more information, please contact:

Southern Environmental Law Center Wesley Woolf, (404) 521-9900; David Farren, (919) 545-9883

Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club Bryan Hager, (404) 607-1262 x226

Environmental Defense John Bowman, (404) 873-4870

Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice Sherrill Marcus, (404) 755-2855

Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda Dr. Richard Bright, (404) 653-1199