The EPA, as a federal agency, sets national air quality standards, oversees state and local actions, and implements programs for toxic air pollutants, heavy-duty trucks, locomotives, ships, aircraft, off-road diesel equipment, and some types of industrial equipment. EPA also ultimately approves or disapproves all attainment plans and control measures adopted by the local and state agencies. When local and state agencies fail to come up with federally mandated attainment plans and control measures by certain deadlines, the Clean Air Act requires that EPA impose sanctions and/or step in to enforce air pollution regulations, or write the plans that aren't in place. For more info, visit www.epa.gov. In Spanish: www.epa.gov/espanol.

Is EPA doing its job?
Since the formation of the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District in 1991 until early 2002, the EPA failed to take any action on any of the Valley's woefully inadequate plans to control particulate matter. In 2002, under pressure from lawsuits and environmental and community groups, EPA was forced to take a more active role in the San Joaquin Valley. In 2004, the EPA approved the Air District's weak PM-10 Plan, which lacked key elements required by the Clean Air Act. EPA is now proposing new standards for PM that are less stringent than scientists recommend and would exempt agriculture, mining, and other "similar" sources, leaving millions of Valley residents without protection from dangerous levels of dust and soot.