CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

Community groups, public health advocates and environmentalists filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Friday to overturn an October 2007 rule that allowed San Joaquin Valley officials to declare victory in a long battle against the airborne dust technically known as coarse particulate matter (PM-10).

According to Earthjustice, the environmental law firm that filed the suit in the 9th District Court of Appeals, air quality monitors in the Valley show that federal standards are not being met.

The EPA and the local air district say that the recurring violations are natural ones that do not need to be addressed through further controls.

“At the time of the finding, we said it was either a miracle or they were lying,” said Kevin Hall of the Fresno Sierra Club. “As more data came in, we became convinced it was the latter.”

Much of the pollution in the Valley is due to agriculture, whether from plowing fields, harvesting crops or truck traffic along unpaved farm roads. Agribusiness, which has been chafing under air pollution rules, is the most politically influential industry in the Valley.

The region includes more than 1,000 giant dairy farms, many of which house more than 1,500 cows each.

Recently, the Bush administration exempted factory farms nationwide from some reporting requirements for ammonia, one of the precursors to fine particle pollution.

-- Margot Roosevelt