ELR Citation: 45 ELR 20228
No(s). 15-0139 (D.D.C. Dec 1, 2015) (Jackson, J.)

A district court dismissed environmental groups' CAA citizen suit against EPA for failing to respond to their 2011 petition concerning ammonia gas pollution. In 2011, the groups petitioned EPA asking it to find that ammonia gas pollution endangers the public health and welfare, designate ammonia as a "criteria pollutant" under the CAA, and establish NAAQS for ammonia. As of January 2015, EPA had not yet responded, so the groups filed suit and requested the court to declare that EPA's failure to respond violated the APA and to order the Agency to respond within 90 days. EPA argued the case should be dismissed because the groups failed to provide the Agency with notice of their intent to bring the lawsuit. The groups claimed that the CAA's citizen suit provision is not the source of jurisdiction in this case. Rather, they argued that the APA is both the source of the duty and the avenue for relief. But the court agreed with EPA. Based on the text of the CAA, court precedent, and the legislative history, the CAA's citizen suit provision provides a cause of action for the groups' claim that EPA engaged in unreasonable delay in responding to the 2011 petition. Because the CAA's citizen suit provision provides the groups with an adequate remedy in court, and because they failed to meet the CAA's 180-day notice requirement, the groups have not secured a waiver of the government's sovereign immunity, and the Court lacks jurisdiction under the CAA. The APA cannot be invoked in an effort to evade that requirement. Since neither the APA nor the CAA waives the government’s sovereign immunity under the circumstances here, the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.