Air Quality and Industrial Growth: The Location of New Industiral Sources of Pollution in Non-Attainment Areas

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 directed the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish national primary ambient air quality standards for air pollutants for which air quality criteria had been established prior to the date of enactment.1 These national primary ambient air quality standards were to be set at a level which would protect the public health with an adequate margin of safety.2 The attainment and maintenance of these national primary ambient air quality standards was one of the major goals of the Act.3 Implementation of these amendments has resulted in a number of problems related to the increasing conflict between air quality and economic growth. One major problem involves the extent to which large new stationary sources of particular pollutants can be located in an area where the national ambient air quality standards are being violated. This issue is identified as the location of new sources in non-attainment areas, and due to its importance, it has become a subject of both administrative interpretation and congressional consideration. The issue is of critical importance for two reasons. First, many if not most, of the nation's large metropolitan