In a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Secretary Donald R. van der Vaart told the federal agency it was wrong in its suggestion that citizen groups cannot challenge in court environmental permits issued by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Van der Vaart told the EPA that North Carolina provides more opportunity than is required by federal law to launch legal challenges. “North Carolina recognizes the important role our citizens play in protecting the environment,” van der Vaart wrote. “We will continue to protect the public’s voice in the permitting process.”
Van der Vaart is responding to an earlier letter from the EPA in which the federal agency cited two court cases it said questioned North Carolina’s process for citizens to obtain judicial review of environmental permits. Van der Vaart said those concerns are unfounded because the EPA appears to misunderstand what occurred in each case it referenced. In one case cited by the EPA, the North Carolina Attorney General argued, and the judge agreed, that the citizens had their day in court but failed to prove their case. In the second case referenced by the EPA, the Superior Court did provide access the special interest group.
In fact, van der Vaart wrote, “North Carolina provides its citizens easier access to judicial review when compared to the hurdles in the federal process a citizen must overcome to challenge an air or water permit.”
You may read DEQ’s response to the EPA’s October 2015 letter here.