Air Quality Regulations
Clean Air Act
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA sets limits on how much of a pollutant can be in the air anywhere in the United States. This ensures that all Americans have the same basic health and environmental protections. The law allows individual states to have stronger pollution controls, but states are not allowed to have weaker pollution controls than those set for the whole country.
The law recognizes that it makes sense for states to take the lead in carrying out the Clean Air Act, because pollution control problems often require special understanding of local industries, geography, housing patterns, etc.
EPA develops national regulations which must be met by industries in order to ensure clean air for the general public.
- Office of Air and Radiation Regulations Page
- Office of Transporation and Air Quality Regulations Page
- Hazardous Air Pollutant Regulations Page
State and Tribal Regulations
EPA approves those state and tribal regulations that have been formally submitted as State or Tribal Implementation Plan (SIP or TIP) revisions and which the Agency determines meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act. It is possible that SIPs or TIPs do not in all cases match current state or tribal regulations. This may occur, for example, when the state or tribe has modified a regulation in the federally approved SIP but has not submitted the changed regulation to EPA. Most states and tribes have their own regulations available on their Web sites, which you can consult if you wish to examine the current state regulations.
EPA Approved SIP/TIP Regulations:
The text of state or tribal enforceable regulations are available at the links provided below. In most cases, these regulations have been approved by EPA and are part of the SIP or TIP. Since these links are not maintained by EPA, we cannot ensure the accuracy of their content. As stated previously, state or tribal agencies are implementing some rules or versions of rules that may not be listed in EPA's tables of approved regulations. This occurs when there is a delay in rules and rule amendments being submitted for and/or approved by EPA.
In addition, states or tribes may have rules pertaining to air pollution concerns that are typically not regulated by the federal government and consequently are not and will not be included in the federally approved SIP or TIP. Examples of this include odor and nuisance rules.