Requirement to curb toxic pollution axed

WASHINGTON: The US Environmental Protection Agency yesterday reversed a 1995 rule that required major US sources of hazardous air pollution such as arsenic and lead to maintain pollutioncontrol technology for the lifetime of their operation.

The EPA said the change would ease costs for companies without undermining air quality, by holding their facilities to less stringent standards once they had reduced pollution to a certain level.

Environmental groups said it created a ‘‘loophole’’ for big industrial plants to pollute more.

The rule had eliminated 1.7 million tons of hazardous pollution over two decades, according to a 2017 EPA fact sheet.