Plan to relax radiation standards sparks suit

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — A public employee group has filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over an alleged “secret” plan to significantly relax radiation standards, and U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., has sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson expressing serious concern.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a national non-profit alliance of local, state and federal professionals, filed suit Oct. 28 in U.S. District Court in Washington. PEER submitted a request in June under the Freedom of Information Act for all comments submitted by EPA and other federal and state agency officials to the EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air as it prepared its updated Protective Action Guides.

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