In United States
environmental law
Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the manage ...
, a non-attainment area is an area considered to have
air quality worse than the
National Ambient Air Quality Standards
The U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS, pronounced ) are limits on atmospheric concentration of six pollutants that cause smog, acid rain, and other health hazards. Established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency ...
as defined in the
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 (P.L. 91-604, Sec. 109). Non-attainment areas must have and implement a plan to meet the standard, or risk losing some forms of federal
financial assistance. An area may be a non-attainment area for one
pollutant and an "attainment area" for others.
[New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Airspace 2007 -In summary: An attainment area is any area that meets the national primary or secondary ambient air quality standard for a given pollutant]
References
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Environmental law in the United States
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