A group of 10 states announced their intent Thursday to sue the Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to comply with its own emissions standards for wood stoves, a high-emissions appliance responsible for releasing toxins and particulate matter into the air.

In the notice of intent, attorneys general for New York, Alaska, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington state argued that the EPA has "failed to take steps to review and update its standards” for residential wood stoves, despite its requirements to do so every eight years under the Clean Air Act.

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This is the second time states have sued the EPA over its failure to audit residential wood stoves since 1988, when the agency first began regulating their emissions.

In 2013, seven states sued the agency for failing to update the wood stoves emissions standards 25 years after they were passed.

Now, history seems to be repeating itself. In the notice, the states cited a report from the EPA’s own Office of Inspector General published earlier this year, which described the EPA’s residential wood heater program — most recently updated in 2015 — as “ineffective” and a hazard to human health and the environment.

It found that the appliances can contribute to poor air quality and expose residents to toxins, contaminants, and particulate matter.

In its 2015 performance standard, the EPA approved methods that “lack clarity and allow too much flexibility,” the OIG report said.

“As a result, certification tests may not be accurate, do not reflect real-world conditions, and may result in some wood heaters being certified for sale that emit too much particulate-matter pollution.”

The Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, a group of state air quality regulators, also came to the same conclusion.

In a 2021 report, it described EPA’s wood stove certification system, which has not been updated since that writing, as a “systemic failure,” adding that the appliance auditing system for the wood stoves “provides no confidence” that they are in fact performing at a level required by current federal standards.

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“Wood smoke contributes 80 to 90 percent of the air quality problem in Fairbanks and North Pole,” Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Jason Brune said in a statement.

“This lawsuit is one way Alaska is making sure EPA holds itself to the same standard they are holding us,” he added.