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EPA TO HELP STATES PROTECT VISIBILITY IN U.S. SCENIC AREAS
Release Date: 01/12/2001
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FOR RELEASE: FRI., JAN. 12, 2001
EPA TO HELP STATES PROTECT VISIBILITY IN U.S. SCENIC AREAS
In another step toward restoring pristine views in the nation’s national parks and wilderness areas, the Environmental Protection Agency today proposed amending its regional haze rule to help states determine how to set air pollution limits for a number of older, large utilities and other industrial plants.
Today’s action does not set emission limits for the older plants. It simply provides guidance for states to use as they determine which plants must install emission controls and the type of controls they must use. By law, states must require these facilities to install the best emission controls available as they implement the regional haze rule. This requirement is known as the Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) requirement.
The limits the states set will apply to certain facilities built between 1962 and 1977 and that emit more than 250 tons a year of visibility-damaging pollutants. Facilities that may have to install controls come from 26 industrial categories, including utility boilers, industrial boilers, and industrial plants such as petroleum refineries, chemical plants, and steel and paper mills. Many of these sources have previously been exempt from stringent pollution controls under the Clean Air Act.
EPA issued the regional haze rule in April 1999 to improve the views and air quality for millions of visitors to Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains and other national parks and wilderness areas. During much of the year, a veil of white or brown haze hangs over many of these sites. This haze – caused primarily by tiny particles that absorb and scatter sunlight – results from air pollution from power plants, cars and factories that drifts hundreds of miles to obscure some of the country’s most famous scenic vistas. The same pollution that causes haze also poses serious health risks, especially for people with chronic respiratory diseases.
Today’s proposed amendment will allow states to identify the facilities that must install emission controls, and how to evaluate the types of controls those plants must use. Most states must identify these plants by 2004. Controls must be installed within five years after EPA approves the state regional haze plans, which states must complete by 2004-2008. The amendment also guides states on establishing emissions trading programs as an alternative to requiring pollution control equipment. States may use such trading programs, provided they yield greater visibility improvement and emissions reductions than would be expected through plant-by-plant emission limits.
EPA expects that controls on these older plants will significantly reduce emissions of pollutants that damage visibility, including sulfur dioxide (SO2) from power plants. Power plants potentially subject to the BART requirement, for example, emitted more than six million tons of SO2 in 1999. EPA anticipates that some facilities will be able to reduce emissions by 90 to 95 percent using existing retrofit technology.
The proposed amendments will appear soon in the Federal Register (with a 60-day public comment period), but can be accessed immediately by going to the Recent Action section at: www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg.html
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