Agencies forging haze deal

EPA, state work to meet deadline

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality are working together to devise a state plan for implementing a 1999 law on controlling haze in natural parks and wilderness areas.

The joint- effort plan would replace one proposed by the federal government, which a utility company says would cost it more than $ 1 billion to implement.

The state and federal agencies agreed earlier this year to discuss how Arkansas can best comply with the 1999 Regional Haze Rule, although they had previously not indicated that they were working on a state plan.

“It is EPA’s position that states are best suited to take the lead in implementing the regional haze and visibility transport requirements as envisioned by the Clean Air Act,” EPA spokesman Joe Hubbard wrote in an email statement to the

Arkansas Democrat- Gazette.

Hubbard did not answer a question about how the state and federal negotiations will affect a deadline for complying with the Regional Haze Rule.

Three years ago, the state submitted a plan for complying with the haze rule, but the EPA rejected the plan, and it was never resubmitted. This year, the EPA submitted a proposal and held a public hearing on that proposal.

On Friday, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality Director Becky Keogh said reviewing the public comments on the federal plan could take six months. After that, the department would get a group together to revise the state plan, then move through the rule- making and review process.

She said the national Sierra Club wants a plan in place by the end of the year. The federal and state agencies will discuss their plans with that environmental group, she said.

The Regional Haze Rule was passed by Congress in 1999 as part of the Clean Air Act. Its focus is on visibility in 64 national wilderness areas across the nation; the compounds that contribute to haze — sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide; and the facilities that emit those compounds — often, coal- fired power- generating plants.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality is in charge of improving and monitoring visibility in Caney Creek and Upper Buffalo wilderness areas in Arkansas and Hercules- Glades Wilderness area and Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri.

In 2012, the EPA partially rejected the state’s proposal for implementing the Regional Haze Rule, taking issue with the process that would be used to determine emission controls at power plants. The state never re- submitted that plan, and the EPA didn’t sub- mit a federal plan. In 2014, the Sierra Club sued the EPA, alleging that the EPA had neglected its duties in not carrying out the 1999 law.

The proposed federal implementation plan, submitted earlier this year, is similar to the state- submitted plan, but the biggest difference between them is that the federal plan includes a call for emissions reductions at Entergy Arkansas’ 1,700- megawatt Independence coal- fired power plant near Newark.

By Entergy’s estimate, the federal plan’s proposed emission controls for that plant would cost more than $ 1 billion to carry out. That’s the same as what it would cost to retrofit the White Bluff coalfired plant, which was part of the original state plan. The EPA disputes the cost estimate.

The Independence and White Bluff plants are the only coal- fired plants in the state that lack significant emissions- controlling scrubbers. They have been the bane of many environmental and public health activists, who cite studies connecting such plants’ sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions with increased health problems.

Keogh said the Department of Environmental Quality opposes including the Independence plant in any final haze rule proposal. She said emission

controls for other plants could be included, just as they have been in previous state implementation proposals.

The Department of Environmental Quality wrote in July, requesting that the EPA withdraw its federal implementation plan and work with the state on a new state implementation plan.

Now, the two agencies are working together, but it is unclear when or whether a new state plan will be drafted. The deadline for the first phase of compliance planning under the Regional Haze Rule is 2018.

“Yes, EPA is working with the state on a SIP [ state implementation plan]. At the same time they’re continuing discussion related to their obligations to issue a FIP [ federal implementation plan],” Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Katherine Benenati wrote in an email.

In December, the EPA and the national Sierra Club proposed a consent decree in the Sierra Club’s lawsuit that would require the EPA to issue a federal plan. Setting a deadline on a final plan is now a matter before a federal court.

Earlier this year, the EPA filed a revised consent decree, saying it would draft a new plan by March 6 and have a final state or federal plan ready by Dec. 15.

The EPA has since said it would extend that deadline to allow for discussions with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.

On Monday, U. S. District Judge Leon Holmes allowed the state to intervene in the Sierra Club lawsuit at the request of Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.

Rutledge argued that the state is on pace to meet its 2018 emissions goals without any environmental emission controls, and that a state implementation plan is unnecessary until the second phase of planning begins in 2018.

The Sierra Club has argued that the state’s intervention in

the lawsuit is a tactic to delay implementation of the haze law beyond the December date.

“Now, at the eleventh hour and after years of their own inaction, ADEQ now suddenly wants more delays and more time supposedly to write a plan,” Sierra Club Arkansas Director Glen Hooks said in a statement issued to the Arkansas Democrat- Gazette.

“Sierra Club will use all necessary means to ensure that the law is followed and that our Arkansas air is protected,” Hooks’ statement continued.

Meanwhile, Entergy Arkansas has proposed to the EPA that Entergy phase out the use of coal at its 1,700- megawatt White Bluff plant near Redfield. The utility said new compliance costs are too high, there are only 15- 20 years of use left in the White Bluff plant, and future coal regulations are too uncertain. The utility has proposed using natural gas, solar and/ or wind power to operate the plant, rather than coal.

Entergy Arkansas spokesman Sally Graham said she believes that the utility’s request will get “fair consideration” from the EPA and the Department of Environmental Quality.

Asked whether utility officials would change their minds about phasing out coal or whether the Clean Power Plan — which also targets emissions from coal- fired plants — reinforces the utility’s coal- phase- out plan, Graham said only that the utility’s comments are still under consideration.

Several other power- generating facilities are in the federal implementation plan, including ones owned by Southwestern Electric Power Co., the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. and Domtar Corp.

Domtar, a paper- production company, has asked to have its 2018 compliance deadline pushed back to accommodate changes it is making in its pulp production

process.

Some companies have argued that the EPA’s estimates on the cost of compliance under the federal proposal are lower than actual costs because of the method the

agency uses to calculate them.

Environmental groups have been encouraged by the federal proposal, citing its visibility improvements and its potential to improve public health.

Three years ago, the state submitted a plan for complying with the haze rule, but the EPA rejected the plan, and it was never resubmitted.

This year, the EPA submitted a proposal and held a public hearing on

that proposal.