EPA Visits Arkansas To Outline Proposed Haze Plan

Representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency regional office in Dallas spent an entire day in Little Rock listening to comments from Arkansans on the pros and cons of the federal agency’s proposed rules to clean up haze in the state’s national parks and wilderness areas.

The EPA hearing, held at the headquarters of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality near the banks of the Arkansas River, dealt with the newly proposed regional haze plan that would, among other things, improve air quality and visibility at some of state’s most heavily trafficked tourism destinations.

“Our interest here is to present our proposed decision, not make a final decision,” said Guy Donaldson, chief of the EPA’s air planning sector for South Central Region 6 in Dallas, which includes Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and 66 native American tribes.

“We are interested in getting all the comments we can,” Donaldson said. “We take just as serious the comments we receive in writing as those we will receive here today.”

Dayana Meding, an EPA scientist at the South Central office, explained during her presentation that the agency’s proposed guidelines were part of the federal Clean Air Act that was initiated in 1999 that works to improve air quality at national parks and wilderness areas across the U.S. The so-called “Regional Haze Rule” calls for state and federal agencies to work together to improve visibility in 156 national parks and wilderness areas such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah.

The EPA proposed guidelines that were published in the Federal Register on April 8 reject a portion of ADEQ’s haze plan, called Best Available Retrofit Technology, or BART. The EPA said the state plan should have made “reasonable progress” toward protecting the Arkansas Buffalo National River, Ouachita National Forest and Caney Creek wilderness area from haze and the harmful effects of pollution. The proposed guidelines also address “downwind” haze problems from Arkansas power plants and factories that cross statelines.

Under the BART plan, ADEQ proposed retrofitting nine units and six mills and power plants across the state to meet the EPA requirements to reduce 71,500 tons a year of sulfur dioxide emissions and up to 15,000 tons of nitrogen oxide annually.

The EPA’s 360-page proposal, called the Federal Implementation Plan (FIP), relies heavily on the state’s BART evaluations, but goes several steps further by establishing goals, deadlines and long-term strategies that meet the EPA’s “reasonable progress” mandate.

During Thursday’s hearing, EPA officials began the morning session by providing a detailed description of the proposed federal plan to address parts of the ADEQ haze plan that was disapproved.

That proposal included limited emissions and five-year compliance schedules for stationary pollution sources across the state, including putting scrubbers, or pollution control devices, on nine smokestacks at six of the state’s largest power plants and factories in control to limit ozone and carbon dioxide emission .

The EPA haze rule would affect two of the state’s oldest coal-fired facilities, White Bluff Electric in Jefferson County and Independence Steam Electric Station in Independence. Those aging facilities are also on the EPA’s list for possible shutdown under the president’s Clean Power Plan that would cut carbon emissions at existing power plants by 2030.

Jake Rice, utility manager for Jonesboro City, Water & Light, said the cost to retrofit the White Bluff and Independence power plants would affect the northeast Arkansas utility’s 70,000 customers.

“Those costs are real world, and will have to be passed on to customers,” Rice told EPA representatives at the hearing.

Likewise, Stephen Cain, manager of environmental compliance at the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Corp., told the EPA officials that the cooperative already has plans in place to install scrubbers on the White Bluff coal plant to meet the agency’s requirements. However, he said, the added cost of adding one of the $400 million pollution control devices at the Independence power plant was not necessary and would double the cooperative’s exposure.

“We believe that Independence should not be included because it is not a BART (haze) source,” Cain said in his three-minute speech.

Kelly Crouch, representative for Domtar Paper Company in Ashdown, also spoke against the plan, asking the EPA to extend the comment period deadline of May 16 for an additional 60 days. Crouch said the Ashdown pulp mill that employs nearly 1,000 people in southwest Arkansas has already made investments in meeting the EPA requirements and should be given credit for what it has already done.

Under the proposed EPA rules, Domtar will have to retrofit two boiler units at Domtar’s Ashdown Pulp where the paper company is making $160 million in capital improvements to convert a machine assembly line into a “high quality fluff pulp line” that will produce a number of paper products, Crouch said.

Sally Graham, spokesman for Entergy Arkansas, also sent a statement to Talk Business & Politics, saying that the state’s largest utility opposes the EPA haze plan.

“Our driving concern is that any costs resulting from the proposed rule not unfairly or adversely affect our customers and co-owners. EPA’s estimates of costs for the proposed scrubbers are far below real-world estimates for this technology,” Graham said. “Entergy Arkansas opposes EPA’s inclusion of Independence because it should not be subject to the relevant Clean Air Act program (BART) under EPA’s own definition and it is not necessary to include it given Arkansas’ progress in meeting its Regional Haze visibility goals.”

Despite criticism of the EPA’s plans and calls to extend the comment period for another two months, supporters greatly outnumbered opponents and they asked federal officials to move forward with the haze plan expeditiously.

Those proponents include organizations such as the Arkansas Sierra Club and Arkansas League of Voters to college students, university professors and a number of private citizens that ranged from a Little Rock rabbi who quoted scripture from Genesis and an employee from a local engineering firm who read a poetic soliloquy on the Natural State.

Glen Hooks, director for the Arkansas Chapter of the Sierra Club, told the EPA officials that their proposed haze guidelines would protect “Arkansas’ special places.”

“The plan cleans up some of Arkansas’ biggest and dirtiest power plants, which is great news for our air, our health and our economy,” Hooks said. “It’s time for Arkansas utilities to clean up their act, and this plan is a big step toward making that happen.”

Rebecca Zimmermann, a graduate student at the Clinton School of Public Service, also spoke in support of the EPA’s plan.

“As a young Arkansan, I care deeply about the future of my state,” Zimmermann said. “Arkansas is blessed with some of the greatest natural beauty in our country, and it’s our responsibility to keep it pristine for generations to come. The EPA haze pollution plan is a great step forward. The plan will not only improve the health of our parks, it will also improve the health of our citizens and our state economy.”

Following the morning session at the ADEQ headquarters, EPA officials will conduct similar hearings throughout the day until 7 p.m. Additional comments can be submitted to the EPA docket here (http://www.regulations.gov, or by emailing federal officials at [email protected].

ADEQ Director Becky Keogh, who sat through the entire morning session, said she was there to listen and learn. However, she said the state environmental agency will ask the EPA to extend the comment period for 60 days so state regulatory officials will have time to study and draft a response to the federal agency’s proposed rules.