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SALT LAKE CITY — Under a draft plan released Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing two options to deal with regional haze affecting Utah's national parks and prime wilderness areas.
Under one scenario, the federal government could deem sufficient the state plan developed by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, giving credit to pollution reductions already made for nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides at two coal-fired power plants.
That approach draws howls from clean air advocates who say Utah's plan does not go far enough, while the state insists that tougher requirements would not achieve any significant reductions in the pollution mix that causes haze.
The other choice is the EPA could require the implementation of the more stringent pollution control technology, which advocates insist would markedly improve air quality in Utah and surrounding states.
Public comment period
The two options are going to dominate a debate that plays out over the next 60 days during a public comment period in which the EPA is seeking feedback and also at a public hearing scheduled in Salt Lake City on Jan. 26.
"EPA takes its responsibility to evaluate the state of Utah's regional haze plan seriously and is requesting public comment on two proposed approaches to ensure our final decision is based on a thorough assessment of technical information and comments," EPA spokesman Rich Mylott said in a statement released Thursday.
Mylott added that due to the complex nature of the state's plan and the air quality analysis it contains, the EPA is seeking input on which path the agency should ultimately take. That decision will be made by June 1.
A coalition of multiple organizations that have pushed for tighter pollution controls say there is no comparison between the two alternatives.
'There is only one choice,' says program manager
"While EPA has presented two proposals for public comment, there is only one choice for clearing the air in eight of our most prized national parks, including Canyonlands, Arches and Bryce Canyon" said Cory MacNulty, a senior program manager for National Parks Conservation Association.
The groups, which also include HEAL Utah and the Sierra Club, gathered 30,000 signatures and presented them to EPA's regional headquarters in support of the Hunter and Huntington power plants being required to installed what's known as selective catalytic reduction controls. That technology, they assert, would reduce nitrogen oxides by 80 percent from four generating units at the two power plants.
But Alan Matheson, executive director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, has said that a decade's worth of modeling has shown that the $600 million upgrade to the new technology will not make a perceptible difference in the region's visibility — which is what the regional haze rule attacks.
'We owe it to Utah's visitors'
State regulators emphasize that while critics beleaguer the ill effects of coal-fired pollution, the EPA's rule on regional haze only addresses visibility standards in certain pristine areas such as national parks or high-value wilderness areas.
The state said that the low levels of ammonia are not sufficient enough to react with the nitrogen oxides to form ammonium nitrate, a component of regional haze.
Regulators add that since 2002, sulfur dioxide emissions from the region's power plants have decreased by nearly 28,000 tons a year and emissions from nitrogen oxides are down 15,258 tons a year.
Advocates say it makes little sense to let Utah skirt the tougher pollution reductions when the same technology is being implemented at power plants around the country, including neighboring states like Wyoming and Colorado.
"We owe it to Utah's visitors to take every reasonable step to ensure they can enjoy our gorgeous vistas," said Matt Pacenza, HEAL Utah's executive director. "We owe it to Utah's families to take advantage of technology that will help them breathe easier. The best way forward is to make sure Utah's biggest polluters are retrofitted with modern pollution controls."
Donna Kemp Spangler, spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, noted the agency is reviewing the draft proposal and will be making its own comments during the 60-day window.
