The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a final plan last week for implementing a Clean Air Act provision in Texas that environmental advocates say would improve visibility in the Upper Buffalo Wilderness Area in Arkansas.
While the plan — provided to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette by an agency spokesman — does not mention the Upper Buffalo or require its consideration, the Sierra Club in Arkansas notes that the state’s air will improve, as Texas air flows east.
The Clean Air Act provision being discussed is the Regional Haze Rule, which was passed by Congress in 1999.
Its focus is on visibility in national wilderness areas and reducing the compounds that contribute to haze — sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide — that often come from coal-fired power-generating plants.
That same rule is the subject of pending federal action in Arkansas, with input from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.
In Arkansas, the rule seeks to improve visibility at the Upper Buffalo and Caney Creek wilderness areas in Arkansas and at the Hercules-Glades Wilderness area and Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri. Visibility is already expected to improve the Upper Buffalo and Caney Creek wilderness areas because of current actions.
The Environmental Protection Agency goal is to reduce haze by about 56 percent in the Upper Buffalo Wilderness area, from 26.27 deciviews to 11.57 deciviews by 2064.
A deciview is a measure of visibility meant to represent the minimal perceptible change visible to the human eye.