The Sierra Club reasserted its request that a federal judge set an April date for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to submit a final plan for Arkansas to implement regional haze rules.
In its Tuesday filing, the Sierra Club argued that the EPA does not need until the end of August to issue a final federal haze plan because the agency has taken less than five months to do so in 14 of the 17 states for which it has issued a federal haze plan.
The Sierra Club also said the EPA is working on a combined plan between Oklahoma and Texas to reduce emissions at 50 percent more units than are targeted in Arkansas and is asking for less time for that plan than for the Arkansas plan.
The Regional Haze Rule is a part of the Clean Air Act that was passed by Congress in 1999. It is intended to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions that contribute to impaired visibility at 156 national parks and certain wilderness areas. Because of emissions produced by power plants in Arkansas, the state must address two sites in Arkansas and two in Missouri.
By law, the rule targets only visibility, but proponents of the rule argue that reducing sulfur dioxide emissions will also reduce the number of respiratory illnesses and deaths in Arkansas and across the country.
Meanwhile, the EPA, which is working with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality on a new plan, proposed in a court filing last week a date of Aug. 31, 2016, for issuing a new plan. Previously, the EPA had partially rejected the state's plan for complying in 2012, and neither agency issued a new plan, prompting the Sierra Club lawsuit.
Metro on 10/02/2015