Panel OKs judge's finding on air plan
The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission on Friday upheld a judge's decision that the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality had not violated state law or the Arkansas Constitution by not yet seeking legislative approval for an air quality plan.
The Sierra Club asked the commission last year to hold a hearing on its claim that the department should have sought Arkansas Legislative Council approval of its proposed state implementation plan for the federal Regional Haze Rule.
The department argued that the implementation plan is not a rule because it is not broadly applicable to the public.
On Dec. 31, commission Administrative Law Judge Charles Moulton issued a recommended decision for the commission to deny the group's proposed finding of fault. Moulton said the club's idea of a rule was broader than lawmakers intended and said the department itself is not a rule-making body.
Moulton noted that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not accepted the state's plan yet, but that if it does, the agency may begin a rule-making process to incorporate the plan into its regulations.
After hearing arguments on the case Friday, the commission adopted Moulton's recommendation.
"We're discussing the Regional Haze State Implementation Plan, not the Regional Haze State Implementation Rule," Commissioner Joe Fox said before moving to adopt the recommendation.
The Regional Haze Rule implements part of the Clean Air Act that stipulates 2064 visibility goals for national wilderness and wildlife areas. Arkansas has two of those areas -- the Upper Buffalo and Caney Creek.
The main industries implicated in plans to implement the rule are utilities and their coal and natural gas plants, which emit higher amounts of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide than other industrial facilities.
State's solar jobs grow, buck trend
The number of jobs in the U.S. solar industry declined slightly in 2018 from 2017, but they grew 29.9 percent in Arkansas, according to a report from the Solar Foundation.
The number of solar jobs peaked in the United States at 260,077 in 2016 and declined to 250,271 in 2017. In 2018, the number declined to 242,343.
The number of jobs in Arkansas, 369, comprises less than two-tenths of 1 percent of the nation's total solar industry employment. The number of state jobs in 2017 was 284.
The foundation defines a solar job as one held by a worker spending at least 50 percent of his time on solar-related work, according to the report.
Park Service sets controlled burn
A portion of the Lower Buffalo Wilderness at the Buffalo National River will be closed for a month for a prescribed burn, according to a National Park Service news release.
The burn will close 11,284 acres of wilderness -- although no portion of the river will close -- from Feb. 27 through March 27.
The burn is expected to take eight to 12 days, and officials may have to wait for favorable weather, the release said. The area will be reopened when officials believe the area is safe.
The area is about 7 miles southeast of Flippin, between Rush and Buffalo City access points, north of the river.
The burn will reduce the chance of future "catastrophic wildfire" by reducing "accumulation of dead and down fuels," the release said.
Metro on 02/24/2019