North Dakota has an obligation to protect certain national parks, wilderness areas and national forests from man-made haze. But the state’s first draft of a plan to accomplish that isn’t tough enough on the biggest polluters, according to according to the National Parks Conservation Association, Plains Justice, Dakota Resource Council, and Voyageurs National Park Association.
The North Dakota Draft Regional Haze Plan released last week fails to require the pollution reductions from large coal-fired power plants needed to eliminate man-made haze in protected areas, including national parks. The state is required by the federal Clean Air Act to clean up the pollution from human activities that causes or contributes to haze in Class I airsheds, which have the highest level of protection under the act.
“Without stronger measures, North Dakota's coal plants will continue to unnecessarily obscure views from Theodore Roosevelt and Badlands National Parks to Voyageurs and Isle Royale National Parks for decades to come,” said Stephanie Kodish, clean air counsel for the National Parks Conservation Association. “We appreciate North Dakota’s efforts, but the state must require its major polluters do more to clean up the state’s contributions to regional haze.”
The North Dakota Department of Health’s plan also fails to accommodate requests by the Department of Interior (DOI) to toughen its air pollution control requirements for the state’s coal-fired power plants. The conservation groups support DOI’s request and intend to advocate that the state lower the amount of haze-causing sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter the plants would be allowed to emit. These pollutants also cause or exacerbate health problems, including asthma, decreased lung function and heart attacks.
“Air pollution doesn’t stop at the borders of national parks and wilderness areas,” said Kelly Fuller, communications director at Plains Justice. “Lowering limits for these pollutants will help everyday people breathe cleaner air, even if they never visit a park,” she added.
North Dakota found that air pollution from the state’s power plants and other sources contribute to haze in more than 20 protected Class I areas, and are a significant source of haze for 7 of those. The Class I areas most impacted by North Dakota sources are Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness Area in North Dakota, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Area and Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, Isle Royale National Park and Seney National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness Area in Michigan, Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness Area and U. L. Bend National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness Area in Montana, and Badlands National Park and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.
The federal Regional Haze program requires strong pollution controls on the largest sources of haze pollution in the state: eight coal-fired power plants located in Stanton, Falkirk, Mandan and Center, North Dakota. However, North Dakota failed to require any emission reductions for one plant and of the seven it does include in its plan, it only requires lenient emissions reductions. Conservation groups believe that the state can and should require greater reductions from each the seven facilities and also require stringent controls for the eighth coal plant located near Mandan.
“What happens in North Dakota affects national parks and wilderness areas throughout the upper Midwest,” said Cory MacNulty, executive director of Voyageurs National Park Association. “Our region’s national parks and wilderness areas need the best possible protection so that these beautiful wild and scenic places will once again have clean air.”
In 1999, EPA created regulations to eliminate regional haze and improve air quality in 156 Class I national parks and wilderness areas (Mandatory Class I Area map- http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/t1/fr_notices/classimp.gif). The Regional Haze Rule requires states, in coordination with the EPA, NPS, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, and other interested parties, to develop and implement air quality protection plans (State Implementation Plans or SIPs) to reduce the pollution that causes visibility impairment. The state plans must include a long-term strategy and Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) on certain existing sources of pollution for making “reasonable progress” toward meeting this goal by 2064.
The advocacy groups are reviewing the plan and will submit formal comments by the state’s deadline of January 8, 2010. The North Dakota Division of Air Quality will hold a hearing in Bismarck to accept public comment on the draft plan on January 7, 2010. A copy of the state plan and information about the hearing is available online at http://www.ndhealth.gov/AQ/RegionalHaze/.
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