UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 


REGION 8 


1595 Wynkoop Street 

DENVER, CO 80202-1129 

Phone 800-227-8917 

http://www.epa.gov/region08 

Ref: 8P-AR FEB 1 

Terry O'Clair, Director 

Division of Air Quality 

Environmental Health Section 

North Dakota Department of Health . 

918 E. Divide Ave. 

Bismarck, ND 58501-1947 

RE: Environmental Protection Agency May Propose 

Partial Federal Implementation Plan for North 

Dakota Regional Haze Reasonable Progress 

Dear Mr. O'Clair: 

This letter is provided per the State of North Dakota's request to inform you that the 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may propose additional Reasonable Progress (RP) 

emission controls in a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for a portion of the North Dakota 

regional haze plan. This supplements our letter to you dated November 29, 20 I 0 which 

discussed our intent to propose a partial FIP for Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) 

controls on some units. As currently proposed, the North Dakota regional haze plan does not 

appear to meet the requirements of section II 0(a)(2)(D) or those of 40 CFR 51.308 due to some 

NOx BART controls described in our letter of November 29,20 I 0 and the lack of reasonable 

NOx controls on some units under RP. 

EPA is obligated to resolve this matter promptly in order to comply with a Consent 

Decree that resulted from a WildEarth Guardians lawsuit; an extension to the Consent Decree 

requires that EPA sign a proposal notice lily March 15,2011 and a final notice by June 21, 2011 

approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) or FIP or a combination SIP/FIP that meets the 

requirements of section I I 0(a)(2)(D) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) regarding interference with 

measures in other states related to protection of visibility. Thus, we are moving forward with the 

technical and policy work needed to support a possible proposed FIP. See Section IIO(c)( I) of 

the CAA, 42 U.S.C. §7410(c)(l). 

We appreciate your efforts in negotiating with the two companies involved in. the RP 

issue and acknowledge that you may have reached agreement for Coyote Station to install 

controls for RP, and that you may submit a SIP revision for this source later this spring. We also 

appreciate your efforts to describe a "BART alternative" proposal to the Region and our 

Headquarters on January 25, 2011 for Leland Olds Station and Antelope Valley Station. 
In reviewing the information you provided to the Agency, our preliminary analysis suggests that 

the proposal would not meet the requirements of 40 CFR SI.308(e)(2) and (3). 

In order to meet the aggressive schedule described above, we cannot commit to 

entertaining additional proposals. We will work with you as best we can to minimize the number 

of issues addressed in any proposed FIP. If we receive a revised SIP submittal in a timely 

manner which includes RP emission controls at Coyote Station, for example, we will make every 

effort to take this into consideration in our actions and approval decisions for the North Dakota 

regional haze plan. 

Please note that we will only come to a final decision regarding the adequacy of the 

State's regional haze SIP when we act on the State's submittal through our own public notice and 

comment rulemaking. If you have any questions on this notification, please contact me at 

303-312-6416, or have your staff contact Gail Fallon at 303-312-6281. 

Sincerely, 

Callie Videtich, Director 

Air Program 

cc: 	 Tom Bachman, NDDH 

John Bunyak, NPS 

Sandra Silva, USFWS 

Thomas Dzomba, USFS 

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