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Clean Air Visibility Rule

Fact Sheet - Final Amendments to the Regional

Haze Rule and Guidelines for Best Available

Retrofit Technology (BART) Determinations

printable version (PDF, 3 pp, 29 KB)

ACTION

• On June 15, 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized amendments to the

July 1999 regional haze rule. These amendments apply to the provisions of the regional haze

rule that require emission controls known as best available retrofit technology, or BART, for

industrial facilities emitting air pollutants that reduce visibility by causing or contributing to

regional haze.

• The pollutants that reduce visibility include fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and compounds

which contribute to PM2.5 formation, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxides (SO2), and

under certain conditions volatile organic compounds, and ammonia.

• EPA evaluated three possible scenarios of actions the states may take to comply with this

rule. Under the medium stringency scenario EPA estimates that BART controls will result in

annual NOx reductions of about 600,000 tons. Emission reductions for SO2 will be

approximately 400,000 tons annually.

• EPA’s benefits analysis estimates that the amendments will lead to significant improvements

in visibility in southeastern and southwestern parks. Under the medium stringency scenario this

rule will provide approximately $240 million in improved visibility benefits each year. In 2015,

the final rule also will provide substantial health benefits valued at $8.4 - $9.8 billion annually -

- preventing 1,600 premature deaths, 2,200 non- fatal heart attacks, 960 hospital admissions,

and over 1 million lost school and work days. The total annual cost will range from 1.4 – 1.5

billion dollars.

• The BART requirements of the regional haze rule apply to facilities built between 1962 and

1977 that have the potential to emit more than 250 tons a year of visibility-impairing pollution.

Those facilities fall into 26 categories, including utility and industrial boilers, and large industrial

plants such as pulp mills, refineries and smelters. Many of these facilities previously have not

been previously been subject to federal pollution control requirements for these pollutants.

• Under the 1999 regional haze rule, states are required to set periodic goals for improving

visibility in the 156 natural areas. As states work to reach these goals, they must develop

regional haze implementation plans that contain enforceable measures and strategies for

reducing visibility-impairing pollution. Today’s amendments include guidelines, known as BART

guidelines, for states to use in determining which facilities must install controls and the type of

controls the facilities must use.

• States must develop their implementation plans by December, 2007. States will identify the

facilities that will have to reduce emissions under BART and then set BART emissions limits for

those facilities.

• States must consider a number of factors when determining what facilities will be covered by

BART including:

Visibility

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the cost of the controls;

the impact of controls on energy usage or any non-air quality environmental

impacts;

the remaining useful life of the equipment to be controlled;

any existing pollution controls already in place; and

visibility improvement that would result from controlling the emissions.

• The guidelines also explain:

How to identify the plants and equipment for which a BART analysis is required;

The circumstances under which a source may or may not be exempt from a

detailed BART review;

The procedures for reviewing available emission control methods, and procedures

for summarizing and reporting the results of this review; and

The type of air quality analysis that is needed to inform the state’s BART

determination.

In a separate action EPA will propose additional revisions to the regional haze rule

in the near future to address alternative emissions trading programs.

• On March 10, 2005, EPA issued the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), requiring reductions in

emissions of SO2 and NOx from electricity generating units (EGUs) in 28 eastern States and

the Distric t of Columbia. When fully implemented, CAIR will reduce SO2 emissions in these

states by over 70 percent and NOx emissions by over 60 percent from 2003 levels. The CAIR

establishes an EPA-administered cap and trade program for EGUs in which States may

participate as a means to meet these requirements. In the BART rule, EPA presents the results

of an analysis showing that controls for EGUs subject to CAIR will result in more visibility

improvement in natural areas than BART would have provided. Therefore, States which adopt

the CAIR cap and trade program for SO2 and NOx are allowed to apply CAIR controls as a

substitute for controls required under BART because our analysis concluded that CAIR controls

are “better than BART” for EGUs in the states subject to CAIR.

• This rule will take effec t 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

BACKGROUND

• Regional haze is a national problem caused by multiple sources over a wide area. Visibility is

affected by different sources at different times of the year and under different weather

conditions. Some other significant contributors to visibility impairment include car and truck

emissions, area sources (broadly distributed and numerous small sources), wildfires, agricultural

fires, and wind blown dust.

• The same pollution that causes haze also poses health risks for some people with chronic

respiratory diseases.

• To reduce haze, and to meet requirements of the Clean Air Act, EPA in April 1999 issued a

regional haze rule aimed at protecting visibility in 156 federal areas. The rule seeks to reduce

the visibility impairment caused by many sources over a wide area. EPA’s previous visibility

regulation, issued in 1980, addressed only local visibility impairment from local sources.

• Soon after the regional haze rule was finalized, several parties filed petitions to challenge the

rule with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

• Because regional haze is a problem caused by multiple sources over a wide area, EPA's 1999

rule allowed states that were determining BART requirements to assess visibility impacts from

multiple sources rather than on a source-by-source basis. In May 2002, the court ruled that

aspects of EPA’s specific approach to this issue were not consistent with the Clean Air Act.

• On April 15, 2004 EPA reproposed a rule in response to the May 2002 ruling by the U.S. Court

of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacating parts of the BART provisions of the regional haze rule

(American Corn Growers et al. v. EPA, 291 F. 3d 1 (D.C. cir. 2002)).

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• EPA initially proposed BART guidelines on July 20, 2001, but did not finalize that proposal, in

light of the 2002 Court ruling.

• The 2004 proposal provided a process by which states can consider an individual facility’s

contribution to regional haze when determining whether to require controls, and what the level

of control should be.

• For large electric generating units, this rule recommends specific emissions limits for nitrogen

oxides and sulfur dioxide.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

• A copy of this notice and a copy of the Regional Haze rule is available at

http://www.epa.gov/visibility

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