UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

REGION 10 1200 Sixth Avenue, Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98101-3140

OFFICE OF AIR, WASTE AND TOXICS

Re: Invitation to Consult about EPA’s Actions on Regional Haze Plans for Idaho, Oregon and Washington

Dear Tribal Chair:

Consistent with the Environmental Pr otection Agency's (EPA) government-togovernment relationship with trib al governments, we are offeri ng an opportunity for consultation regarding several pending EPA proposed actions on regional haze State Implementation Plans (plans). These plans address visibility in our Nation’s national parks and wilderness areas (or Class I areas), and they, along with EPA action on thes e plans, may be of intere st to your Tribe.

Regional haze plans must assure reasona ble progress towards the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas by 2064. The regional haze plans must include long-term strategies fo r making reasonable progress towa rd meeting this goal. Among other things, the regional haze plans must iden tify those air pollution sources that impair visibility, including older sources that may not have adequate air pollu tion control technology,

and determine whether it is reasonabl e to require additional controls.

The regional haze plans are based on five 10-y ear planning cycles and the first plans were due in December, 2007. States are just now co mpleting and submitting their first plans to EPA for approval. EPA is under a tight timeframe to act on these regional haze plans due to existing and anticipated lawsuits.

The States of Idaho, Oregon and Washington solicited and received meaningful input from tribal air quality programs through Tribal membership and participation in the Western Regional Air Partnership, technical and policy fo rums and committees. We are also aware that some tribes provided important input as the states devel oped and adopted their plans.

On January 5 and January 11, 2011 EPA publishe d Federal Register notices of proposed action on portions of Idaho’s regional haze plan submittal. We anticipate similar proposed action within the next month on Oregon’s region al haze plan submittal. Additional proposed actions for other parts of Idaho and Oregon’s regional haze plans and proposed action on the Washington plan is anticipated to be later in 2011, although we do not have a firm time frame.

We will make a final decision on each action af ter the comment period for that action closes.

We take this opportunity to invite you to consult with EPA on the Idaho, Oregon and Washington regional haze plans. In addition to the consultation opportunities offered in this letter, we invite you to submit comments dur ing the public comment periods that will be associated with these Federal Register notices.In December 2010 we held a conference call wi th Tribal environmental and air quality staff to discuss the regional haze plans. Add itional information about the States’ regional haze plans, including the submittals, can be found on the following websites:

Idaho: http://www.deq.idaho.gov/air/prog_i ssues/pollutants/haze_regional.cfm

Oregon: http://www.deq.state.or.us/aq/haze/index.htm

Washington: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/ air/globalwarm_RegHaze/regional_haze.html

We welcome any additional i nput you might have for us as we move forward with our actions on these plans. Should you have any questions or want to initiate consultation with EPA, please contact Steve Body by February 18, 2010. Al so please let him know who at the tribe he should work with to plan the consultation. Steve can be contacted at 206-553-0782, body.steve@epa.gov

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Sincerely,

Richard Albright, Director

Office of Air, Waste and Toxics

cc: Tribal Environmental Directors via e-mail

Tribal Air Staff via e-mail