I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5118 
To amend the Clean Air Act to require the exclusion of data of an exceedance 
or violation of a national ambient air quality standard caused by a 
prescribed fire in the Flint Hills Region, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 22, 2010 
Mr. MORAN of Kansas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Clean Air Act to require the exclusion of 
data of an exceedance or violation of a national ambient 
air quality standard caused by a prescribed fire in the 
Flint Hills Region, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Flint Hills Preserva-
tion Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) The Flint Hills Region of Kansas and Okla-
homa contains the world’s largest share of the re-
maining tallgrass prairie, and is the only place where 
that habitat is in landscape proportions. Only 4 per-
cent of North America’s presettlement tallgrass prai-
rie survives to this day, and 80 percent is located in 
Kansas. 
(2) The Flint Hills Region is also home to cer-
tain declining avian species such as the greater prai-
rie chicken and Henslow’s sparrow that cannot con-
tinue to exist without large expanses of native 
tallgrass prairie in an original state. Further, it is 
a significant corridor for migrating shorebirds such 
as the American golden plover, the buff-breasted 
sand-piper, and the upland sandpiper. 
(3) Beginning in the mid-19th century, cattle-
men understood that the richness of the Flint Hills 
grasses depended on a good spring burn—something 
they learned from the Native Americans. Fire still 
thrives in the Flint Hills because the ranchers, and 
others using the land, know that the natural eco-
system depends on fire. 
(4) Ranchers, landowners, and conservation 
groups use prescribed burns to mimic the seasonal 
fires that have shaped the tallgrass prairie for thou-
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sands of years. Areas not burned for several years 
develop mature grasses and thicker, thatch-like vege-
tation, which habitat is preferred by invasive species. 
(5) The Flint Hills Region is one of the few 
places in the United States where the prevailing ag-
ricultural system works essentially in tandem with 
an ancestral native ecosystem, preserving most of its 
complexity and the dynamic processes that helped 
shape it. 
(6) Due to the uniqueness of the Flint Hills 
tallgrass prairie and the historic manner in which 
the tallgrass prairie has been managed by fire, exist-
ing prescribed burn practices should be allowed to 
continue and ambient air data resulting from fires 
used to manage the Flint Hills tallgrass prairie 
should be not be included in determinations of com-
pliance with the Clean Air Act. 
SEC. 3. PRESCRIBED FIRES. 
The Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.) is amend-
ed by inserting after section 329 the following: 
‘‘SEC. 330. PRESCRIBED FIRES IN THE FLINT HILLS RE-
GION. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—In determining whether, with re-
spect to a specific air pollutant, an exceedance or violation 
of a national ambient air quality standard has occurred 
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for purposes of this Act, a State and the Administrator 
shall exclude data from a particular air quality monitoring 
location if emissions from one or more prescribed fires in 
the Flint Hills Region cause a concentration of the air 
pollutant at the location to be in excess of the standard. 
‘‘(b) SPECIFIC LIMITATIONS.—If emissions data is 
excluded under subsection (a) from a particular air quality 
monitoring station because of emissions from one or more 
prescribed fires in the Flint Hills Region— 
‘‘(1) the Administrator shall not, as a result of 
such emissions, find under section 113 that a State 
has failed to enforce, or that a person has violated, 
a State implementation plan (for national primary 
or secondary ambient air quality standards) under 
section 110; and 
‘‘(2) a State shall not, as a result of such emis-
sions, find that a person has violated, or bring an 
enforcement action for violation of, a State imple-
mentation plan (for national primary or secondary 
ambient air quality standards) under section 110. 
‘‘(c) PROHIBITION AGAINST SMOKE MANAGEMENT 
PLANS.—The Administrator shall not require, and a State 
shall not adopt, a smoke management plan under this Act 
in connection with any prescribed fire in the Flint Hills 
Region. 
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