Sides wrangle over haze cuts Costs' contrast with benefits for wilderness areas at issue

LITTLE ROCK -- Friends and foes of the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed plan to reduce haze in national wilderness areas voiced concerns Thursday about the costs involved and the environmental and health concerns associated with coal plants, although an EPA representative said health concerns would not be seriously considered.

Public hearings at the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality headquarters in North Little Rock consisted of dozens of three-minute speeches from representatives of business, environmental, community and liberal-leaning advocacy groups.

Haze occurs when light passes through certain particles that absorb light rather than spread it, including sulfates, nitrates, organic carbon, black carbon and windblown soil.

The haze plan targets sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions with the aim of improving visibility in two Arkansas national wilderness areas -- Caney Creek and the Upper Buffalo River -- and two Missouri parks -- the Hercules-Glades Wilderness Area and the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge.

Jordan Tinsley, representing Arkansas Electric Energy Consumers and Arkansas Gas Consumers, said the plan's estimated cost of more than $1 billion is one-fifth of the state's budget.

"This is either going to require the closure of these power plants or the installation of controls," which are high cost, he said.

Many have argued utilities would have to pass down the cost of implementing the emissions-controlling scrubbers to consumers.

Some environmental advocates hope the cost will be prohibitive enough Entergy and the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. would opt to close the state's largest and highest-emission coal plants.

Guy Donaldson, chief of air planning with the EPA in Dallas, told Thursday's crowd many power plants across the country have opted to shut down instead of complying with the regional haze rules.

No one identifying himself as a representative of Entergy, which owns 65 percent of each of the state's two largest coal plants, commented at the hearing Thursday.

Stephen Cain, environmental compliance manager with Arkansas Electric Cooperative, which owns the other 35 percent of the plants, said the cooperative opposed the inclusion of the Independence power plant in Newark and supported an extension of the public comment period longer than 30 days.

Dayana Medina, an environmental scientist with the EPA in Dallas, said she expects the agency to extend its public comment period by at least 30 more days to June 15.

The agency's target date for a final decision on the rule is Dec. 15. The plan is a component of the federal Clean Air Act.

The Federal Implementation Plan would require retrofitting emissions-reducing scrubbers on nine units at six power plants or an equivalent emissions-reducing measure. Installing scrubbers could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Such scrubbers work to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, bearing little impact on the carbon emissions also being targeted by the EPA and environmental groups.

Plants covered by the plan include the American Electric Power's Flint Creek power plant in Gentry.

"The proposed rules pose significant potential impacts both for the cost and reliability of electricity," Peter Main, a spokesman for the power company, has said. The company operates Flint Creek and splits its power supply with the Arkansas Electric Cooperative, which includes the area's Ozarks and Carroll cooperatives.

Environmental groups and other proponents of the proposed plan Thursday cited the ancillary health benefits of reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide's presence in the atmosphere.

Donaldson said the EPA would take only visibility into account when developing the final plan.

Haze is measured in deciviews.

When Caney Creek and the Upper Buffalo River last were measured for haze, they came in at 26.36 deciviews and 26.27 deciviews, respectively.

Although the requirements are being met, the agency goal is to reduce haze to 11.58 deciviews for Caney Creek and 11.57 deciviews for the Upper Buffalo by 2064 by reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide levels.

Glen Hooks of the Sierra Club in Arkansas described the visibility issues at the Upper Buffalo River site as simply keeping people from seeing as far or as clearly as they could.

No natural landmarks or formations are blocked by haze, he said.

NW News on 04/18/2015

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