Environmental notebook

State readies plan to follow haze rule

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality plans to submit a draft of a state implementation plan for the Regional Haze Rule to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency within the next two weeks, Department Director Becky Keogh told the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission at its monthly meeting Friday.

The EPA has placed a partial stay on a federal plan for implementing the rule, and the state’s plan would address part of the rule, Keogh said.

The Regional Haze Rule is the result of requirements passed by Congress in the 1990s to implement parts of the Clean Air Act. It sets requirements for visibility at 156 national wildlife areas across the country and allows the EPA to require emissions reductions at industrial facilities that emit chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide and contribute to haze. Those facilities include coal plants and other power-generating stations.

Environmental groups have supported the EPA’s federal plan to implement the rule in Arkansas, while utilities have denounced it for its costs, which the firms say will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and be paid for by increased customer rates. The Environmental Quality Department and utilities have opposed the inclusion of the Independence coal plant near Newark in the plan, arguing that it is not required by law to be included.

Governor suggests water-rule rethink

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson submitted a letter this month to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Pruitt encouraging the “rolling back” of the 2015 Clean Water Rule.

In February, President Donald Trump issued an executive order allowing the EPA to review and revise the rule. Many agricultural and business groups argued the rule’s expanded definition of waters that need environmental protections was too broad, placing regulations on small bodies of water. Supporters of the rule argued those bodies of water could eventually affect larger ones, and said the rule would promote cleaner recreational and drinking water.

In May, Pruitt asked states to comment on the rule.

On June 16, Hutchinson noted Arkansas’ already broad definition of protected waters of the state and argued that a federal rule wouldn’t provide any additional protections here.

A “new, clear rule” would help states be more autonomous in their environmental protection efforts, Hutchinson said in his letter, which commended Pruitt for his “commitment to cooperative federalism.”

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