Tasked with clearing the air in national parks, the U.S. government finalized its rule to regulate companies that pollute in Montana. Neither the companies nor environmentalists are pleased.
On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency released a plan for controlling the haze that is slowly obscuring the views in 12 national parks and wilderness areas in Montana. The plan requires a few corporations to shell out millions to reduce their emissions, but environmentalists complain the reductions don’t go far enough.
Under the Clean Air Act, the air in national parks and wilderness areas is supposed to be as clean as possible. To achieve that goal, regional haze programs in several states set pollution limits on industries.
The EPA found Montana’s wilderness areas and national parks, especially Glacier National Park, had significant losses of visibility.
Nine facilities, including the Holcim cement plant near Three Forks and the Colstrip coal-power generation plants, were identified as major contributors of small particles that contribute to park haze. Those particles include sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
Holcim and Colstrip were found to contribute most to the haze in Yellowstone National Park, although Yellowstone has less haze than most of the 12 areas. Both plants also affect air over the North Absaroka Wilderness Area.
The plan estimates that Holcim will have to pay close to $1.3 million to install equipment to decrease by more than 500 tons a year the nitrogen oxides emitted by its Trident cement plant.
Pennsylvania Power and Light will have to pay around $82.6 million to install the same equipment on Colstrip generators 1 and 2 to control nitrogen oxides, and install lime injection and scrubbers to limit sulfur dioxide. The EPA estimates the retrofit will reduce Colstrip’s haze contribution by 13,000 tons a year.
The EPA took public comment on the plan until mid-June.
Many of the commenters, including Holcim and PPL, questioned the computer models used to calculate the effect of various technologies on emissions, especially miles away in the parks.
Companies also complained that the EPA underestimated the costs to retrofit their plants with new technology.
In response to a Holcim comment, the EPA decided Holcim did not have to install lime injection and scrubbers because the reduction in emissions didn’t justify the cost. The total price tag for Holcim was originally estimated at $6.2 million.
PPL wasn’t so lucky.
“We agree that lime injection is effective,” said PPL Montana spokesman David Hoffman. “But nothing shows scrubber units are worth the $50 million. On the (nitrogen oxides) side, fire burners and SNCR are not cost-effective and they’re not going to do any more to achieve the visibility requirement.”
Montana Public Service Commissioner Gail Gutsche oversees companies like PPL and said she doesn’t think they should be allowed to cut corners when it comes to issues that affect people’s health.
Dr. Robert Shepard, whose studies contributed to the passage of Montana’s Indoor Clean Air Act, testified at one of the EPA haze plan hearings. He said he was frustrated that the EPA wasn’t requiring PPL to install the most advanced technology since a separate EPA study documented 32 deaths a year downwind of the Colstrip plants.
“This is nothing that hasn’t been done at coal plants around the U.S.,” Shepard said. “You get a four times greater return in healthcare cost savings for every dollar invested in pollution control.”
Hoffman said Colstrip was in compliance with all environmental regulations and PPL is considering the next steps to take now that the rule is final.
“This is a rule about visibility, not public health,” Hoffman said.
Holcim spokeswoman Robin DeCarlo could not be reached for comment.
Federal interagency data show that pollution has reduced park visibility in the western U.S. by as much as half. Pollution is worse in the eastern U.S., where it has dropped visibility to one-fifth of what it once was.
Small particle pollution, known as particulate matter or PM2.5, not only obscures scenic vistas but can also complicate heart and lung diseases because the particles lodge deep in the lungs, according to the EPA.
Montana isn’t the only state where haze rules are being questioned.
On Aug. 8, the EPA issued similar restrictions on plants in Arizona, where the Four Corners power plant near Flagstaff must potentially install $290 million in controls to clear the air over the Grand Canyon.
In New Mexico, the San Juan Generating Station has appealed the EPA’s requirement for catalytic technology, requesting to use a cheaper but less effective technology instead.
In Minnesota, it’s the environmental groups that are appealing, complaining that the state’s pollution controls are inadequate. Minnesota was one of the few states to develop its own implementation plan, but even the National Park Service and the Forest Service criticized the plan as inadequate.
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