The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set air pollution standards for taconite plants this past week intended to reduce the amount of visible air pollutants, commonly referred to as regional haze or smog, found in Voyageurs National Park as well as other northern Minnesota and Michigan parks and wilderness areas.

In a statement, the EPA says all six of Minnesota’s taconite facilities – and any future ones – as well as one in the Upper Peninsula, emit toxins that not only affect visibility in the pristine wildernesses but also are harmful to people’s health.

In response to what it called an insufficient state pollution control plan, the EPA issued a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) in order to set up air pollution standards. It claims those will reduce emissions by a total of 24,000 tons annually from the facilities, thus helping to clear the air from Voyageurs to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to Isle Royale National Park.

The EPA stated this can be accomplished if companies use the “best available retrofit technology” (BART) during taconite ore processing.

However, the exact costs of implementing these new rules was not included in the EPA’s 202-page “rule” signed by Lisa Jackson, administrator of the federal agency.

The EPA states that its plan will limit emissions such as nitrogen oxide (NOX by 22,000 tons) and sulfur dioxide (SO2 by 2,000 tons) from Hibbing Taconite Co.; Northshore Mining Company in Silver Bay; United States Steel Corporation’s Keetac in Keewatin; United States Steel Corporation’s Minntac in Mountain Iron; United Taconite in Eveleth; ArcelorMittal’s Minorca Mine, Inc. in Virginia and Tilden Mining Co. in Michigan’s UP.

Part of the plan calls on the taconite plants to install what are known as low-NOX burners.

The upgrades make common sense in order to protect the health “and character of beloved places” by modernizing these plants, according to a statement from the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).

“This is a terrific first step at regulating an industry that for too long has been allowed to escape pollution controls, thus negatively impacting treasured places like Voyageurs and Isle Royale national parks and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness,” according to the nonprofit.

“Cleaner air will benefit the health of the people in this region as well as the health and beauty of its national park units and wilderness areas,” according to NPCA. “These wild places attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, helping spur the nearly $22 billion that tourism contributes to local economies.”

The decision apparently pits the federal EPA against a state Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) plan for cleaner emissions. The U.S. Clean Air Act required the MPCA to put together a State Implementation Plan (SIP) to address the problem of regional haze.

But the state plan, which was completed in May after years of delays, fell short of EPA and Clean Air Act standards in regards to BART just for the taconite plants, according to the rule. The EPA “disapproved” of that portion of the state document, which triggered the new special plant requirements, the EPA stated.

The companies involved did not issue statements in regards to the decision. However, in the past, they have expressed concerns about the measures’ costs and the timelines given to them during the EPA’s draft process.

The state and companies also plan to hold a conference call in the next week to discuss the decision, according to an Associated Press report, but have not commented publicly on the EPA rule.

The MPCA, though, expressed timeline concerns as well to the AP recently.

The decision is separate from the lawsuit filed last month against the EPA by the NPCA and four other environmental groups, who place much if not all the blame for the smog on Xcel Energy’s Sherco plant in Becker, Minn. The Sherburne County Generating Station is 300 miles south of International Falls.

The civil suit in U.S. District Court calls Sherco “Minnesota’s dirtiest coal power plant” and says the air pollution it creates can be seen as far away as Isle Royale National Park on a Lake Superior island near the Canadian border.

An official overview of the EPA’s new rules can be viewed online through http://www.epa.gov/region5/air/taconite/. The entire rule is on the right of the Web page under “Federal Register Notice.”