The citizens board of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency this week approved rules aimed at reducing haze over Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The board voted unanimously Tuesday to send the rules to the federal Environmental Protection Agency for approval.
The EPA is seeking to improve visibility in national parks and wilderness areas. The EPA is under a court order to accept or reject state plans this year. The order stems from a lawsuit filed by the National Parks Conservation Association, pushing the EPA to act.
The state’s plan is a result of the federal Clean Air Act, which requires air over parks and wilderness ares to be restored to pristine conditions using the best technology.
The haze over Voyageurs and the BWCA comes mostly from Minnesota's coal-fired power plants, taconite plants on the Iron Range and from sources outside the state. Haze is formed partly by emissions of nitrogen oxides and can be measured.
The rules approved Tuesday were looser than MPCA staff originally proposed. They were eased after Cliffs Natural Resources said its Hibbing Taconite and United Taconite plants would have trouble complying with the nitrogen oxide limits and may have to shut down plants to meet the regulations.
Environmental groups say the revisions to the state plan don't make enough progress toward the goals of cleaner air and better health. They have asked the EPA to reject the state plan and impose a stricter one.
And last month, the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service objected to Minnesota’s plan, which they say doesn’t go far enough.
Susan Johnson, acting chief of the National Park Serivce’s policy, planning and permit review branch, asked the MPCA to reconsider the methodology used in the plan, which she said in a letter results in emissions limits that are too high.
Voyageurs National Park Superintendent Mike Ward told The Journal this week that the federal land managers “tried very hard to keep this plan in Minnesota and not have it go to the EPA before it was ready to go.
“We felt like solutions for Minnesota, based on the industry and MPCA and federal land management in Minnesota should have been the best solution to handling this. That’s what we said in testimony.”
Minnesota’s plan calls for the iron mining industry to use “good combustion practices” at six mills where iron ore is processed into taconite pellets instead of requiring them to install cleaner-burning furnaces. At five coal-fired generating stations, Minnesota officials say that no-plant specific additional restrictions are needed because pending regulations to reduce air pollution across the eastern U.S. will also help cut haze. Those regulations don’t force coal power plants to add the best, most-expensive pollution control equipment, and allows utilities the option to purchase pollution allows under a market-based system. However, those regulations are in court, making it unclear if and when they will be implemented.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
