FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2003
Contact:
Rick Sprott, Director, Utah Division of Air Quality, (801) 536-4000
The Utah Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Air Quality will hold a series of public meetings statewide to receive feedback on Utah's draft plan to improve and protect visual air quality in the national parks on the Colorado Plateau.
The meeting schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, July 8, 7 p.m.
Provo
Utah County Commission Chamber
100 E. Center St.
Wednesday, July 9, 7 p.m.
Moab
Grand County Commission Chamber
125 E. Center St.
Thursday, July 10, 7 p.m.
Salt Lake City
Utah Department of Environmental Quality
168 N. 1950 West
Room 101
Tuesday, July 15, 7 p.m.
St. George
St. George City Council Chambers
175 E. 200 North
Wednesday, July 16, 7 p.m.
Richfield
Sevier County Auditorium
250 N. Main
Thursday, July 17, 7 p.m.
Logan
Bear River Health Department
655 E. 1300 North
"These meetings are not formal public hearings on the final plan," said Rick Sprott, director of the Utah Division of Air Quality. "Public hearings will be held in October before the plan is adopted by the Utah Air Quality Board. Right now, we want to give the public the opportunity to review the preliminary draft, and we want to hear public opinions about the contents of the plan."
The plan details coordinated strategies Utah will use to reduce human-caused pollutants that contribute to regional haze, mainly particulate matter and certain gases such as sulfur dioxide. Utah is one of several western states developing plans to improve visibility in national parks. All five of Utah's national parks - Arches, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Zions - are located on the Colorado Plateau and experience regional haze.
Specifically, the plan includes an emissions cap that declines through the year 2018. If emissions in the western region exceed that cap, the plan calls for implementation of a trading program that requires large sources of air pollution to hold allowances for a pre-determined amount of emissions; sources that do not hold enough allowances will have to reduce their emissions or buy allowances from another source. This method ensures that reductions will come from the sources whose cost to reduce are the lowest, making it a more economical program than command-and-control regulations.
Other provisions will require consideration of effects on visibility when land managers plan for prescribed fires as well as tracking emissions of pollutants to ensure that the cleanest days remain clean. The plan also documents efforts in Utah to implement energy conservation measures and to increase use of renewable energy sources.
The components of the plan were recommended to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1996 by the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission to protect the visitor's experience at the 16 national parks on the Colorado Plateau. The Commission's vice-chair was Gov. Mike Leavitt. Many Utahns participated in developing the recommendations. EPA wrote those recommendations into the regional haze rule put into effect in 1999.
Much of the technical support for the plans being written by western states has been developed by the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP), which is co-chaired by Gov. Leavitt. WRAP's governing board consists of 13 tribal governments, 13 western states and the U.S. Departments of the Interior, Agriculture and EPA.
The partnership works closely with stakeholders, local governments, environment groups, industry and academia to compile regional air quality information and identify market-based strategies for reducing regional haze and improving visibility. Utah has played an active role in the partnership's work.
More information about the Utah plan and the public meeting schedule is available at http://www.airquality.utah.gov/SIP/Regionalhazesip/regionalhaze.htm.