Visitors to national parks have a better chance of seeing clearly now that the haze is gone, or at least reduced, under a landmark air pollution plan approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The program is intended to protect scenic vistas in such areas as Canyonlands, Zion and Grand Canyon national parks by establishing a declining cap on haze-forming air pollution from Western power plants and industrial sources.
It's all part of a multistate effort known as the Western Regional Air Partnership — made up of states, tribes and federal agencies — that focuses on strategies for reducing sulfur dioxide, mostly from coal-fired industrial plants, the primary producers of haze. Automobiles, forest fires and dust from roads also contribute to the haze.
Environmentalists applauded the agreement, which has been decades in the making and was signed Thursday.
"EPA's approval of the first regional plan to begin addressing the haze in our national parks is a step in the right direction," said Vickie Patton, senior attorney for Environmental Defense in Boulder, Colo.
But the success depends on action, she added.
"The Western states helped develop this plan, but there will be no air pollution clean-up unless they follow through with concrete action."
Utah has been working on implementing the program for a while now, said Dianne Nielson, director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
"We needed this rule to move forward," she said. "It marked a big step for the partnership and improved visibility in the West."
States that voluntarily participate must submit a proposal for achieving regional goals by Dec. 31. While Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, California, Oregon and Wyoming have agreed to implement the strategy, Colorado has opted out and therefore must develop a plan to meet the national standard targeted for 2007.
The program calls for reducing the annual sulfur-dioxide emissions by setting a cap. The pollution cap is based on lowering sulfur dioxide by 85 percent from uncontrolled Western power plants. The pollution cap would affect new power plants at a time when thousands of megawatts of new fossil-fuel fired electrical generation are proposed across the West, supporters say.
If a region exceeds the annual goal, it allows for a sulfur dioxide market trading program to take effect. So, plants with low emissions can sell their credits for emissions reductions to other plants exceeding limits.
That has prompted some criticism from Grand Canyon Trust, a regional conservation organization based in Flagstaff, Ariz. It has called the plan "weak and ineffectual," falling short of protecting the visibility in Grand Canyon and other national parks on the Colorado Plateau.
"It needs to be reasonably aggressive," Rick Moore, air quality manager for Grand Canyon Trust, told the Desert News when the proposal was introduced several years ago.
Yet others say it offers industry a flexible way to help reduce air pollution.
"The plan approved by EPA would help protect the West's scenic vistas by lowering air pollution from Western power plants and other industrial sources in a cost-effective manner," said John Nielson, energy project director of the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies.
He's also taking a wait-and-see approach on whether it works.
"This provides a real-world test case to see if the Western states can in fact lead in a situation where there are compelling environmental and economic reasons for leadership and cooperation."
E-MAIL: donna@desnews.com