Clean Air

Message #1:

ACT: Clean Air Hearing in Little Rock on 1/19/18 

From:-Glen Hooks <glen.hooks@sierraclub.org>
Date:-Wed, Jan 17, 2018 10:46 am

Sierrans and Friends--

1/19/18 - F - The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will hold a hearing that directly impacts dirty coal-burning power plants in Arkansas.  Can you take some time to weigh in?

You can help in one of two ways:

1.  Attend the January 19th hearing in person and make a public comment; or 

2.  Send in your comment to ADEQ (via mail or email) no later than February 2nd.

THE HEARING
Friday, January 19^th, 2:00 p.m.
Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality
5301 Northshore Drive
North Little Rock, AR  72118

TO SUBMIT WRITTEN COMMENTS
Tricia Treece, Office of Air Quality,
Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality,
5301 Northshore Drive,
North Little Rock, AR 72118.

Electronic comments should be sent to:
Treecep@adeq.state.ar.us

Summary Of The Issue

Since 1999, the Clean Air Act has required numerous states to take action to reduce smog/haze  in certain parks and wilderness areas.  Haze is largely a byproduct of pollution from coal-burning power plants.  Affected states are required to draft their plans for haze reduction and get those plans approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency.  Arkansas is one of those states.

Arkansas drafted and submitted a plan in 2008, which was partially approved and partially rejected.  The state elected not to re-submit the rejected portion, which meant that the EPA was required by federal law to write a plan for Arkansas.  The EPA took action, wrote a plan, held a hearing in Arkansas, and eventually approved the plan.  The EPA plan required Entergy's two oldest and dirtiest coal-burning power plants (White Bluff and Independence) to install pollution control equipment ("scrubbers"), as a method of reducing the haze problem in Arkansas parks and wilderness areas.  

Soon after the EPA plan was finalized, the State of Arkansas sued to block the plan, and now wants to write its own plan.  The proposed plan is the subject of the January 19th public hearing.

ADEQ's plan does not require White Bluff or Independence to install scrubbers.  Essentially, ADEQ's plan requires Entergy to do almost nothing to reduce haze, with the exception of a requirement to burn low-sulfur coal (which Entergy is already doing). 

The ADEQ plan also scraps source-specific nitrogen oxide limits, and contemplates a "trading" program for NOx.  We believe that source-specific NOx limits are much better at controlling NOx, as they help protect individual communities and citizens who work and live near polluting plants.  

Sierra Club's position

Haze reduction is more than a decade overdue in Arkansas, and ADEQ's proposed plan will delay haze reduction even further.  

Why is our state's Department of Environmental Quality rejecting the robust EPA plan in favor a plan that will result in dirtier air and less haze reduction in our parks?

Our Department of Environmental Quality should stop delaying haze reduction and do its job.  If not for ADEQ's decade of delay and obstruction, we would be well into implementing the EPA's haze reduction plan and improving visibility in our Arkansas parks and wilderness areas.

Unlike the EPA plan, the ADEQ plan does not require scrubbers on the massive White Bluff and Independence coal-burning power plants.  ADEQ should finalize a requirement for scrubbers on these plants.  SWEPCO's Flint Creek coal-burning power plant just installed a scrubber last summer--now it's time for White Bluff and Independence to do the same.  

We ask that ADEQ revise its proposed plan to include scrubbers on White Bluff and Independence, and to retain source-specific NOx limits instead of the trading program.  

MORE INFORMATION

If you’d like more information or to discuss the hearing, please contact AR Sierra Club Director Glen Hooks at glen.hooks@sierraclub.org or 501-301-8280.

Here’s a direct link to the ADEQ plan:  https://www.adeq.state.ar.us/air/planning/sip/pdfs/regional-haze/public-review-package.pdf

Thank you!
--
Glen Hooks, J.D.
Director
Arkansas Sierra Club
1308 West 2nd Street
Little Rock, AR  72201
glen.hooks@sierraclub.org
(501) 301-8280
(501) 744-2674 (cell)

- - - - - - - - - - 

Message #2:

2018 Resolution: Arkansas stops polluting our northern neighbors!

From:-Glen Hooks <reply@emails.sierraclub.org>
To: Everyone who wants to breathe clean air
Date:-Mon, Dec.18, 2017, 2:23 pm - Re-Sent: -Wed, Jan 17, 2018 5:26 pm

For years, federal and state officials have known that Entergy's Arkansas coal plants are among the dirtiest plants anywhere in the country.

Now, it turns out, that not only is Entergy polluting the wilderness areas in our state, the pollution from their dirty plants crosses state lines and endangers our neighbors to the north, worsening smog problems in St. Louis, Missouri¹ !

Take action now: Join people from Arkansas and Missouri demanding that these coal plants eliminate their emissions and stop polluting the people of both states!

Entergy's plants cause so much pollution that, in 2014, the EPA had to propose rules to reduce emissions from the plants because they were (and still are) clouding the skies on federal lands in Arkansas, like the Caney Creek Wilderness Area, AND impacting federal lands in southern Missouri, like the Mark Twain National Forest.

For decades, families in St. Louis have been living with poor air quality that fails basic public health standards. On many summer days, the city has a brownish haze that is a cocktail of smog that can trigger asthma attacks, heart problems, and weaken lung function even in healthy people.

The technology that could reduce emissions from these coal plants  - so-called "selective catalytic reduction" - has been available for more than 20 years, but Entergy has chosen profits over people's health. It is egregious that Entergy, the largest utility in Arkansas, owns coal plants that are such bad actors that they are actually polluting people in the next state over. 

Take action today: Demand that the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality clean up emissions from the Entergy power plants!

Thank you.

Glen Hooks, John Hickey
Executive Director
Arkansas Sierra Club, Missouri Sierra Club