EPA Agrees to Clean Up Scenic Skies

Polluters near National Parks Target of Lawsuit Settlement

by Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
San Francisco Chronicle - August 20, 2003

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed a court settlement Tuesday intended to clear the skies and improve the views in national parks and wilderness areas.

The settlement with Environmental Defense, a national environmental group, places the EPA on a court-ordered schedule to curb by April 2005 haze-forming pollutants that threaten such national parks as Yosemite, Sequoia, Glacier, Big Bend, Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, Big Bend and Acadia. The deal applies to 156 parks and wilderness areas in all.

Hundreds of industrial plants nationwide could be affected by the settlement, including cement plants, copper smelters and coal-fired power plants in the West that supply energy to California.

The settlement must go through a public comment process and requires approval by a Washington, D.C., court before it takes effect.

"This settlement is a big step toward cleaning up the air in our national parks and wilderness areas," said David Baron, attorney for Earthjustice, a nonprofit legal organization that represents Environmental Defense.

"The law sets a national goal of clearing the skies in these special places, for the enjoyment and inspiration of present and future generations," Baron said.

Under 1977 amendments to the Clean Air Act, industrial plants are prohibited from creating "regional haze" that spoils scenic vistas in parks and wilderness areas. The National Park Service has blamed fine particles created by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that blow hundreds of miles and impair visibility in many of its wild parks.

The EPA's enforcement program stalled after a coalition of electric utilities, representatives of the coal-mining industry and the state of Michigan sued in federal court in 1999, arguing that regulations newly issued by the EPA were infringing on states' rights to regulate. Parties associated with the suit couldn't be reached for comment on Tuesday's settlement.

Last year, the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., reaffirmed EPA rules that call for states to make progress in protecting scenic vistas. But the court also required the EPA to rework a section of the rules that required older plants to retrofit with modern pollution-control technology.

In December, Earthjustice filed a notice of its intent to sue the EPA, charging that the agency had a duty to put in place rules to control big polluters. Tuesday's settlement grew out of that legal action.