42 U.S.C. § 7491 — Visibility protection for Federal class I

Page 7270 TITLE 42—THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE § 7491 which was executed by making the insertion after ‘‘in- cluding fuel cleaning’’ to reflect the probable intent of Congress, and inserted at end ‘‘Emissions from any source utilizing clean fuels, or any other means, to comply with this paragraph shall not be allowed to in- crease above levels that would have been required under this paragraph as it existed prior to November 15, 1990.’’ 1977—Par. (2)(C). Pub. L. 95–190 added subpar. (C). Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries STUDY OF MAJOR EMITTING FACILITIES WITH POTENTIAL OF EMITTING 250 TONS PER YEAR Pub. L. 95–95, title I, § 127(b), Aug. 7, 1977, 91 Stat. 741, directed Administrator, within 1 year after Aug. 7, 1977, to report to Congress on consequences of that portion of definition of ‘‘major emitting facility’’ under this subpart which applies to facilities with potential to emit 250 tons per year or more. SUBPART II—VISIBILITY PROTECTION Editorial Notes CODIFICATION As originally enacted, subpart II of part C of sub- chapter I of this chapter was added following section 7478 of this title. Pub. L. 95–190, § 14(a)(53), Nov. 16, 1977, 91 Stat. 1402, struck out subpart II and inserted such subpart following section 7479 of this title. § 7491. Visibility protection for Federal class I areas (a) Impairment of visibility; list of areas; study and report (1) Congress hereby declares as a national goal the prevention of any future, and the remedying of any existing, impairment of visibility in man- datory class I Federal areas which impairment results from manmade air pollution. (2) Not later than six months after August 7, 1977, the Secretary of the Interior in consulta- tion with other Federal land managers shall re- view all mandatory class I Federal areas and identify those where visibility is an important value of the area. From time to time the Sec- retary of the Interior may revise such identi- fications. Not later than one year after August 7, 1977, the Administrator shall, after consulta- tion with the Secretary of the Interior, promul- gate a list of mandatory class I Federal areas in which he determines visibility is an important value. (3) Not later than eighteen months after Au- gust 7, 1977, the Administrator shall complete a study and report to Congress on available meth- ods for implementing the national goal set forth in paragraph (1). Such report shall include rec- ommendations for— (A) methods for identifying, characterizing, determining, quantifying, and measuring visi- bility impairment in Federal areas referred to in paragraph (1), and (B) modeling techniques (or other methods) for determining the extent to which manmade air pollution may reasonably be anticipated to cause or contribute to such impairment, and (C) methods for preventing and remedying such manmade air pollution and resulting visi- bility impairment. Such report shall also identify the classes or categories of sources and the types of air pollut- ants which, alone or in conjunction with other sources or pollutants, may reasonably be antici- pated to cause or contribute significantly to im- pairment of visibility. (4) Not later than twenty-four months after August 7, 1977, and after notice and public hear- ing, the Administrator shall promulgate regula- tions to assure (A) reasonable progress toward meeting the national goal specified in paragraph (1), and (B) compliance with the requirements of this section. (b) Regulations Regulations under subsection (a)(4) shall— (1) provide guidelines to the States, taking into account the recommendations under sub- section (a)(3) on appropriate techniques and methods for implementing this section (as pro- vided in subparagraphs (A) through (C) of such subsection (a)(3)), and (2) require each applicable implementation plan for a State in which any area listed by the Administrator under subsection (a)(2) is located (or for a State the emissions from which may reasonably be anticipated to cause or contribute to any impairment of visibility in any such area) to contain such emission limits, schedules of compliance and other measures as may be necessary to make reason- able progress toward meeting the national goal specified in subsection (a), including— (A) except as otherwise provided pursuant to subsection (c), a requirement that each major stationary source which is in exist- ence on August 7, 1977, but which has not been in operation for more than fifteen years as of such date, and which, as determined by the State (or the Administrator in the case of a plan promulgated under section 7410(c) of this title) emits any air pollutant which may reasonably be anticipated to cause or contribute to any impairment of visibility in any such area, shall procure, install, and op- erate, as expeditiously as practicable (and maintain thereafter) the best available ret- rofit technology, as determined by the State (or the Administrator in the case of a plan promulgated under section 7410(c) of this title) for controlling emissions from such source for the purpose of eliminating or re- ducing any such impairment, and (B) a long-term (ten to fifteen years) strat- egy for making reasonable progress toward meeting the national goal specified in sub- section (a). In the case of a fossil-fuel fired generating pow- erplant having a total generating capacity in ex- cess of 750 megawatts, the emission limitations required under this paragraph shall be deter- mined pursuant to guidelines, promulgated by the Administrator under paragraph (1). (c) Exemptions (1) The Administrator may, by rule, after no- tice and opportunity for public hearing, exempt any major stationary source from the require- ment of subsection (b)(2)(A), upon his deter- mination that such source does not or will not, by itself or in combination with other sources, emit any air pollutant which may reasonably be anticipated to cause or contribute to a signifi- Page 7271 TITLE 42—THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE § 7492 cant impairment of visibility in any mandatory class I Federal area. (2) Paragraph (1) of this subsection shall not be applicable to any fossil-fuel fired powerplant with total design capacity of 750 megawatts or more, unless the owner or operator of any such plant demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Administrator that such powerplant is located at such distance from all areas listed by the Ad- ministrator under subsection (a)(2) that such powerplant does not or will not, by itself or in combination with other sources, emit any air pollutant which may reasonably be anticipated to cause or contribute to significant impairment of visibility in any such area. (3) An exemption under this subsection shall be effective only upon concurrence by the appro- priate Federal land manager or managers with the Administrator’s determination under this subsection. (d) Consultations with appropriate Federal land managers Before holding the public hearing on the pro- posed revision of an applicable implementation plan to meet the requirements of this section, the State (or the Administrator, in the case of a plan promulgated under section 7410(c) of this title) shall consult in person with the appro- priate Federal land manager or managers and shall include a summary of the conclusions and recommendations of the Federal land managers in the notice to the public. (e) Buffer zones In promulgating regulations under this sec- tion, the Administrator shall not require the use of any automatic or uniform buffer zone or zones. (f) Nondiscretionary duty For purposes of section 7604(a)(2) of this title, the meeting of the national goal specified in subsection (a)(1) by any specific date or dates shall not be considered a ‘‘nondiscretionary duty’’ of the Administrator. (g) Definitions For the purpose of this section— (1) in determining reasonable progress there shall be taken into consideration the costs of compliance, the time necessary for compli- ance, and the energy and nonair quality envi- ronmental impacts of compliance, and the re- maining useful life of any existing source sub- ject to such requirements; (2) in determining best available retrofit technology the State (or the Administrator in determining emission limitations which re- flect such technology) shall take into consid- eration the costs of compliance, the energy and nonair quality environmental impacts of compliance, any existing pollution control technology in use at the source, the remaining useful life of the source, and the degree of im- provement in visibility which may reasonably be anticipated to result from the use of such technology; (3) the term ‘‘manmade air pollution’’ means air pollution which results directly or indi- rectly from human activities; (4) the term ‘‘as expeditiously as prac- ticable’’ means as expeditiously as practicable but in no event later than five years after the date of approval of a plan revision under this section (or the date of promulgation of such a plan revision in the case of action by the Ad- ministrator under section 7410(c) of this title for purposes of this section); (5) the term ‘‘mandatory class I Federal areas’’ means Federal areas which may not be designated as other than class I under this part; (6) the terms ‘‘visibility impairment’’ and ‘‘impairment of visibility’’ shall include re- duction in visual range and atmospheric dis- coloration; and (7) the term ‘‘major stationary source’’ means the following types of stationary sources with the potential to emit 250 tons or more of any pollutant: fossil-fuel fired steam electric plants of more than 250 million Brit- ish thermal units per hour heat input, coal cleaning plants (thermal dryers), kraft pulp mills, Portland Cement plants, primary zinc smelters, iron and steel mill plants, primary aluminum ore reduction plants, primary cop- per smelters, municipal incinerators capable of charging more than 250 tons of refuse per day, hydrofluoric, sulfuric, and nitric acid plants, petroleum refineries, lime plants, phos- phate rock processing plants, coke oven bat- teries, sulfur recovery plants, carbon black plants (furnace process), primary lead smelt- ers, fuel conversion plants, sintering plants, secondary metal production facilities, chem- ical process plants, fossil-fuel boilers of more than 250 million British thermal units per hour heat input, petroleum storage and trans- fer facilities with a capacity exceeding 300,000 barrels, taconite ore processing facilities, glass fiber processing plants, charcoal produc- tion facilities. (July 14, 1955, ch. 360, title I, § 169A, as added Pub. L. 95–95, title I, § 128, Aug. 7, 1977, 91 Stat. 742.) Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE Subpart effective Aug. 7, 1977, except as otherwise ex- pressly provided, see section 406(d) of Pub. L. 95–95, set out as an Effective Date of 1977 Amendment note under section 7401 of this title. § 7492. Visibility (a) Studies (1) The Administrator, in conjunction with the National Park Service and other appropriate Federal agencies, shall conduct research to iden- tify and evaluate sources and source regions of both visibility impairment and regions that pro- vide predominantly clean air in class I areas. A total of $8,000,000 per year for 5 years is author- ized to be appropriated for the Environmental Protection Agency and the other Federal agen- cies to conduct this research. The research shall include— (A) expansion of current visibility related monitoring in class I areas; (B) assessment of current sources of visi- bility impairing pollution and clean air cor- ridors;