Adopted rule
Rulemaking contact:
Tori Heroux, 971-808-7046
Oregon's Regional Haze Rules implement the federal 1999 Regional Haze Rule as amended in 2017. The purpose of the Regional Haze Program is to improve visibility in wilderness areas and national parks with the goal to attain natural visibility conditions by 2064. DEQ also implements the 2017 Regional Haze Rule to protect and improve visibility in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The federal Regional Haze rule requires states to periodically update Regional Haze Plans.
DEQ submitted a Round 2 Regional Haze Plan to EPA in February 2022. However, EPA determined that additional information was necessary to ensure approvability of the Plan. Air Quality Planners developed this Supplement in response to that communication.
The only rule change adopted was the date listed for the State Implementation Plan, which must be updated every time DEQ submits a document to EPA for inclusion in the overall SIP.
The supplement contains additional information requested by EPA to support their review of the Round 2 Regional Haze SIP submitted to EPA in 2022, including specific monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting requirements that are already contained in specific permits included in the Round 2 SIP, additional description on DEQ's reasoning for selecting controls in Round 2, and additional permit conditions for facilities where DEQ determined no cost effective controls existed for Round 2. DEQ is also submitting amended agreements that were made with facilities as part of Round 2.
During the development of this Supplement, DEQ initiated the 60-day Federal Land Manager Review consultation process with the United States National Park Service and the United States Forest Service.
The National Park Service provided comments on the Supplement during the consultation period. In summary, NPS recommended that DEQ base reasonable progress determinations on the four factors identified in the Clean Air Act, address the time necessary for compliance under the alternative compliance options, and include a requirement to comply with BACT in the alternative compliance options. NPS' specific conclusions and recommendations and DEQ responses to those recommendations are provided below in Section 6 of the Supplement to the Round 2 Regional Haze Plan. The Forest Service did not provide comments on the Supplement.