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Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission:
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Colorado Plateau's national parks and wilderness areas provide a unique, panoramic
visual experience for people from around the world. This experience depends on maintaining
high visual air quality in the region, which is threatened by haze resulting from
projected growth over the next fifty years. Congress has set a national goal of remedying
existing human-caused visibility impairment, and preventing future impairment, at these
national parks and wilderness areas. Congress recognized that not all haze is human-caused
and that haze is a regional issue. Congress created the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport
Commission in 1991 to advise the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on strategies for
protecting visual air quality at national parks and wilderness areas on the Colorado
Plateau. The Commission established a Public Advisory Committee (PAC) to obtain broad
input as it formulated these strategies.
The Commission conducted an extensive review of scientific, technical, and other information with assistance from a range of governmental, business, tribal, and environmental interests. It developed more comprehensive databases, and new computer modules to analyze these data and model future air quality. The Commission significantly advanced understanding of regional haze, but limitations and uncertainties remain. Based on that information and its own deliberations, the PAC developed a set of emissions management recommendations for the Commission with a full understanding of progress and limitations in available knowledge. These recommendations are aimed at protecting clear days and reducing dirty days at national parks and wilderness areas on the Colorado Plateau. Following a series of public meetings in April 1996, the PAC and Operations Committee conducted a final review and approval of these recommendations and forwarded them to the Commission for action. The Commission formally considered the PAC and Operations Committee reports on June 10, 1996 and approved them as the Commissions report to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA should use the Commission's recommendations as guidance for developing national strategies and/or rulemaking. Implementation of all specific program components will remain the responsibility of tribes, states and their political subdivisions, and, in some cases, federal agencies.
Some of the Commission's recommendations ask the EPA to take specific actions or institute particular programs, in cooperation with the tribes, states and federal agencies as implementing bodies. Other recommendations provide a range of potential policy or strategy options for consideration by the EPA and implementing entities. As the EPA develops policies and takes actions based on this report, this distinction between "actions" and "options" should be maintained with diligence. That is, recommendations intended as policy options should not become mandated actions or regulatory programs.
The primary recommendations include:
- Air Pollution Prevention. Air pollution prevention and reduction of per capita pollution is a high priority for the Commission. The Commission recommends policies based on energy conservation, increased energy efficiency and promotion of the use of renewable resources for energy production.
- Clean Air Corridors. Clean air corridors are key sources of clear air at Class I areas, and the Commission recommends careful tracking of emissions growth that may affect air quality in these corridors.
- Stationary Sources. For stationary sources, the Commission recommends closely monitoring the impacts of current requirements under the Clean Air Act and ongoing source attribution studies. Regional targets for SO2 emissions from stationary sources will be set, starting in 2000. If these targets are exceeded, this would trigger a regulatory program, probably including a regional cap and market-based trading. During the next year, participants in the Commission's process will develop a detailed plan for an emissions cap and market trading program.
- Areas In And Near Parks. The Commission's research and modeling show that a host of identified sources adjacent to parks and wilderness areas, including large urban areas, have significant visibility impacts. However, the Commission lacks sufficient data regarding the visibility impacts of emissions from some areas in and near parks and wilderness areas. In general, the models used by the Commission are not readily applicable to such areas. Pending further studies of these areas, the Commission recommends that local, state, tribal, federal, and private parties cooperatively develop strategies, expand data collection, and improve modeling for reducing or preventing visibility impairment in areas within and adjacent to parks and wilderness areas.
- Mobile Sources. The Commission recognizes that mobile source emissions are projected to decrease through about 2005 due to improved control technologies. The Commission recommends capping emissions at the lowest level achieved and establishing a regional emissions budget, and also endorses national strategies aimed at further reducing tailpipe emissions, including the so-called 49-state low emission vehicle, or 49-state LEV.
- Road Dust. The Commission's technical assessment indicates that road dust is a large contributor to visibility impairment on the Colorado Plateau. As such, it requires urgent attention. However, due to considerable skepticism regarding the modeled contribution of road dust to visibility impairment, the Commission recommends further study in order to resolve the uncertainties regarding both near-field and distant effects of road dust, prior to taking remedial action. Since this emissions source is potentially such a significant contributor, the Commission feels that it deserves high priority attention and, if warranted, additional emissions management actions.
- Emissions from Mexico. Mexican sources are also shown to be significant contri- butors, particularly of SO2 emissions. However, data gaps and jurisdictional issues make this a difficult issue for the Commission to address directly. The Commission recommendations call for continued binational collaboration to work on this problem, as well as additional efforts to complete emissions inventories and increase monitoring capacities. These matters should receive high priority for regional and national action.
- Fire. The Commission recognizes that fire plays a significant role in visibility on the Plateau. In fact, land managers propose aggressive prescribed fire programs aimed at correcting the buildup of biomass due to decades of fire suppression. Therefore, prescribed fire and wildfire levels are projected to increase significantly during the studied period. The Commission recommends the implementation of programs to minimize emissions and visibility impacts from prescribed fire, as well as to educate the public.
- Future Regional Coordinating Entity. Finally, the Commission believes there is a need for an entity like the Commission to oversee, promote, and support many of the recommendations in this report. To support that entity, the Commission has developed a set of recommendations addressing the future administrative, technical and funding needs of the Commission or a new regional entity and has asked the Operations Committee to complete detailed plans by September, 1996. The Commission strongly urges the EPA and Congress to provide funding for these vital functions and give them a priority reflective of the national importance of the Class I areas on the Colorado Plateau.
To the maximum extent feasible, Commission recommendations calling for additional exploration and study, etc. (necessary for filling information gaps and for resolving certain policy issues) should be accomplished by the year 2000. Until such time as future organizational arrangements have been determined, all tasks which are not assigned to any particular existing entity should be performed by or under the auspices of the Operations Committee.
The Commission believes that reasonable progress toward the national visibility goal is achieved to the extent that current Clean Air Act requirements, existing laws and regulations, and the Commission's recommendations result in a significant near-term decrease in emissions that contribute to visibility impairment and ensure long-term protection of visibility. For example by 2000-2010, pollutants from stationary and mobile sources are expected to be reduced by 30% from the 1990 levels.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
SECTION II: PROCESS FOR DEVELOPING PAC RECOMMENDATIONS. . . . . . 5
SECTION III: EMISSION MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . 26
Guiding Principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Air Pollution Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Stationary Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Mobile Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
Area Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
Clean Air Corridors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Emissions Within and Near Class I Areas . . . . . . . . .53
Transboundary Emissions from Mexico . . . . . . . . . . .56
Future Scientific and Technical Needs . . . . . . . . . .59
SECTION IV: TRIBAL PERSPECTIVES AND POSITIONS REGARDING
RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
SECTION V: FUTURE ADMINISTRATIVE NEEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
SECTION VI: ANALYSIS OF RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
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