Protection of Visibility: Amendments to Requirements for State Plans

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing revisions to requirements under the Clean Air Act (CAA) for state plans for protection of visibility in mandatory Class I Federal areas in order to continue steady environmental progress while addressing administrative aspects of the program. In summary, the revisions clarify the relationship between long-term strategies and reasonable progress goals (RPGs) in state implementation plans (SIPs) and the long-term strategy obligation of all states; clarify and modify the requirements for periodic comprehensive revisions of SIPs; modify the set of days used to track progress towards natural visibility conditions to account for events such as wildfires; provide states with additional flexibility to address impacts on visibility from anthropogenic sources outside the United States (U.S.) and from certain types of prescribed fires; modify certain requirements related to the timing and form of progress reports; and update, simplify and extend to all states the provisions for reasonably attributable visibility impairment, while revoking most existing reasonably attributable visibility impairment federal implementation plans (FIPs). The EPA also is making a one-time adjustment to the due date for the next periodic comprehensive SIP revisions by extending the existing deadline of July 31, 2018, to July 31, 2021.