EPA Proposes Plan to Make 2 Texas Counties Comply With Clean Air Act

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington on Jan. 4, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a rule to bring two counties in Texas into compliance with sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission standards.

Under the Clean Air Act, each state is required to submit plans to the EPA showing how it will control certain types of air pollution. The EPA reviews these state implementation plans (SIPs) and approves those that comply with the Clean Air Act.

In 2010, the EPA revised the SO2 emission standards under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

In 2022, Texas submitted an SIP for Rusk and Panola counties deeming them “nonattainment areas” or regions that do not comply with the SO2 emission standards. The agency determined that Texas’s SIP carried deficiencies that prevented approval.

On Aug, 26, the EPA proposed a federal implementation plan (FIP) to ensure that these deficiencies are corrected so that the Rusk-Panola areas, which are in East Texas, meet SO2 emission standards as well as other requirements under the Clean Air Act.

Specifically, the issue concerns the Martin Lake Power Plant in Tatum. In 2016, the EPA had designated portions of Rusk and Panola counties surrounding the power plant as failing the S02 emission standard.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has an agreement with the plant that sets emission limits for the facility. However, the pact includes a “force majeure” provision that could potentially allow the power plant to be in noncompliance.

A “force majeure” clause limits liability for an event or effect that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled.

The EPA’s proposed FIP incorporates the “same proposed emissions limitations” as put forward by Texas but without the “force majeure” provision.

According to the proposal, SO2 emission limits will be set for three electric generating facility boiler units at the plant.

“To determine compliance with these limits, the owner or operator would be required to maintain and continuously operate an SO2 continuous emission monitoring system,” the EPA said.

In addition, limits would be set for two auxiliary boilers.

Once the rule is finalized, it would “impose SO2 emission limits on the Martin Lake Power Plant aimed at bringing the Rusk-Panola area into attainment,” according to an EPA fact sheet. The agency’s FIP “will ensure that the limits placed on Martin Lake remain permanent and enforceable.”

EPA is receiving public comments on the proposed plan until Oct. 7 and said it “will take all relevant comments on this FIP into consideration in the final action.”

Luminant Generation Company, owner of the power plant, has requested a 30-day extension for the comment period. Such an extension is necessary to provide the company “with an adequate opportunity to analyze and provide meaningful comment on the proposal,” it said.