The Environmental Protection Agency is set to review Texas’ latest plan for cleaning up air quality in Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains national parks within the next year as part of a settlement finalized last week in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups.
The advocacy groups - which include the Sierra Club and the National Parks Conservation Association - have for years criticized the EPA for not moving faster in reviewing multiple states’ plans for reducing haze pollution in national parks, a requirement under the Clean Air Act.
Haze pollution contributes to reduced visibility in national parks across the U.S., in addition to posing health risks. While haze can be caused by things like wildfires and dust, the EPA says most of it comes from industrial sources like power plants, cars and manufacturing facilities.
Under the settlement deal, the EPA will have to review Texas’ haze plan by May 30, 2025. The agency could decide to approve the plan in full, require further modifications or reject it and instead issue federal requirements in place of the state plan.
Texas has seen years of back-and-forth plans and legal fights on the issue.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality submitted its latest plan for reducing haze in the state’s two national parks back in 2021. Environmental groups have criticized the plan, saying it wouldn’t sufficiently improve air quality in the parks because it would not require stricter pollution controls at the state’s coal plants.
State regulators argued that new pollution controls would not significantly reduce haze in the parks.
“The TCEQ determined that it is not cost effective nor reasonable to implement additional measures to only improve visibility to a degree that is imperceptible to the human eye,” the agency wrote.
Last year, the EPA rejected part of the Texas plan and proposed a new rule that would require new pollution controls at a handful of power plants.
In a statement announcing last week’s settlement, the Sierra Club called the state’s 2021 proposal a “do-nothing” plan.
“There are cost-effective, readily available, common sense pollution controls that the state could be adopting,” Sierra Club attorney Joshua Smith said in an interview. “At every turn, they’ve refused to do what the Clean Air Act requires.”
A TCEQ spokesperson said the agency is not a party to the settlement deal and therefore had no comment on it.
“EPA has not proposed any action on the regional haze plan referenced in the consent decree and we can’t speculate on what its action will be,” spokesperson Victoria Cann said.
Representatives for Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains national parks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
