§7492 Visibility

Summary

The EPA Administrator must lead research with the National Park Service and other federal agencies to find where haze comes from and where air stays clean in class I areas. Congress authorized $8,000,000 per year for 5 years for this work. The research must add more visibility monitoring in class I areas, check current pollution sources and clean-air corridors, adapt regional air-quality models for visibility, and study the atmospheric chemistry and physics that affect visibility. The Administrator must give interim findings within 3 years after November 15, 1990. Within 24 months after November 15, 1990, the Administrator must assess how other parts of the 1990 Clean Air Act will likely improve visibility in class I areas, and then report every 5 years on actual progress. If interstate pollution appears to hurt visibility, the Administrator can make a visibility transport region and set up a transport commission of the region’s governors (or their designees), an Administrator designee, and federal land managers as ex officio members. The commission must study the data and, within 4 years, recommend actions such as creating clean-air corridors, applying part D rules for new major sources (including the alternative siting analysis in section 7503(a)(5)), and suggesting long-range regional haze regulations under section 7491. After getting the commission’s report, the Administrator has 18 months to carry out duties under section 7491 and must require affected States to update their implementation plans within 12 months. The Administrator must also create a Grand Canyon visibility transport commission within 12 months.