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Show fBl Community jf Comments.. EoSor; . -TTssm, In a legal notice to begin publication next week, the U.S. Department of Interior is serving notice that it is seeking to gain a reclassification of air quality standards in two national parks in Utah. If the request of the Department is granted (by whoever is responsible for doing such things) Canyonlands and Capitol Reef National Parks will be reclassified from Class II to Class I PSD Areas. That means that no significant degradation of air quality will be allowed, even for a portion of the year, and it further means that the massive LPP Power Project coal-fired plant near Hanksville will never be constructed. Officials of IPP have maintained that they could meet Class II air quality standards, and that they would not impact the park's air quality to any significant degree for 347 days each year. But they have openly stated that for up to 18 days per year, pollutants from the plant would be visible in the air over Capitol Reef. The congressional Air Conservation Act has not yet become law, but it will very soon. Both houses of Congress have taken action on the measure; and it only remains for a conference committee to iron out details . before the plan goes before President Jimmy Carter for his signature. When that happens, the designations given to certain tracts of land in Utah and other western states will have a tremendous bearing on how the futures of those areas are developed. A timetable of procedures to be followed by the ; Department of the Interior in the redesignation process are going to be on display at the Canyonlands National Park headquarters office on South Main Street, and at Capitol Reef National Park west of Hanksville. Persons interested in making written reply to that Department of Interior application would do well to familiarize themselves with the detailed document on file at these two park offices. -sjt This column has had very few gentle words of kindness for the delays leading up to the beginning of sanitary landfill operations in Moab Valley, and the cessation of open burning at the Moab City Dump. And it appeared earlier this week that the nasty pen would have to be unleashed again when we received a copy of a letter from Canyonlands National Park to Moab City stating that federal funds would be lost if an upcoming deadline had not been met. We were happily wrong. Moab City will meet the deadline, officials stated, and work has been progressing on plans for the changeover. And, according to Pete Parry of Canyonlands, all will transpire in time to guarantee that the federal funds will indeed be available for use here. A meeting is being called to firm up all the arrangements, and that should do the job. |