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Show Utah's Regional Haze Plan Ready For Review The Utah Department of Environmental Quality's Division Divi-sion of Air Quality will hold a series of public meetings statewide to receive feedback on Utah's draft plan to improve and protect visual air quality in the national parks on the Colorado Plateau. The meeting schedule is as follows: Thursday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m. Utah Division of Environmental Quality Building, 168 N. 1950 W., Salt Lake City Tuesday, Oct 28, 7 p.m., St. George City Council Chambers, 175 E. 200 N., St. George Thursday, Oct. 30, 7 p.m., Grand County Council Chambers, 125 E. Center St., Moab The plan details coordinated strategies Utah will use to reduce human-caused pollutants that contribute to regional haze, mainly particulate matter and certain gases such as sulfur dioxide. Utah is one of several western states developing plans to improve visibility in national parks. All five of Utah's national nation-al parks Arches, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Zion are located on the Colorado Plateau and experience regional haze. Specifically, the plan includes an emissions cap that declines through the year 2018. If emissions in the western region exceed that cap, the plan calls for implementation of a trading program that requires large sources of air pollutionei-ther pollutionei-ther reduce their emissions or buy allowances from other sources that can reduce theeir emissions in a more cost-effective way. This method ensures that the regional emissionreduc-tion emissionreduc-tion goals will be achieved and that reductions will come from the sources where cost to reduce are the lowest, making it a more economical program than com-I com-I mand-and-control regulations. Other provisions will require consideration of effects on visibility visi-bility when land managers plan for prescribed fires as well as tracking emissions of pollutants to ensure that the cleanest days remain clean. The plan also documents doc-uments efforts in Utah to implement imple-ment energy conservation measures meas-ures and to increase use of renewable energy sources. The components of the plan were recommended to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1996 by the Grand Canyon Visibility (See HAZE PLAN on p. 7) |