Air Plan Disapproval; Kansas; Regional Haze

Issuing agencies

Abstract

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to disapprove a revision to Kansas's State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted on July 28, 2021, to satisfy applicable requirements under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA's Regional Haze Rule (RHR) for the program's second planning period. As required by section 169A of the Clean Air Act, the federal Regional Haze Rule calls for state and federal agencies to work together to improve visibility, including Regional Haze, in 156 national parks and wilderness areas. The rule requires the states, in coordination with the EPA, the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the U.S. Forest Service (FS), and other interested parties, to develop and implement air quality protection plans in which states revise their long-term strategies (LTS) for making reasonable progress towards the national goal of preventing any future, and remedying any existing, anthropogenic impairment of visibility in these mandatory Class I Federal Areas. Disapproval does not start a mandatory sanctions clock.