Air Quality: Regional Haze

Haze and reduced visibility threaten the use and enjoyment of two of Minnesota’s most precious natural resources, Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area.

Many pollutants contribute to reduced visibility and haze, but nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) are the key culprits. Numerous sources emit nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, including taconite facilities, electric power plants, farming, and vehicles.  In Minnesota, the taconite industry is the key contributor to visibility issues in Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area.

In an effort to improve visibility in the nation’s most prized, or Class I, areas, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency required states to develop State Implementation Plans to cut pollutants that reduce visibility in Class I areas such as Voyageurs National Park, the Boundary Waters, and Isle Royale National Park, and return those areas to natural conditions by 2064. The public has until Sept. 3, 2009 to comment on the current plan. More on that below.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued a draft Regional Haze State Implementation Plan in spring 2008 and solicited comments from the public. MCEA worked with an air quality expert and provided substantive comments.

In its comments, MCEA’s indicated the agency should:

  • More effectively reduce emissions from older industrial facilities, specifically taconite, because they are responsibly for a disproportionate share of the problematic pollution.
  • Adequately address the role of climate change in projected visibility impairment in the future.
  • Ensure that pollution controls required for electric generation utilities include the most effective technology available to reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.
  • Prohibit new industrial sources of visibility-impairing pollution from proceeding if their emissions will worsen the problem.
  • Adequately consider and regulate the impact of vehicle emissions on visibility in Voyageurs and the Boundary Waters.

Additionally, MCEA encouraged the agency to work more closely with other states and Canada to develop regional plans to address the impact of emissions from outside of Minnesota on visibility impairment within Minnesota.

In July 2009, the agency placed its final State Implementation Plan as required by the federal government’s “Regional Haze Rule” out for public comment. The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy was able to get an extension of the 30-day comment period to Sept. 3 and has also submitted comments which were signed onto by other concerned organizations.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Citizens Board declined to pass the plan in October. However, in a vote that disappointed MCEA, the citizens board passed the plan in December 2009 even though it will not eliminate the haze by the 2064 deadline.

More information regarding regional haze are available on the agency’s website.