Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) is a pollution control standard in the United States Clean Air Act.

Overview

A BART review is required by sections 169AUnited States. Clean Air Act (CAA). Visibility protection for Federal class I areas. and 169B of the Clean Air Act for pollution sources which might cause

haze Haze is traditionally an atmospheric phenomenon in which dust, smoke, and other dry particulates suspended in air obscure visibility and the clarity of the sky. The World Meteorological Organization manual of codes includes a classification ...

in a "Federal Class 1 area". An example of such a source is the

Navajo Generating Station Navajo Generating Station was a 2.25-gigawatt (2,250 MW), coal-fired power plant located on the Navajo Nation, near Page, Arizona, United States. This plant provided electrical power to customers in Arizona, Nevada, and California. It also provi ...

Page, Arizona Page is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, near the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 7,247. History Unlike other cities in the area, Page was founded in 1957 as a housing com ...

which could affect visibility in

Grand Canyon National Park Grand Canyon National Park, located in northwestern Arizona, is the 15th site in the United States to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often consider ...

. BART provisions were included in the "Clean Air Visibility Rule," published by the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

(EPA) in 1999, and amended in 2005.

Determining best available retrofit technology

The Clean Air Act defines Best available retrofit technology:

... in determining best available retrofit technology the State (or the Administrator in determining emission limitations which reflect such technology) shall take into consideration the costs of compliance, the energy and nonair quality environmental impacts of compliance, any existing pollution control technology in use at the source, the remaining useful life of the source, and the degree of improvement in visibility which may reasonably be anticipated to result from the use of such technology;

Navajo Generating Station

A BART review may take into account the interests of stakeholders associated with the source. In the case of Navajo Generating Station, EPA solicited input from stakeholders: the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

, the Central Arizona Project, the

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation ( nv, Naabeehó Bináhásdzo), also known as Navajoland, is a Native American reservation in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah; at roughly , the ...

, the Gila River Indian Community, the

Salt River Project The Salt River Project (SRP) is the umbrella name for two separate entities: the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, an agency of the state of Arizona that serves as an electrical utility for the Phoenix metropolitan a ...

, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Western Resources Advocates. A technical working group negotiated a "Reasonable Progress Alternative to BART" which was submitted by the Department of the Interior to the EPA on July 26, 2013 for consideration in development of a final rule. (The plant ceased commercial power generation in 2019.)

Notes and references

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External links and further reading

Visibility and Regional Haze
- EPA *
Regional Planning Organizations
- EPA
"Regulatory Impact Analysis For The Final Clean Air Visibility Rule Or The Guidelines For Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) Determinations Under The Regional Haze Regulations" (2005)
- EPA Air pollution in the United States Environmental technology United States federal environmental legislation