WASHINGTON — In a decision that raises the possibility of increased pollution in national parks around the country, the Bush administration will allow North Dakota to change the way it estimates air pollution over Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
The change, announced Friday in Bismarck, N.D., means that a consortium of power companies will be able to go ahead with a coal-fired power plant in North Dakota, and other power plants could open in the future, state officials said.
Compliance with the Clean Air Act's requirements on national parks is determined by a system for estimating pollution levels. The new system, which is expected to produce lower estimates, could allow new coal-fired plants to be built near the North Dakota park without violating the law.
"That sets the stage for new investments in our energy industry and real progress in our rural communities," Gov. John Hoeven said in announcing the agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency.
David Glatt, chief of the environmental health section of North Dakota's Health Department, said the changes should make the state's estimates better match the actual air quality over the park. As a result, the state will be able to allow more projects that create air pollution, like power plants, to be built.
"What we've done is we've got a model that does a better job of predicting what the real world sulfur dioxide emissions will be," Glatt said.
Sulfur dioxide emissions contribute to the haze visible in skylines and are a major source of acid rain, which damages trees, waterways and other components of the park system, such as national monuments
Several environmental groups challenged the state's description of what the new system will do.
"Our deep concern is that this is a damaging case of politics trumping sound science and the long-standing judgment of EPA's professional staff that could have far-reaching impacts and allow harmful air pollution degradation at national parks across the country," said Vickie Patton of Denver, a lawyer for Environmental Defense, a national environmental group.
"New coal-fired power plants are being proposed across the inter-Western United States that are predicted to have harmful impacts on national parks."
The EPA and the state had been at loggerheads since 1999 over whether the air over the park and the Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge violated federal standards meant to prevent degradation of air quality in public lands.
