{"id":17912,"date":"2014-01-09T06:55:02","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T12:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=17912"},"modified":"2014-01-09T09:37:10","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T15:37:10","slug":"texas-to-blame-for-oklahomas-biggest-haze-pollution-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/01\/09\/texas-to-blame-for-oklahomas-biggest-haze-pollution-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas to Blame for Oklahoma’s Biggest Haze Pollution Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Meers<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Meers area resident Bill Cunningham looks for haze over the Wichita Mountains from the top of Mount Scott.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Federal regulators are forcing <\/a>Oklahoma\u2019s largest electric utilities to lower emissions at their coal-fired power plants or shut them down. The goal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Regional Haze Rule<\/a> is to clear the air on federal lands like national parks.<\/p>

Several other states are dealing with similar regulations, but not Texas. And it\u2019s having an effect at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge just across the border, near Lawton, the only qualifying federal site in Oklahoma.<\/p>


\nhttps:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/01\/STORY-01-09-TexasHaze.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>

Local Bill Cunningham, an avid hiker and chief of the Meers Volunteer Fire Department, says his view of the nearby peaks is obstructed most days.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s just a haze hanging in the air,” he says. “It\u2019s kind of a white film you can see on that southern horizon. And it lingers and persists.\u201d<\/p>

A cold front has cleansed the air on the day when StateImpact visited, but from the top of the highest point in the Wichita Mountains \u2014 Mount Scott \u2014 looking southwest into Texas, you can see the haze.<\/p>

Cunningham doesn’t know what caused he haze. It could just be dust. He says when the wind is right, it can be smog from Dallas. But he also points at another possible culprit.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m not a scientist. I\u2019m not an activist. But I will tell you there is a big coal-fired power plant in Vernon, Texas about 50 miles southwest of here,\u201d Cunningham says.<\/p>\n

Borderless Pollution<\/h3>

Al Armendariz, however, is <\/i>a scientist \u2014 and an activist.<\/p>

The former Southern Methodist University professor\u2019s stint as an EPA administrator was short lived<\/a>. He resigned as the director of Region 6, which includes Oklahoma, after a controversial comment he made comparing his approach to dealing with coal plants to Roman crucifixion surfaced.<\/p>

Now he works with the Sierra Club\u2019s Beyond Coal Campaign.<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

roy.luck \/ Flickr<\/p>\n

Power lines extend out from the Oklaunion coal-fired power plant near Vernon, Texas.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\u201cPollution doesn\u2019t recognize state boundaries,\u201d Armendariz says. \u201cAnd scientists have known for years that our pollution from Texas blows north over the Red River and impacts Oklahoma.\u201d<\/p>

He says the pollution from Texas is particularly bad.<\/p>

\u201cThe Texas coal plants are truly some of the dirtiest in the country. In fact, just the largest two coal plants in Texas emit about as much sulfur dioxide as the ten largest plants in Arkansas and Oklahoma combined,\u201d Armendariz says. \u201cSo they\u2019re very dirty plants and yet they\u2019re not being required to reduce their emissions the way that sources in Oklahoma have been required.\u201d<\/p>

Data from regional air quality monitoring groups, and Oklahoma\u2019s Department of Environmental Quality actually show<\/a> more of the pollution in the Wichitas comes from Texas than anywhere else, including Oklahoma.<\/p>

So it seems unfair that Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico could all be under the regional haze rule, while Texas isn\u2019t.<\/p>

Armendariz says it\u2019s not that Texas isn\u2019t subject to the rule, it\u2019s just that states were in charge of coming up with their own plans for emission reductions, and the EPA hasn\u2019t yet made a decision on the one from the Lone Star State.<\/p>\n

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