USDA Forest Service: Air Resource Management Responsibilities

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Forest Service Air Resource Management Responsibilities

Introduction
Statute Summary
Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Program

Introduction

The Clean Air Act charges the Forest Service to protect air quality related values in Class I Areas - those wilderness areas in existence as of August 7, 1977 larger than 5,000 acres. This protection is specifically enabled through Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) provisions of the Act. For more information about the Clean Air Act, visit: http://www.epa.gov/air/oaq_caa.html/

The 1964 Wilderness Act identified management goals for all wildernesses whether or not they are Class I. State legislation and PSD regulations determine how the air quality regulatory process is actually conducted state by state.

Statute Summary

Wilderness Act:

Requires wilderness areas to be administered "for the use of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness."

National Forest System Wilderness Implementing Regulations:

"Wilderness Resources shall be managed to promote perpetuate and where necessary restore the wilderness character of the land"

National Environmental Policy Act:

Establishes national environmental policy and goals to protect, maintain, and enhance the environment; requires all federal agencies to examine the environmental consequences of major proposed actions, and to conduct a decision-making process that incorporates public input.

Clean Air Act:

Human health and welfare based national air quality standards;
a national visibility goal of no human-caused impairment;
Prevention of Significant Deterioration of Air Quality Related Values.

National Forest Management:

“National Forests are ecosystems and their management… requires an awareness and consideration of the interrelationships among plants, animals, soil, water, air, and other environmental factors within such ecosystems”

Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Program

The PSD sections of the Clean Air Act include a permit program for certain new sources of air pollution. The purpose of the PSD process includes the protection and enhancement of air quality in national wilderness areas and other locations of scenic, recreational, historic, or natural value. Before the construction of certain new air pollution sources is approved, the applicants must receive a PSD permit from the appropriate air regulatory agency.

The Forest Service manager must make three decisions:

What are the sensitive air pollution receptors within the wilderness that need protection?
What are the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC’s) for these receptors?
Will the proposed facility cause or contribute to pollutant concentrations or atmospheric deposition within the wilderness that will cause the LAC’s to be exceeded?

The first two decisions are land management issues based upon the management goals for the wilderness in question. The third is a technical question analyzed by models combining proposed emissions, background levels of pollutants and the sensitivity of visibility and forest resources to the pollutants.

Close coordination between the Forest Service and the appropriate air regulatory agency is essential in the PSD process. The Forest Service makes a determination of whether a proposed project will adversely impact Forest lands. The air regulatory agency then makes a decision to grant or deny the permit.

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