EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) requires states to significantly improve

air quality by reducing power plant
emissions that contribute to ozone
and/or fine particle pollution in other
states. The rule improves air quality
in the eastern half of the country by
requiring a total of 28 states to reduce
SO2 emissions, annual NO x emissions,
and ozone season NO x emissions in order to attain the 1997 ozone and fine
particle, and the 2006 fine particle National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
In April of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the D.C. Circuit
opinion that vacated CSAPR. In June,
the government filed a motion with
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit to lift the stay of CSAPR. As
of October, the Court of Appeals has
www.power-eng.com

1412PE_47 47

ordered that the EPAs motion to lift

the stay on CSAPR be granted.
Northeastern states receive a lot
of ozone pollution that is blown in
from upwind states, said Jacob Hollinger. CSAPR is likely to pit upwind
states against downwind states, and
many states believe the rule is still not
enough. For instance, Connecticut
gets 90 percent of its ozone from out of
state. We are likely to see further frustrations resulting from this issue.

CLEAN WATER
REGULATIONS
In recent years, the EPA has placed
greater importance on water quality
regulations, passing rules intended to
mitigate concerns about multiple water
pollutants produced by power plants.

Cooling Water Intake316(d)

Section 316(b) of the Clean Water
Act (CWA) requires the EPA to issue
regulations on the design of structures
used by industrial facilities to intake
large volumes of water from rivers,
lakes, and oceans for the purposes
of cooling their operations. These intake structures were determined to
adversely affect the environment by
pulling large quantities of fish, shellfish, and eggs into a plants cooling
system, where the organisms were injured or killed by heat, physical stress,
or chemicals.
The rule applies to multiple manufacturing facilities and 544 power
plants that withdraw at least two million gallons of water per day and use
at least 25 percent of that water for
47

12/15/14 11:42 AM