March 8, 2024
Preston McLane
Program Administrator
Division of Air Resource Management
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 5500
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400
Electronic Filing via Email to Pr************@Fl********.gov
Re: Comments on Florida’s Supplemental Amendment to Previously Proposed Regional Haze Plan for the Second Implementation Period.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), Sierra Club, and the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks (collectively, the Conservation Organizations) submit the following comments on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (Florida DEP) Supplemental Amendment (SIP Supplement)1Florida DEP divided its SIP Supplement into two main documents. Citations to the document titled “Supplement to Florida Regional Haze Plan” are hereafter referred to as “SIP Supplement Package.” Citations to the document titled “Supplement to Florida Regional Haze Plan for the Second Implementation Period for Florida Class I Areas” are hereafter referred to as “SIP Supplement Explainer.” These two documents, along with the appendices, are collectively referred to as the “SIP Supplement.” to its previously submitted Regional Haze Plan for the Second Implementation Period (2021 SIP Revision).2Florida DEP divided the 2021 SIP Revision into two main documents. Citations to the document titled “Submittal Number 2021-01 Regional Haze Plan” are hereafter referred to as “2021 SIP Revision Package.” Citations to the document titled “Florida Regional Haze Plan for Second Implementation Period for Florida Class I Areas” are hereafter referred to as “2021 SIP Revision Explainer.” These two documents, along with the appendices, are collectively referred to as the “2021 SIP Revision.”
The Conservation Organizations are active nationwide in advocating for strong air quality requirements to protect our national parks and wilderness areas. These groups have long participated in Regional Haze SIP comment periods, rulemakings, and litigation across the country to ensure that states and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) satisfy their obligations under the Clean Air Act (Act and CAA) and the Regional Haze Rule (RHR). The Conservations Organizations’ members who live in Florida—including NPCA’s 102,597 members, Sierra Club’s 33,250 members and the Coalition’s 69 current members and others who have lived and/or worked in Florida throughout their careers with the National Park Service—use and enjoy regional Class I areas that are impacted by Florida’s sources of haze-forming pollution.
As detailed below, FL DEP’s proposed SIP Supplement will not result in reasonable progress towards improving visibility at the Class I Areas its sources impact. These Class I Areas include Everglades National Park, which is “the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. Everglades National Park protects an unparalleled landscape that provides important habitat for numerous rare and endangered species like the manatee, American crocodile, and the elusive Florida panther.”3See infra n.4 Conservation Orgs’ 2021 SIP Revision Comments at 2 (referencing NPS Formal Consultation Call with Florida DEP for Regional Haze SIP Development, Florida Regional Haze Consultation Presentation, at 9 (May 17, 2021). “Everglades NP is an international treasure as well ‐ a World Heritage Site, International Biosphere Reserve, a Wetland of International Importance, and a specially protected area under the Cartagena Treaty.” Id. at 10.)
Florida DEP fails to address nearly all the issues raised in the Conservation Organizations’ comments on the 2021 SIP Revision or the expert report from Joe Kordzi, submitted in July 2021.4See 2021 SIP Revision, App’x I-2, Nat’l Parks Conservation Ass’n, et al., Conservation Organizations’ Comments on Florida’s Proposed Revisions Regional Haze State Implementation Plan for the Second Implementation Period (July 9, 2021) [hereinafter “Conservation Orgs’ 2021 SIP Revision Comments”]; 2021 SIP Revision, App’x I-2, Kordzi, Joe, A Review of the Florida Regional Haze Statement Implementation Plan (July 2021) [hereinafter “2021 Kordzi Report”]. Rather than correcting the errors the Conservation Organizations previously identified, Florida DEP adds to the deficiencies with its SIP Supplement. The agency commits the following errors in the SIP Supplement:
Florida DEP again only considers controls to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. However, as discussed below and in the Conservation Organization’s comments on the 2021 SIP Revision and in the 2021 Kordzi Report, there are likely available, feasible, and cost-effective controls to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from Florida sources.
- Despite the Clean Air Act’s and RHR’s clear requirements, Florida DEP fails to provide adequate documentation to support assumptions, control costs, and claimed emissions information in its source-specific analyses.
- Although Florida DEP updates and revises its determinations that Mosaic South Pierce, Nutrien White Springs, and JEA Northside Units 1 and 2 are “effectively controlled” for SO2, the agency does not adequately demonstrate that there are no additional controls that could reduce haze-forming emissions from these sources.
- Florida DEP determines that only a limited set of additional controls are necessary to make reasonable progress for just one source – the Georgia-Pacific Foley Mill. However, the agency again fails to correct errors in its source-specific Four-Factor Analyses, including for WestRock Fernandina Beach, Georgia-Pacific Foley Mill, and WestRock Panama City. Additionally, the agency fails to establish a cost effectiveness threshold for assessing controls and rejects controls as not cost effective that are well below cost thresholds adopted by other states for the second planning period. Thus, Florida DEP wrongfully rejects additional available, feasible, and cost-effective controls that are necessary to make reasonable progress toward the Regional Haze Program’s visibility goal.
- Florida DEP proposes to incorporate provisions from State-issued permits for covered facilities into its Regional Haze SIP. However, the proposed provisions are not practically enforceable and fail to meet the requirements of the CAA and its implementing regulations.
- Florida DEP failed to engage in meaningful consultation with Federal Land Managers (FLMs) on its SIP Supplement.
- And, once again, the agency entirely ignores the environmental justice impacts of haze- forming emissions from Florida sources. The Conservation Organizations also submit a report prepared by Joe Kordzi (Kordzi SIP Supplement Report), which is attached and incorporated by reference into these comments.5Kordzi, Joe, A Review of the Florida Regional Haze State Implementation Plan Supplement of January 2024 (Feb. 2024) [hereinafter “Kordzi SIP Supplement Report”] (attached as Ex. 1). Mr. Kordzi is an independent air quality consultant and engineer with extensive experience in the regional haze program.
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