Air Plan Approval; Arkansas; Regional Haze State Implementation Plan for the Second Implementation Period
Key claim: The EPA is giving final approval to Arkansas’s plan for reducing man-made haze in national parks and wilderness areas during the second regional-haze planning period.
Abstract
(Rule · Environmental Protection Agency) Pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing approval of a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Arkansas through the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on August 8, 2022, clarified by DEQ on July 29, 2025, and further supplemented on May 4, 2026, to satisfy the requirements of the Act and the EPA’s Regional Haze Rule (RHR) for visibility protection in mandatory Class I Federal areas (Class I areas) for the program’s second implementation period. Arkansas’ SIP submission addresses the requirement that States must revise their long-term strategies for making reasonable progress to prevent any future and remedy any existing man-made visibility impairment in the Class I areas. The EPA is taking this action pursuant to CAA sections 110 and 169A.
Why this matters
Regional haze SIP approvals determine what emission controls states must impose on industrial sources (power plants, refineries, pulp mills) to restore natural visibility at national parks and wilderness areas by 2064. Arkansas’s second-period plan sets the state’s compliance trajectory and cost exposure for covered sources through 2028, and EPA’s approval forecloses federal-implementation-plan risk for now. The action is routine but adds to the accumulating record of how the second planning period is being implemented state-by-state.