ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Fifty-fifth Legislature

First Regular Session

HCR2036: clean air act; agriculture; exemption

Sponsor: Representative John, LD 4

Committee on Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs

Overview

Declares the Legislature’s support for an amendment to the Clean Air Act to exempt coarse crustal dust from agricultural operations.

History

The Clean Air Act requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for pollutants that are harmful to public health and environment (42 U.S.C. § 7409). NAAQS are divided into two types of standards:

· Primary standards protect public health, including sensitive populations such as those with asthma and the elderly; and

· Secondary standards provide public welfare protection, including damage to crops, vegetation and buildings.

The EPA has established NAAQS for six principal pollutants, including particulate matter that are inhalable particles with diameters that are generally 10 micrometers and smaller (PM-10) (40 Code of Federal Regulations § 50.6).

A state, federal land manager, or federal agency can request that the EPA Administrator exclude data showing exceedances or violations of an NAAQs that are due to an exceptional event by demonstrating that this event caused a specific air pollution concentration at a particular air quality monitoring location (40 Code of Federal Regulations § 50.14). Meteorological events involving high temperatures or lack of precipitation, including severe droughts, are not considered exceptional events, but these conditions may promote other types of exceptional events such as wildfires or high winds (40 Code of Federal Regulations § 50.1(j)).

Coarse crustal dust is covered in the PM-10 NAAQS.

Provisions

1. Declares the Legislature supports an amendment to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 to exempt coarse crustal dust from the normal agricultural production of feeding livestock and raising crops.

2. Directs the Secretary of State of the State to transmit this resolution to the President of the U.S. Senate, the Speaker of the U.S, House of Representatives, each Member of Congress from Arizona and each Speaker of the House of Representatives and each President of the Senate of the other state legislatures.

5. ---------- DOCUMENT FOOTER ---------

6. HCR 2036

7. Initials PAB Page 0 Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs

9. ---------- DOCUMENT FOOTER ---------