Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; State of Mississippi; Regional Haze State Implementation Plan

EPA is finalizing a limited approval of revisions to the Mississippi State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of Mississippi through the Mississippi Department of Environmental Management (MDEQ) on September 22, 2008, and May 9, 2011. Mississippi's SIP revisions address regional haze for the first implementation period. Specifically, these SIP revisions address the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and EPA's rules that require states to prevent any future and remedy any existing anthropogenic impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas (national parks and wilderness areas) caused by emissions of air pollutants from numerous sources located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the "regional haze program"). States are required to assure reasonable progress toward the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas. EPA is finalizing a limited approval of Mississippi's SIP revisions to implement the regional haze requirements for Mississippi on the basis that these SIP revisions, as a whole, strengthen the Mississippi SIP. In a separate action published on June 7, 2012, EPA finalized a limited disapproval of this same SIP revision because of the deficiencies in the State's regional haze SIP revision arising from the remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) to EPA of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR).