The EPA announced Thursday that the air quality plan for Indian country lands within the Ute Tribe Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation has been finalized. The EPA’s plan, called a Federal Implementation Plan, will require enforceable controls on emissions from oil and natural gas facilities. Thursday’s release states that the “EPA’s Federal Implementation Plan will improve air quality by establishing emissions control requirements for oil and natural gas activities that contribute to high ozone concentrations in the Uinta Basin; establish regulatory requirements that are the same or consistent between Indian country and neighboring jurisdictions in the Basin; and secure air emissions reductions on the Indian country lands within the Reservation to ensure that new development of oil and natural gas sources will not interfere with the attainment of national air quality standards for ground-level ozone and other air pollutants.” The EPA outlines that the Federal Implementation Plan will be enforced by the EPA or by the Ute Indian Tribe if delegated to do so by the EPA.
