The decision comes after the recent wildfires in Los Angeles caused catastrophic damage to residents and businesses.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking action to minimize wildfire risk across the country, seeking to ensure that fire-prone areas are not disadvantaged due to stringent regulations that thwart wildfire prevention efforts.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin asked staff to “revisit the Obama-Biden Administration’s Exceptional Events rulemaking and prioritize the allowance of prescribed fires within State and Tribal Implementation Plans,” the agency said in a March 12 statement. The exceptional events rule is related to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).
NAAQS defines the maximum allowable concentration of pollutants in outdoor air. States and tribal localities develop air quality implementation plans that help them attain or maintain NAAQS standards. However, events such as wildfires and volcanic eruptions can end up worsening air quality and push states and tribal areas into violating NAAQS through no fault of their own.
The exceptional events rule helps deal with the issue. Under the rule, events deemed to be exceptions, such as wildfires and prescribed fires, may not be taken into consideration when assessing whether states or tribal localities are in violation of NAAQS air quality standards.
Prescribed fires, also known as controlled burns, refer to applying fire in a planned manner to reduce flammable fuels in the region, which in turn lowers the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
However, there are “unnecessary burdens” related to the exceptional events rule and other regulations that pose challenges when it comes to implementing prescribed fire plans, the EPA suggested in the recent statement. The latest directive is aimed at dealing with the issue.
Revisiting such rulemaking “will ensure that EPA doesn’t get in the way of making preventative efforts like prescribed burns easier to protect communities,” said Zeldin.
From now on, when EPA reviews air quality plans, the agency will seek to ensure they can “use prescribed fires to properly manage their forests, without being unfairly penalized when it comes to assessing their air quality,” according to the statement.
Zeldin has instructed the EPA Office of Air and Radiation to set up meetings with state and tribal air agencies as well as other authorities to “evaluate ways to ease unnecessary burdens that prevent prescribed fires,” EPA said.
The announcement comes following the destructive fires in Los Angeles that decimated over 16,000 homes and buildings.
