Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. For the purpose of preventing, mitigating, or alleviating damage to the resources of the commonwealth or to the property or health of its citizens resulting from the deposition of precipitation, particles, or particulates containing sulfur or sulfur compounds, the department of environmental quality engineering, hereinafter referred to as the Department, shall by regulation adopt and implement a limitation on the total statewide actual annual sulfur dioxide emissions in accordance with the provisions of this act.

SECTION 2. Prior to March first, nineteen hundred and eighty-six and after notice and a public hearing, said department shall make a determination of the total statewide actual annual sulfur dioxide emissions, from all sources in Massachusetts, for the years nineteen hundred and seventy-nine to nineteen hundred and eighty-two, inclusive. Said department shall make this determination using such reasonably accurate and mathematically and scientifically appropriate methods as said department may find necessary.

SECTION 3. The department shall annually prepare an emissions report and shall make said report available to the public by July first or, in the year during which this act takes effect, as soon as practicable thereafter. Such report shall set forth the department's determination of the total statewide actual annual sulfur dioxide emissions of each of four calendar years, which shall be selected in accordance with the requirements of this section. The years selected shall be those in the 4-year period commencing January first of the year five years prior to the year in which the report is being prepared and ending December thirty-first of the year two years prior to the year in which said report is being prepared. The department's determination of emissions in these four years shall be arrived at using a reasonably accurate and mathematically and scientifically appropriate method not inconsistent with the method used to make the determination required by section two. The report shall also set forth the average of the levels of sulfur dioxide emissions for the four-year period described in this section.

SECTION 4. Prior to August first, nineteen hundred and eighty-six and in accordance with the provisions of chapter thirty A of the General Laws, said department shall adopt regulations prohibiting any four-year average set forth pursuant to section three from exceeding the average of total statewide actual annual sulfur dioxide emissions in the years nineteen hundred and seventy-nine to nineteen hundred and eighty-two, inclusive, as determined pursuant to section two. The regulations shall set forth a trigger level of sulfur dioxide emissions ten thousand tons lower than the average of total statewide actual annual sulfur dioxide emissions in the years nineteen hundred and seventy-nine to nineteen hundred and eighty-two, inclusive. The regulations shall require that if said trigger level is exceeded by the amount of annual emissions in the most recent year for which data have been reported pursuant to section three, then said department shall, after notice and a public hearing, prepare a reasonable forecast of what total statewide actual annual sulfur dioxide emissions will be five years from that time. Such forecast shall set forth an analysis of the reasons why the trigger was exceeded and whether the factors producing such excesses are of a temporary or long-term nature. Said department shall make a determination of whether the forecast demonstrates a reasonable likelihood that the four year average of emissions will exceed, within five years, the average of emissions for the years nineteen hundred and seventy-nine to nineteen hundred and eighty-two, inclusive. If said department determines that the forecast does demonstrate such a likelihood, said department shall adopt such further regulations as may be necessary to maintain or reduce the four year average of sulfur dioxide emissions, as calculated pursuant to section three, below the average of sulfur dioxide emissions for the years nineteen hundred and seventy-nine to nineteen hundred and eighty-two, inclusive.

SECTION 5. In the event that any four-year average of emissions, as set forth in section 3, exceeds the limitation set forth pursuant to section four, said department shall implement measures to achieve promptly, and to maintain, compliance with the limitation.

SECTION 6. On or before December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, said department shall determine whether any federal statute or program exists that requires national sulfur dioxide emissions to be reduced, by nineteen hundred and ninety-five, to a level that is ten million tons per year lower than the national sulfur dioxide emissions in nineteen hundred and eighty or a national plan that will protect the public health, welfare, and environment of Massachusetts. If said department determines that no such federal statute or program exists, the department shall draft regulations to reduce the average emission rate of all facilities in the state that burn fossil fuel and that have the capacity to burn fuel at a rate greater than or equal to one hundred million British thermal units of fuel input per hour. Such regulations shall require that the average emission rate of all such facilities in the commonwealth shall, by nineteen hundred and ninety-five, be less than or equal to one and two tenths pounds of sulfur dioxide released per million British thermal units of fuel input. Such regulations shall be promulgated prior to December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and eighty-eight. Said department shall commence and continue implementation and enforcement of such regulations beginning on January first, nineteen hundred and eighty-nine, unless a federal statute or program shall have been adopted by such time, which requires national sulfur dioxide emissions to be reduced, by nineteen hundred and ninety-five to a level that is ten million tons per year lower than the national sulfur dioxide emissions in nineteen hundred and eighty or a national plan that will protect the public health, welfare, and environment of Massachusetts.

SECTION 7. Said department may negotiate with representatives of other states and Canadian provinces with the aim of developing a regional program to reduce acidic deposition. If, prior to December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, the commonwealth shall have become a participant in regional program to reduce acidic deposition, the provisions of section six of this act shall be unenforceable. To be deemed a participant in a regional program, said department shall have reasonably determined that:

(i) the commonwealths' responsibilities in such program have been enacted or adopted as legally enforceable regulations, legislation, state implementation plan provisions, treaty provisions, or compact provisions; and (ii) every other state or province participating in the program has enacted, adopted, or agreed to its responsibilities in a manner making those responsibilities legally enforceable; and (iii) the clear and convincing weight of the available evidence shows that, by the year nineteen hundred and ninety-five, the implementation of the commonwealths' responsibilities under the regional program shall result in a cumulative reduction in acidic deposition in the commonwealth equal to or greater than the cumulative reduction in acidic deposition in the commonwealth that would be accomplished, by nineteen hundred and ninety-five, by implementation of the regulations set forth in section six; and (iv) if the regional program requires sources in the commonwealth to reduce their sulfur dioxide emissions, such reductions are required to commence by January first, nineteen hundred and eighty-nine and are required to continue in each subsequent year until all necessary reductions have been accomplished.

Prior to February fifteenth, nineteen hundred and ninety-one, said department shall determine whether the results of such regional program reasonably justify a conclusion that, by nineteen hundred and ninety-five, the implementation of the commonwealths' responsibilities under the regional program shall result in a cumulative reduction in acidic deposition in Massachusetts equal to or greater than the cumulative reduction in acidic deposition in the commonwealth that would be accomplished, by nineteen hundred and ninety-five, by implementation of regulations specified in section 6. Unless said department reasonably determines that such a conclusion is justified, said department shall, promptly after February fifteenth, nineteen hundred and ninety-one, adopt and implement regulations calculated to reduce the average emission rate of all facilities in the state that burn fossil fuel and that have the capacity to burn fuel at a rate greater than or equal to one hundred million British thermal units of fuel input per hour. The regulations shall require that the average emission rate of all such facilities in the state shall, by nineteen hundred and ninety-five, be less than or equal to one and two tenths pounds of sulfur dioxide released per million British thermal units of fuel input.

SECTION 8. As part of any regulations adopted pursuant to section four, six, or seven, said department shall promulgate regulations: (a) permitting the owner or operator of more than one sulfur dioxide emitting facility in Massachusetts to average the rate of sulfur dioxide emissions and/or the total annual sulfur dioxide emissions from such facilities in order to meet applicable emission requirements; (b) providing for the trading, selling or retaining for future use of actual emission reductions of sulfur dioxide beyond the requirements of any applicable law or regulation; and (c), which allow emission reduction techniques to reduce the demand for fossil fuel generated energy such as but not limited to conservation or hydro generation to receive full credit in the calculation of the statewide average emission rate. Said department may establish such reasonable conditions or restrictions as it deems necessary to meet the purpose of this act. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to reduce or revoke any responsibility of any person regulated hereunder to comply with all other applicable laws and regulations.

SECTION 9. It is the intent of the general court that all actual reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions made by the commonwealth facilities pursuant to sections six and seven shall be credited toward the commonwealth's share of sulfur dioxide emission reductions required by any national acid deposition control legislation enacted by the United States Congress or program implemented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency after the effective date of this act.

SECTION 10. Said department shall submit all regulations promulgated under the provisions of this act to the clerk of the house of representatives who shall forward such rules and regulations to the house and senate committees on ways and means and the committee on natural resources and agriculture for their review and comment ninety days prior to the effective date of said regulations. Said committees shall submit written comments and suggested changes, if any, to said department at least sixty days prior to said effective date. Said department shall consider the comments and suggested changes and submit revised regulations, or a detailed explanation of why the suggested changes will not be adopted, to the house and senate committees on ways and means at least thirty days prior to the effective date of the regulations.