Best Available Retrofit Technology

Washington State Department of Ecology

AIR QUALITY

BART (Best Available Retrofit Technology)

Reducing Emissions That Cause or Contribute to Haze

The federal government has directed states to reduce regional haze. Air pollutants that cause or contribute to haze include fine particles, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. To reduce emissions of these pollutants, Washington is required to develop a State Implementation Plan (SIP). A SIP is a statewide plan for meeting air quality standards. As part of the SIP, Ecology plans to reduce emissions through Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART). For more information about regional haze and the Regional Haze SIP, visit Ecology's Regional Haze web page.

Many of the pollutants that cause or contribute to haze come from industrial facilities. One of the tools used to reduce these emissions is the BART program. BART is used for emission units that never met current emission limits, because they were in use before those limits became effective. BART means the existing equipment is updated with technology to reduce emissions as much as possible. To be selected as BART, a control technology must be available, technically feasible, cost effective, and improve visibility. It must also have a low chance of causing any other negative environmental effects. Sources must meet BART requirements if they:

belong to any of 26 specified industrial source categories;
began operating or received a permit between August 7, 1962 to August 7, 1977;
have potential to emit more than 250 tons a year of one or more pollutants that harm visibility; or
cause or contribute to reduced visibility in at least one federal Class 1 area. (A Class 1 area is a national park, wilderness area, or monument that receives special air quality protection.)

Seven air pollution sources in Washington are eligible for BART controls. Ecology drafted BART technical support documents and compliance orders for these seven sources:

BP Cherry Point Refinery in Whatcom County
Intalco Works Aluminum Smelter in Whatcom County
Lafarge Cement Plant in Seattle
Port Townsend Paper Corporation Mill
Tesoro Refinery in Skagit County
TransAlta Power Plant in Centralia
Weyerhaeuser Corporation Paper Mill in Longview

In October 2009, Ecology held public hearings and accepted public comments on BART for six of the sources listed above. See Ecology's response to comments on these six sources.

Ecology addressed BART for TransAlta through a separate process. Get more information about TransAlta.

Final BART decision documents were posted on this page on August 17, 2010.

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