Serious State Implementation Plan News Today

The freeze won’t prevent agencies such as FAST Planning from spending the money it budgeted for its current projects, but it can’t make any changes or move funding around.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation will continue to be led by its current acting commissioner after Gov. Mike Dunleavy formally appointed her to the position, according to a news

The state plans to move as quickly as possible to revise and submit an amended air quality plan to avoid serious sanctions by the EPA.

The EPA in 2009 labeled the Fairbanks and North Pole area as a serious nonattainment area because of its winter-time fine particulate matter, largely caused by smoke from wood stoves

The Fairbanks North Star Borough was awarded a $10 million grant for air quality, along with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Michael Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, met with borough and city mayors, representatives from the local utilities, University of Alaska Fairbanks and military installations

The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly finance committee failed to award a bid contract to Anchorage-based Bethel Engineering and Consulting for air quality monitoring technician services in a split 4-4