[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1633 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1633

  To establish a temporary prohibition against revising any national 
 ambient air quality standard applicable to coarse particulate matter, 
  to limit Federal regulation of nuisance dust in areas in which such 
  dust is regulated under State, tribal, or local law, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 15, 2011

    Mrs. Noem (for herself, Mr. Hurt, Mr. Boswell, and Mr. Kissell) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                          Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish a temporary prohibition against revising any national 
 ambient air quality standard applicable to coarse particulate matter, 
  to limit Federal regulation of nuisance dust in areas in which such 
  dust is regulated under State, tribal, or local law, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act 
of 2011''.

SEC. 2. TEMPORARY PROHIBITION AGAINST REVISING ANY NATIONAL AMBIENT AIR 
              QUALITY STANDARD APPLICABLE TO COARSE PARTICULATE MATTER.

    Before the date that is one year after the date of the enactment of 
this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency may 
not propose, finalize, implement, or enforce any regulation revising 
the national primary ambient air quality standard or the national 
secondary ambient air quality standard applicable to particulate matter 
with an aerodynamic diameter greater than 2.5 micrometers under section 
109 of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7409).

SEC. 3. NUISANCE DUST.

    Part A of title I of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 132. REGULATION OF NUISANCE DUST PRIMARILY BY STATE, TRIBAL, AND 
              LOCAL GOVERNMENTS.

    ``(a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), this Act 
does not apply to, and references in this Act to particulate matter are 
deemed to exclude, nuisance dust.
    ``(b) Exception.--Subsection (a) does not apply with respect to any 
geographic area in which nuisance dust is not regulated under State, 
tribal, or local law insofar as the Administrator finds that--
            ``(1) nuisance dust (or any subcategory of nuisance dust) 
        causes substantial adverse public health and welfare effects at 
        ambient concentrations; and
            ``(2) the benefits of applying standards and other 
        requirements of this Act to nuisance dust (or such subcategory 
        of nuisance dust) outweigh the costs (including local and 
        regional economic and employment impacts) of applying such 
        standards and other requirements to nuisance dust (or such 
        subcategory).
    ``(c) Definition.--In this section, the term `nuisance dust' means 
particulate matter--
            ``(1) generated from natural sources, unpaved roads, 
        agricultural activities, earth moving, or other activities 
        typically conducted in rural areas; or
            ``(2) consisting primarily of soil, other natural or 
        biological materials, windblown dust, or some combination 
        thereof.''.
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