The Department of Environmental Protection published notice in the February 15 PA Bulletin inviting comments on an analysis designating an Exceptional Event under the federal Clean Air Act related to Canadian wildfires in June and July 2023 and their impact on air quality in Pennsylvania.

The federal Clean Air Act allows states to designate Exceptional Events for handling air monitoring data due to events outside the normal planning and regulatory process.

A successful Exceptional Event declaration approved by EPA will mean DEP can essentially exclude the bad air days caused by wildfires from their analysis of whether Pennsylvania meets or exceeds air quality health standards.

This proposed analysis includes the impacts of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds from the wildfire in Quebec, Canada on June 6 to June 8, 2023 and June 28 to July 1, 2023.

The impacts from the 2023 Canadian wildfires had significant impacts on air quality in 2023.  Read more here.

DEP opened a previous comment period on this proposed designation in April 2024.  Read more here.

EPA has specific guidance on declaration of Exceptional Events for events caused by natural or uncontrollable events, like wildfires and the handling of air quality data from those events.

The last Exceptional Air Quality Event DEP documented was in November 2017 related to elevated ozone pollution concentrations originating from the upper Midwest in May 2016 that impacted ozone pollution readings in Pennsylvania.

Click Here for a copy of the analysis.

Comments are due March 17.  Comments may be submitted through DEP’s eComment webpage.  Questions should be directed to Sean Nolan at (717) 772-3377 or senolan@pa.gov.

Read the entire PA Bulletin notice for more information.

For more information on environmental programs in Pennsylvania, visit DEP’s website.  Submit Environmental Complaints; Click Here to sign up for DEP’s newsletter; sign up for DEP’s eNotice; Like DEP on Facebook, Follow DEP on Twitter and visit DEP’s YouTube Channel.

(Photo: Smokey haze in Harrisburg from Canadian wildfires in 2023, WITF.)

[Posted: February 14, 2025]

2/17/2025