(1) Any visibility impairment reasonable attribution study pertaining to class I areas shall be subject to balanced peer review by a panel including scientists with appropriate expertise who do not have any substantive involvement with any party, shall be site-specific with respect to any suspected source of impairment and to any impacted area, shall be conducted under the oversight of the division, including, but not limited to, determination of deadlines for such study, and shall utilize study design and data collection and analytical techniques, including, but not limited to, contemporaneous ambient air quality, visibility, and meteorological sampling that allows correlation of the data relevant to any such study. With the exception of emissions from agricultural, horticultural, or floricultural activities that are exempted under section 25-7-109 (8), relevant data shall include a reasonable assessment of the contributions of emissions from reasonably identifiable sources, including natural sources, within the state and region. Any remedy selection must include relevant economic impact data. In order to minimize delay in the process, the study shall proceed as expeditiously as sound science will allow. The cost of any such study shall not be required to be paid by the department of public health and environment.

(2) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section, as amended by House Bill 05-1180, as enacted at the first regular session of the sixty-fifth general assembly, shall be construed as changing the property tax classification of property owned by a horticultural or floricultural operation.