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New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 

Best Available Retrofit Technology Determination 

Facility Owens Corning Insulating Systems, LLC 

Location Bethlehem, NY 

Albany County 

Permit ID 4-0122-00004 

Source Category Glass Fiber Processing Plant 

I. Introduction 

The above referenced facility contains at least one emission source that falls under the 

requirements of the federal Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) rule under 40 CFR Part 

51 and Appendix Y, and the New York State BART regulation as codified under 6 NYCRR Part 

249. These requirements affect an emission source which fulfills the following criteria: 

1. Falls within one of 26 specific source categories, 

2. Was not in operation prior to August 7, 1962 and was in existence on August 7, 1977, or 

underwent reconstruction between August 7, 1962 and August 7, 1977, and 

3. Has a potential to emit (collectively, with other emission sources at the facility which 

fulfill items 1 and 2) of 250 tons per year or more of any visibility-impairing pollutant. 

Emission sources that are deemed eligible by the above criteria may be exempted by the BART 

analysis through several means, as follows: 

1. A permit condition may be accepted which restricts the eligible source’s potential to emit 

to less than 250 tons per year for each visibility-impairing pollutant, as per Part 

249.1(c)(1). 

2. A permit condition may be accepted that requires the source to permanently shut down 

the unit by January 1, 2014, as per Part 249.1(c)(2). 

3. The facility may show through modeling or other means acceptable to the Department 

that it does not or will not emit any combination of visibility-impairing pollutants that 

results in a visibility impairment equal to or greater than 0.1 deciviews in any federal 

Class I area, as per Part 249.1(c)(3). 

II. Proposed BART Compliance Method 

Owens Corning Insulating Systems submitted their BART compliance recommendation in a 

BART Modification Application dated September, 2010. The plant in question, located in Feura 

Bush, is a wool fiberglass insulation products manufacturing plant. Owens Corning and the 

Department had previously identified the units associated with the production process of 

manufacturing lines DM1 and DM2 as BART-eligible. These comprise the following emission 

units: 

• U-00002 – DM1 Oxy Fuel Furnace 

• U-00003 – DM1 Forming/Cooling 

• U-00012 – DM2 Oxy Fuel Furnace 
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• U-00013 – DM2 Mixing Chamber 

• U-00014 – DM2 Cooling Area 

Owens Corning has opted to accept conditions in its Title V permit to cap emissions of NOx, SO2

and PM10 from its BART-eligible units to below the 250 tpy threshold pursuant to Part 

249.1(c)(1), effectively eliminating the source from the third criterion of BART eligibility. For 

this reason Owens Corning was not required to submit a five-factor BART analysis for the Feura 

Bush plant to the Department. 

Compliance with these emission caps will be established based on emission calculations, 

performed on a monthly basis to determine the 12-month rolling summation of emissions of each 

visibility impairing pollutant. These emission calculations are defined in the modified permit. 

III. BART Determination 

The Department accepts Owens Corning’s proposal to cap the BART-eligible units at the Feura 

Bush plant to a collective 249 tons per year each for NOx, SO2, and PM10. The modified Title V 

permit was issued on May 18, 2012. The Department is submitting this permit to EPA to 

demonstrate that this facility is effectively removed from Part 249 applicability.