Agenda Date: September 20 , 2010 Agenda Placement: Regular

Estimated Time: 10 min

Continued Item: Yes



# Board Agenda Item

TO: Air Pollution Control District Board

FROM: Terry E. Dressler , Air Pollution Control Officer

CONTACT: Doug las Grapple, 961

- 8883 (grappled@sbcapcd.org)

SUBJECT: Negative Declaration in Lieu of Rules to Adopt Certain Federal Regulations on

Emission Guidelines for Existing Sources

RECOMMENDATION:

That the Board:

A. Hold a public hearing to receive testimony on t he negative declaration in lieu of rules to adopt certain federal regulations on emission guidelines and compliance times for various existing sources and the CEQA findings for the negative declaration in lieu of rules

.

B. Approve the Resolution which fol lows this B oard L etter. Approval of the resolution will result in the following actions:

1. CEQA Findings : Adopt the CEQA findings (Attachment 1) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the CEQA guidelines.

2. Negative Declaration in Lieu of Rules and Negative Declaration Findings : Adopt the negative declaration in lieu of rules and the negative declaration findings (Attachment 2) pursuant to Health and Safety Code Section 40727 regarding necessity, authority, clarity, consistency, no nduplication, and reference. The negative declaration findings also acknowledge public comments on the negative declaration and adopt s the responses to public comments as findings of the Board (See Attachment 3).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The federal Clean Air Act (CAA) requires a State Plan that establish es standards of performance for

certain existing sources that would be subject to a New Source Performance Standard if such existing sources were new sources

. Local air agencies adopt the se types of performan ce standards

as rules . However, i f there are no existing sources in an air district that are subject to a specific performance standard , then there is no need to adopt a rule. T he U.S.EPA allows an air agency to2

certify that there are no sources in its a rea subject to a specific performance standard to confirm that

there is no need to adopt a rule for it

. This Board action certifies and declares that the re are no designated facilities located in Santa Barbara County for seven federal standards of perform ance

.

DISCUSSION:

Objective :

The goal of this rulemaking action is to obtain Board approval of a “ negative declaration in lieu of

rules ” and other associated findings thr ough a public hearing process

. Adoption of the negative

declaration and the asso ciated findings will allow the District to request that the U.S.EPA update the County portion of the California State Plan to make it current.

Background :

Consistent with CAA section 111(d)(1), the U.S.EPA establishes standards of performance for

cert ain existing sources that would be subject to a New Source Performance Standard if such

sources were new sources . These standards of performance are referred to as “ Emission

Guidelines” (Guidelines). The District has adopted by reference many of Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) , Part 60, standards that apply to new sources through the adoption of Rule 901, New Source Performance Standards (NSPS). However, t he Guidelines shown in Table 1 for existing sources cannot be adopted by reference since the referenced 40 CFR Part 60 subparts do

no t contain direct requirements on existin g sources

.

Table 1. TITLE 40 CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS, PART 60,

SUBPARTS THAT INCLUDE EMISSIONS GUIDELINES AND

COMPLIANCE TIMES FOR EXISTING SOURCES

CFR Subpart S ubpart Title [Section the Subpart Commences with]

Subpart Cb Emissions Guidelines and Compliance Times for Large Municipal

Waste Combustors That Are Constructed on or Before September 20,

1994 [60.30b]

Subpart Cc Emissions Guidelines and Compliance Time s for Municipal Solid

Waste Landfills [60.30c] {District Rule 341 incorporates these requirements}

Subpart Cd Emissions Guidelines and Compliance Times for Sulfuric Acid

Production Units [60.30d] 1

1 Subpart Cd applies to existing sulfuric acid production units that commenced construction or modification before August 17, 1971. Furthe r, Subpart H [40 CFR 60.80 et seq.] applies to any sulfuric acid production unit that commenced construction or modification after August 17, 1971.3 Table 1. (Cont.)

CFR Subpart Subpart Title [Section the Subpart Commences with]

Subpart Ce Emissions Guidelines and Compliance Times for

Hospital/Medical/Infectious Waste Incinerators [60.30e] 1

Subpart BBBB Emission Guidelines and Compliance Times for Small Municipal

Waste Combustion Units Constructed on or Before August 30, 1999 [60.1500]

Subpart DDDD Emission Guidelines and Compliance Times for Commercial and

Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units Constructed on or Before November 30, 1999 [60.2500]

Subpart FFFF Emission Guidelines and Compliance Times for Other Solid Waste

Incineration Units Constructed After December 9, 2004 [60.2980]

Subpart HHHH Emission Guidelines and Compliance Times for Coal

- Fired Electric

Steam Generating Units [60.4101] 2

To ensure that the Guidelines are implemented, th e U.S.EPA requires each state to prepare and

submit a State Plan

. Generally, the local agency will adopt a Guideline as a rule and submit the rule

to the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to fulfill this requirement . If the ARB finds the rule

suitable , they will submit it to EPA, on the local agency’s behalf

, with a request that it be

considered for inclusion in the State Plan.

For the one Guideline that applies to sources in the Santa Barbara County area (40 CFR Part 60 Subpart Cc), t he District inte grate d the requirement s into the Santa Barbara County portion of the

California State Plan by adopting Rule 341, Municipal Solid Waste Landfills

. The U.S. EPA approved the District’s Rule 341 into the California State Plan (reference 67 FR 54739 , dated Sep tember 23, 1999 ).

For the other seven 40 CFR Part 60 Subpart Guidelines shown in Table 1 , there are no sources in

Santa Barbara County that are subject to them

. T he District is making a “negative declaration in

lieu of rules” on those Guidelines, which will be submitted to ARB for consideration of inclusion

into the State Plan. 3

1 Subpart Ce applies to existing hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerators for which construction or mo dification was commenced on or before June 20, 1996. Further, Subpart Ec [40CFR 60.50c] applies to any hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerators for which construction is commenced after June 20, 1996.

2 Subpart HHHH establishes a model rule for the State mercury Budget Trading Program. There are no dates associated with the applicability of Subpart HHHH.

3 Provisions in 40 CFR Part 60, Subpart B, Adoption and Submittal of State Plans for Designated Facilities, section 60.23(b), indicate that if ther e are no sources subject to a Guideline in a state, then the state will submit a letter of certification to that effect to the U.S.EPA within 9 months of the publication of the final Guideline in the Federal Register. The District is unable to confirm tha t such a letter of certification was submitted to the U.S.EPA in a timely manner for the seven Guidelines listed in the negative declaration (Attachment 2). Hence, the District intends to submit the negative declaration as an alternative to a letter of ce rtification to confirm that there are no designated facilities in Santa Barbara County subject to the specified seven Guidelines.4

The District is performing this negative declaration in lieu of rules consistent with the U.S.EPA policy on negative declarations associated with the CAA section s 110(a)(2) a nd 110(l). 1 Although those sections are relative to State Implementation Plan (SIP) submittals, section 111(d)(1) of the

CAA indicates that the Administrator shall prescribe regulations which shall establish a procedure

similar to tha t provided by section 110. It is t he District ’s understanding that negative declarations

in lieu of rules relative to section 111(d)(1) are to undergo the same public noticing and a public hearing process that a rule adoption undertakes

.

Implications to the Regulated Comm unity :

The District is unaware of any sources that are subject to the 40 CFR Part 60, Subparts Cb, Cd, Ce, BBBB, DDDD, FFFF, and HHHH. Thus, there are no known sources that are affected by those Guidelines or the “negative declaration in lieu of rules.”

Investigation Findings and Staff Recommendation s :

The District has reviewed its permit files and the emission inventory and has determined that there

are no designated facilities in the source categories shown in the Table 1 except for Subpart Cc (which is covered by Rule 341)

. Staff recommends that the Board adopt the negative declaration in

lieu of rules , the negative declaration findings , and the CEQA findings

.

Implications to the Air Pollution Control District Workl oad and Budget :

The District ex pects there will be no workload or fiscal impacts to the Air Pollution Control District from the adoption of the negative declaration in lieu of rules and the filing of the negative

declaration with the California Air Resources Board. The alternative cour se of adopting rules would incur significant expense.

Public Review :

On June 14, 2010, the District posted on its website a Project Description Summary of the negative declaration. Besides explaining the project and its effects , the summary mentioned t he upcoming July 14, 2010 Community Advisory Council (CAC) meeting, and invited comments on the project to be submitted before the CAC meeting. The regulated industry and the public have also been provided an opportunity to submit written comments during the comment period (July 18 to August

14 , 2010) before the August 19, 2010 Board hearing.

1 The U.S.EPA policy on negative declarations indicates that a negative declaration must go through the same public review req uirements as any other SIP submittal because

, while the negative declaration itself is not specifically required by the CAA, it is replacing a required program element. Therefore, the negative declaration would be subject to the same administrative proced ures as any other SIP submittal.5

California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) :

The District has reviewed the proposed negative declaration in lieu of rules and determined that the action has no pot ential for significant environmental effect pursuant to § 153061(b)(3) of the CEQA

Guidelines . Accordingly, the District has prepared CEQA Findings (Attachment 1) and will file a Notice of Exemption with the County Clerk following approval by the Air Poll ution Control

District Board.

Concurrences :

County Counsel has reviewed this Board Letter and its attachments and approves them as to form.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:

After adoption by the Board, please have the Board Chair sign the attached resolution and return a

copy of the resolution along with a copy of the minute order to Douglas Grapple of the Air

Pollution Control District.

Attachments

Resolution

Attachment 1

- CEQA Findings

Attachment 2

- Negative Declaration in Lieu of Rules to Adopt Certai n Federal Emission

Guidelines and Negative Declaration Findings

Attachment 3

- Public Comments and Responses to Public Comments