EAST PENN manufacturing co., inc. 

Metals Division

P.O.BOX 147, DEKA ROAD ● LYON STATION, PA 19536-0147

PHONE: 610-682-6361 ● FAX 610-682-1038

EMAIL: EPMSMT@EASTPENN-DEKA.COM

August 30, 2013

Charles French

Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

109 T.W. Alexander Drive

Mail Code: D243-02

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

Dear Chuck,

I am writing with regard to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) pending 

administrative reconsideration of the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants 

(“NESHAP”) for secondary lead smelters, 77 Fed. Reg. 555 (Jan. 5, 2012). 

The purpose of the NESHAP requirement that smelters demonstrate the maintenance of negative 

pressure is to minimize the potential release of fugitive dust emissions. East Penn Manufacturing 

Company, Inc.’s (“East Penn”) has submitted a pending petition for an alternative standard, which 

it believes is the most environmentally-protective way that EPA could address the provisions 

regarding the demonstration of continuous negative pressure at its facility. Notwithstanding that 

petition, in response to your request that East Penn provide input on how best to clarify certain 

issues that are currently subject to administrative reconsideration, East Penn would like to 

propose the following regulatory language.

First, EPA should revise 40 C.F.R. § 63.544(c) to read as follows:

(c) You must construct and operate total enclosures for 

the sources listed in paragraph (a) of this section as 

specified in paragraphs (c)(1)–(3) of this section. The 

total enclosure must be free of significant cracks, gaps, 

corrosion or other deterioration that could cause lead 

bearing material to be released from the primary barrier. 

Measures must be in place to prevent the tracking of 

lead bearing material out of the unit by personnel or by 

equipment used in handling the material. An area must 

be designated to decontaminate equipment and any 

rinsate must be collected and properly managed.

(1) You must ventilate the total enclosure 

continuously to ensure negative pressure values of at 

least 0.013 mm of mercury (0.007 inches of water); or

(2) You must maintain an inward flow of air through 

all natural draft openings.
(3) Where one or more sources listed in paragraphs 

(a)(1) through (9) of this section are located in a building 

that meets the definition of a total enclosure under 

Section 63.542 or portion of a building that meets the 

definition of a total enclosure under Section 63.542, the 

requirements of paragraphs (c)(1) or (c)(2) shall be 

monitored pursuant to Section 63.548(k)(1) at only one 

(1) leeward, one (1) windward, and one (1) additional 

wall each.

This revised language contains two substantive revisions from the existing language at 40 C.F.R. 

§ 63.544(c): it adds the word “or” between subsections (c)(1) and (c)(2) and it clarifies that 

smelters that have numerous fugitive dust sources in a building or portion of a building need only

monitor the “big box” enclosed area, rather than each separate fugitive dust source.

With regard to the first of these changes, subsection (c)(1) is not consistent with the regulatory 

intent that continuous negative pressure be equivalent to 200 fpm of velocity.1 If negative 

pressure of 0.007 inches of water is continuously required for the enclosure then the natural draft 

openings should be at 0.007 inches of water since the measurement requirement is the pressure 

difference between ambient air and the pressure inside the enclosure. To measure the pressure 

differential essentially a natural draft opening is created through the monitor to measure and 

record either the pressure or the velocity of the air flow. Thus, it would seem that the intent now 

would be to add the word “or” between the two requirements.

With regard to the second of these changes, East Penn’s smelting operations have incorporated 

total enclosure and isolation units for decades. The design of the facility is to place the material 

storage area (the containment building for broken battery materials and lead bearing wastes 

destined for smelting) at the center of the operations since the operations of this material storage 

area present the greatest potential for fugitive emissions under normal operations. This design 

allows several important benefits to be achieved:

(a) the storage area can be isolated from the balance of the facility which eliminates 

traffic and tracking of materials from the storage area,

(b) the lead bearing materials can be mechanically conveyed into and out of the 

containment building,

(c) the material flow can incorporate both the feeding of materials directly to the 

furnace operations and the return of materials to the room for further processing by the furnace 

operations, and

(d) the area is better suited for enclosure, since the material storage area is under 

negative pressure and the areas surrounding it are also under negative pressure, thus serving as 

a dual barrier to fugitive emissions.

The processing operations, including the battery breaker, the furnace operations, and the 

refinery, surround the room. Since the areas have common walls, the potential exists when 

attempting to measure the negative pressure for results to be skewed by this design with different 

areas under negative pressure. Moreover, specific areas are ventilated through different control 

 

1

See Method 204 – Criteria for and Verification of a Permanent or Temporary Total Enclosure 

Section 8.3, “The FV shall be at least 3,600 m/hr (200 fpm). Alternatively, measure the pressure 

differential across the enclosure. A pressure drop of 0.013 mm Hg (0.007 in. H2O) corresponds 

to an FV of 3,600 m/hr (200 fpm)”.
devices. Within the East Penn facility different control devices are used to effectively ventilate 

different sources and different areas of operation.

The way that this works in practice is most easily demonstrated by the attached drawing of the 

smelter building. The areas that are required to be totally enclosed under the NESHAP are 

indicated and are surrounded by a bold black line, which signifies walls in the facility surrounding 

the areas that are under continuous negative pressure. This revision would ensure that East 

Penn need not employ what could be dozens of monitors total, but instead would employ three 

monitors total for this totally enclosed portion of the smelter building, one each at the windward, 

leeward, and additional walls.

Second, EPA should revise 40 C.F.R. § 63.547(k)(1)(III) to read as follows:

(iii) An additional wall that is not the windward or 

leeward wall.

The location for the third monitor should be simply a confirmation that the operation remains 

under negative pressure even if there is a substantial wind shift. Otherwise its redundancy is not 

required. The monitors’ readings are affected by friction losses in the external tubing and entry 

losses dependent upon the configuration. Thus, it can be very difficult to locate a monitor exactly 

on a midpoint or on a specific area of the enclosure. This third monitor should be able to be 

located at the discretion of the facility and subject to the specific configurations and layout of the 

facility.

Third, EPA should revise 40 C.F.R. § 63.547(k)(3) to read as follows:

(3) The digital differential pressure monitoring 

systems must be certified by the manufacturer to be 

capable of measuring and displaying negative pressure 

in the amount of 0.001 inches of water.

Accuracy of the monitors is dependent upon several issues, particularly temperature, since the 

measurement relates to the ideal gas law and the formula PV=nRT.

Where P is the pressure of the gas, V is the volume of the gas, 

n is the amount of substance of gas (also known as number of 

moles), T is the temperature of the gas and R is the ideal, or 

universal, gas constant.

Process Constant Known 

ratio P2 V2 T2

Isobaric 

process

Pressure

V2/V1 P2 = P1 V2 = V1(T2/T1) T2 = T1(V2/V1)

T2/T1 P2 = P1 V2 = V1(T2/T1) T2 = T1(T2/T1)

The location of the monitors and the effects of solar exposure and the temperature differential 

between ambient and indoor temperatures can have an effect upon the reading. East Penn has 

conducted an extensive evaluation with two different monitor types. One type measures 

differential pressure across a diaphragm, the other measures temperature via thermistors and 

converts velocity to differential pressure through an algorithm. Both of the monitors that East 

Penn has evaluated express their accuracy as a percent of span or a percentage of the reading. 

According to the suppliers, these numbers when converted express the differential pressure in 

increments of 0.001 inches of water.
Fourth, EPA should revise 40 C.F.R. § 63.547(k)(5) to read as follows:

(5) You must calibrate each digital differential 

pressure monitoring system in accordance with 

manufacturer’s specifications. You must not calibrate 

any digital differential pressure monitoring system that 

the manufacturer’s specifications state should not be 

calibrated.

The intent of this subsection is to ensure that all monitors are calibrated in accordance with 

manufacturer specifications, but both of the monitors that East Penn has evaluated do not 

recommend periodic maintenance or calibration.

* * *

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Richard A. Leiby

cc: Robert N. Steinwurtzel

Mark W. DeLaquil

Nathan Topham