DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 

=35 Frornenaue Streec, Providence, ?1 02908-5707 TDD 401-222_4462 

Aprii 20, L009 

Mr. Ira Leighton 

EPA Regional Administrator 

USEPA Region 1 

1 Congress Street, Suite 1100 

Boston, MA 02114-2023 

Dear Mr. Leighton: 

On March 11, 2005, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RI 

DEM), submitted a request to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that 

Rhode Island Air Pollution Control Regulation No . 36, "Control of Emissions from Organic 

Solvent Cleaning," be approved as a substitute for EPA's "National Emissions Standards for 

Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Halogenated Solvent Cleaning" (40 CFR Part 63, 

Subpart T) under the rule substitution provisions of 40 CFR Part 63, Subpart E, Section 63 .93 . 

On June 15, 2005, the EPA detennined that that submittal was complete. 

On October 9, 2007, the EPA issued a letter that stated that, although many of the 

requirements in Regulation No . 36 were more stringent than the federal requirements, EPA had 

1 ied areas where the RIDEM rule was or appeared to be less stringent than the i 'dent'f 

corresponding federal rule . In addition, the October 9, 2007 letter noted that the NESHAP for 

this source category had been amended on May 3, 2007 to include new facility-wide emissions 

limits and, to be approvable for rule substitution . Re-Lilation No. 36 must be 1s strin,ent as the 

federal requirements in all areas, including the new requirements in the amended NESHAP . 

In resnonse to EPA's letter. RI DEVt amended Regulation Nlo . 36 and the Rhode island 

Air Pollution Control "General Definitions Regulation :" these amendments were effective on 

October 9, 2008 . At the same time, Regulation No. 36 was additionally amended to incorporate 

provisions required to make the rule consistent with requirements in the Ozone Transport 

Commission's model rule for this source category and to address problems in the re(Yulation that 

had been identified by RI DEM staff and the regulated community. Attachment 1 provides a 

detailed explanation of how these amendments address the issues identified in EPA's October 9, 

2007 letter. Copies of markup versions of Regulation No . 36 and the General Definitions 

Re'ulation, showin- the 2008 amendments. are included in Attachment 2. 

;0''3 Inet-c,,n .umer tlhcr 
RI DEM is requesting that this submission be accepted as an amendment to the 2005 rule 

substitution request and that the EPA act to approve amended Regulation No. 36 as a substitute 

for the NESHAP as soon as possible . This request is particularly time sensitive because the 

facility-wide emissions limits in the amended NESHAP become effective on May 3, 2010 and 

EPA is requiring affected sources to begin recordkeeping in support of that requirement on May 

3, 2009 . Rhode Island's recordkeeping requirements for facilities with emissions that are less 

than 50% of the facility-wide emissions limits differ somewhat from those in the NESHAP. 

Since, according to our emissions inventory, all Rhode Island degreaser sources fall into that 

category, the NESHAP recordkeeping requirements will not be applicable to sources in the State 

once the substitution is approved. To avoid confusing these very small facilities, RI DEM does 

not plan to notify sources about the NESHAP recordkeeping requirements . Therefore, it is 

essential that this substitution request be processed as quickly as possible . 

If you have any questions regarding this submission or the provisions ot Regulation :'~o . 

36, please contact Barbara Morin at TO1-222-2808 ext. i012 . 

Doughy McVay 

Acting Chief 

Office of Air Resources 

Enclosure 

Cc : Barbara Morin, RIDEM 

Gina Friedman. RIDEM 

Susan Lancey, EPA Region 1 
Attachment 1 

RIDEhI Changes to Regulation 36 to Address EPA Concerns 

l . EPA stated that Regulation No . 36 must include the May 3, 2007 NESHAP amendments 

that set new facility- wide emission limits for " affected facilities" as defined by the rule . 

The October 9, 2008 amendments to Regulation No. 36 adopt the facility-wide emission 

limits in subsection 36.4 .17 and associated recordkeeping and reporting requirements in 

scctions 36.8-36.1111 . 

2 . EPA commented that section 36.9 .6 of Regulation No. 36 must be revised to state that, if 

a dwell or a superheated vapor system is used, the actual dwell time shall equal or exceed 

the minimum dwell time . This change was made as part of the 2008 amendments. 

3 . EPA commented that Regulation No. 36 does not include the NESHAP provisions 

applicable to continuous web cleaners . There are no continuous web cleaners currently 

operating in Rhode Island and RIDEM believes that the inclusion of requirements that are 

not applicable to Rhode Island sources would further complicate an already lengthy 

regulation . Any new continuous web cleaning operations would be required by Rhodc 

Island Air Pollution Control Regulation No 9, "Air Pollution Control Pen-nits," to obtain 

a preconstruction permit prior to installation . Under the provisions of subsection 9.3 .3 of 

Regulation No. 9, a preconstruction permit is issued only if the process is determined to 

employ Best Available Control Technology (BACT) and is in compliance with all 

applicable State and Federal requirements . It is our understanding that these 

requirements are consistent with EPA's current rule substitution procedures ; if EPA 

determines that this is not the case, RIDEM requests that the rule substitution approval be 

limited at this time to all degreasers except continuous web cleaners . 

4 . EPA commented that the definition of Potential to Emit (PTE) in the NESHAP must be 

added to the Rhode Island regulation because PTE is used to determine the applicability 

of the facility-wide emissions limits to a source . RI DE1VI addressed this concern by 

adding the NESHAP definition of PTE for organic solvent cleaners to the definition of 

"`potential to emit" or "potential emissions"' in the Rhode Island Air Pollution Control 

"General Definitions Regulation," which was amended concurrently with the 2008 

amendments of Regulation No. 36. Note that the General Definitions Regulition is 

referenced in section 36 .1 of Regulation No. 36 

5 . EPA commented that a definition of "open top area" should be added to Regulation No . 

36 . A definition for this term was added in the 2008 amendments as subsection 36 .1 .19. 

6 . EPA commented that all definitions in the NESHAP should be included in the Rhode 

Island regulation unless they are not necessary in the Rhode Island rule . Specifically, 

during the public comment period on the 2008 amendments to Regulation No. 36, EPA 

commented that a definition for the term "permanent total enclosure" should be included 

in the Rhode Island regulations . In response to the EPA comment, a definition for that 

term was added to the General Definitions Regulation. With this addition, definitions for 
all applicable terms defined in the NESHAP are included in Regulation No . 36 or the 

General Definitions Regulation . 

7 . EPA commented that all types of exceedances specified in sections 63.463(e)(3) and 

63.486(h) of the NESHAP should be similarly defined as exceedances in the Rhode 

Island regulation and that exceedance reports consistent with the requirements of those 

sections of the NESHAP should be required . RI DEM amended the reporting 

requirements in paragraphs 36.11 .3 (b)-(f) in response to this comment. 

With the those changes, the Rhode Island requirements for exceedance reports are the 

same as the NESHAP requirements, except that the NESH4P requires that exceedance 

reports be submitted every time a degreaser cover is open, except for parts entry and 

remov-i1 or is not in :)tace ~O1en parts are not in the solvent ;.leaning machine . RI DEM 

believes that is impractical to require facilities to file exceedance reports every time a 

cover is left open. However, paragraph 36.1 'U2(hj of Regulalion No . 36 requires records 

to be kept for five years of "the date and time of each incidence where a cover was not in 

place, as specified in 36.6 .1 and 36.7 .1 ." These records must be made available to the 

EPA and RI DEM on request. Such records fulfill the saine purpose as exceedance 

reports. 

8 . EPA commented that Section 63 .468(h) of the NESHAP requires semi-annual 

exceedance reports at a minimum and that the Rhode Island rule must specify the same 

minimum frequency. Regulation 36 was amended to include this provision in paragraph 

36.11 .3(d).