UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

REGION IX AIR DIVISION

Technical Support Document

for

EPA’s Direct Final Rulemaking

for the

California State Implementation Plan

Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, Rule 74.29, Soil Decontamination Operations

Prepared by: David Grounds

Reviewed by: Andrew Steckel

February 7, 2011
RULE IDENTIFICATION

Agency: Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (VCAPCD)

SIP Approved Rule: Rule 74.29 - Soil Decontamination Operations

Adopted – January 8, 2002

Submitted – March 15, 2002

EPA Approved – July 16, 2002 (67 FR 46596)

Subject of this TSD: Rule 74.29 - Soil Decontamination Operations

Adopted – April 8, 2008

Submitted - January 10, 2010

RULE SUMMARY – VCAPCD Rule 74.29, Soil Decontamination Operations, is a rule designed to 

establish procedures for the treatment of soil contaminated with gasoline, diesel fuel or jet 

fuel. Rule 74.29 establishes procedures by which reactive organic compound (ROC) emissions 

are minimized during the aeration, treatment or removal of soil. Rule 74.29 is being expanded 

to include requirements for the excavation, transportation, and handling of active and inactive 

contaminated soil sites. 

Treatment of contaminated soil usually involves bioremediation or vapor extraction. Usually, 

defective storage tanks (either underground of above ground) or defective piping cause the 

leaks. Bioremediation is the use of biological agents to degrade soil contaminants. Vapor 

extraction removes and routes contaminants from in-place or excavated soil using air injection 

and/or suction. VCAPCD projects that the revision to Rule 74.29 will reduce ROC emissions by 

approximately 50 tons per year (tpy).

VCAPCD regulates a serious 8-hour ozone non-attainment area, and VCAPCD designed Rule 

74.29 partly to address the requirements for ozone non-attainment areas as described in Clean 

Air Act (CAA) section 182.

Changes from the approved SIP rule include:

Revised rule to more uniformly address certified portable organic vapor analyzer (OVA)

measurements.

Added requirements for active and inactive storage, treatment and transportation of 

contaminated soil.

Added requirements for truck transport of contaminated soil.

Reduced an aeration exemption threshold from 10 cubic yards to 1 cubic yard of 

contaminated soil.
Reduced an aeration exemption for spill/release threshold from 55 gallons to 5 gallons.

Expanded recordkeeping requirements.

Added several definitions for clarity.

EPA EVALUATION CRITERIA –

1. Enforceability – Section 110(a)(2)(A) of the CAA requires that regulations submitted to 

EPA for incorporation into the SIP must be clear and legally enforceable.

2. Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) (CAA §182) – VCAPCD believes that 

there are currently no major sources (50 tpy) in operation in VCAPCD that would require 

RACT implementation. There is no national guidance (CTG or ACT) or regulation (NSPS, 

NESHAP, or MACT) to help define RACT for this category. The lack of relevant national 

guidance or regulation suggests that EPA believes state/local regulations for the activity 

are generally appropriate.

3. SIP Relaxation – Where previous versions of rules have been SIP approved, new 

submittals must comply with CAA §110(l) and §193 regarding SIP relaxations. 

EPA EVALUATION - The submitted VCAPCD Rule 74.29 is more stringent than the approved SIP,

largely due to the lowered aeration emission thresholds for spills and contaminated soil cubic 

yardage. The SIP submittal generally contains sufficient testing and recordkeeping requirements 

to satisfy enforcement requirements. The stringency of requirements in submitted Rule 74.29 is 

also generally consistent with relevant guidance and analogous rules in other areas. While RACT 

may not be required for this source category, we believe that Rule 74.29 would generally 

implement RACT. 

RULE DEFICIENCIES – We have identified no deficiencies with Rule 74.29 sufficient for EPA to 

propose less than full approval.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE NEXT RULE REVISION – The following revisions are not 

currently the basis for rule disapproval, but are recommended for the next time the rule is 

amended.

In Sections B.3 and B.4, we recommend the organic vapor analyzer should be calibrated 

with hexane or correlated to and expressed as hexane, and comply with 40 CFR Part 60 

Appendix A, EPA Method 21, “Determination of Volatile Organic Compound Leaks.” See 

for example South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) Rule 1166, Section 

e(1)(A) and Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) Regulation 8, Rule 40, 

Section 604.
In Section C, we recommend removing the blanket exemption for leaking agricultural 

tanks. We are not aware of a similar exemption in SCAQMD Rule 1166, San Joaquin 

Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District (SJVUAPCD) Rule 4651, or BAAQMD

Regulation 8, Rule 40. Also, we are not aware of any technical, economic or 

environmental basis for treating leaking tanks at agricultural facilities differently than 

identical tanks at other facilities. We note VCAPCD’s mitigation cost effectiveness

estimates of $0.70/lb ROC seem relatively low and would seem to apply to leaking 

agricultural tanks. Therefore, we strongly encourage VCAPCD to remove or restrict this 

exemption in the near future. However, we do not believe it is appropriate to 

disapprove the rule on this basis at this time for reasons including: (a) we recently 

approved VCAPCD’s RACT SIP (EPA-R09-OAR-0863, 12/12/08), (b) we did not address 

this issue in our actions on previous versions of this rule, (c) VCAPCD believes emissions 

from leaking tanks at agricultural sites are addressed by other requirements (VCAPCD 

Final Staff Report, February 29, 2008), and (d) there are no major sources (50 tpy) for 

this source category.

In Section F.2, the 0.08 lb/hr threshold should relate to Subsection B.3.

EPA ACTION – Rule 74.29 largely fulfills the relevant CAA §110 and part D requirements. EPA 

staff recommends full approval of Rule 74.29 pursuant to CAA §110(k)(3) and §301(a).

REFERENCES –

VCAPCD Rule 74.29, “Soil Decontamination Operations,” submitted January 10, 2010.

VCAPCD Final Staff Report, February 29, 2008.

VCAPCD Rule 74.29, “Soil Decontamination Operations,” SIP approved July 16, 2002.

SCAQMD, Rule 1166, “Volatile Organic Compound Emission from Decontamination of 

Soil.”

BAAQMD, Regulation 8, Rule 40, “Aeration of Contaminated Soil and Removal of 

Underground Storage Tanks.”

SJVUAPCD, Rule 4651, “Soil Decontamination Operations.”