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Key Discussion Points from NESCAUM/WESTAR/States Meeting—October 23-24, 2012

Participants:

Lisa Rector, NESCAUM

Dan Johnson, WESTAR

John Barnes, New York DEC

Louis Fontaine, Maine DEP

Lisa Herschberger, Minnesota PCA

Rachel Sakata, Oregon DEQ

Rod Tinnemore, Washington DOE

Amanda Aldridge, EPA

Larry Brockman, EPA

David Cole, EPA

Jason DeWees, EPA

John Dupree, EPA

Chebryll Edwards, EPA

Greg Green, EPA

Roy Huntley, EPA

Robin Segal, EPA

Larry Sorrels, EPA

Mike Toney, EPA

Gil Wood, EPA

Bill Huang, EC/R

Beth Friedman, EC/R

Graham Fitzsimons, EC/R

Minneapolis, MN Meeting

 Will try to bring in different points of views.

 90 attendees from all stakeholders.

State Needs [Note: Unless specified otherwise, all items in this summary are presented from 

the NESCAUM/WESTAR/States’ viewpoints and may or may not represent EPA’s views.]

 States want a stringent rule, but more importantly, need EPA to expedite completion of 

this rulemaking.

o EPA stated the original proposal package cleared OAR and OP, but was refused 

by OMB. The new goal is to get a proposal that OMB will accept. 

 Revision to the standard is 16 years overdue and the current rule does not reflect the 

requirements in the Clean Air Act (CAA) for a NSPS. Furthermore, states need a federal 

regulation to address changes in the marketplace and continuing airshed issues from this 

source category. The rule needs mechanisms to making it easier to revise the rule in the 

future.

o EPA is trying to figure out the best way to get it done, and with something states 

can get behind.

o EPA stated that looking at cost effectiveness ($/ton) is always an important

parameter.

 The type of reductions needed depends on a variety of issues.

 EPA should adopt standards consistent with a rigorous application of the statutory

requirements of NSPS to move the industry toward designing and building the cleanest 

burning devices. 

 EPA should re-visit their economic analysis to ensure appropriate analysis for consumer 

products application.

Form of the Standard

Issues

 States are concerned about units defining themselves out of the regulatory process.

o The rule needs to have broad enough definitions of devices to avoid loopholes.
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 States want to ensure a level playing field for similar device types.

 The rule needs to ensure that units, regardless of size, do not create local exposure issues 

hence the need for all devices to have a g/hr standard.

States Recommendations

 EPA should compress emissions standards into three categories: room heaters, central 

heating devices and thermal storage devices.

o Room heaters would include indoor woodstoves both catalytic and non-catalytic, 

single burn rate stoves, and pellet stoves.

o Central heating devices would include hydronic heaters, boilers, and furnaces.

o Thermal storage devices (both full and partial storage units) would include central 

heaters with hot water storage and masonry heaters.

 The recommend metric for each category:

o Room heaters – gram per hour standard

o Central heating devices – heat output standard and mass over time standard

o Thermal storage devices – heat output standard and mass over time standard

Level of Standard

PM

 The preferable and the best option for environmental performance would be to set a 

stringent emission standard at the level of the best performing units, but the hurdle may

be too high.

 The second option is, within the NSPS categories, to create “bins” to tier best performing 

units.

o There is an overall support for the “bin” concept from EPA and states.

o Binning would be in place upon promulgation. The states would want Bin 1, the 

lowest, to eventually go away.

 EPA stated that Bin 1 can’t go away for wood stoves based on the current 

cost analysis.

o Bin 1 represents the status quo consistent with Washington (WA) standards and 

the majority of wood stove models (<4.0 g/hr). Bin 2 reflects the average 

emission rates for the top 50% best performing units (<2.5 g/hr). Bin 3 reflects 

the average emission rates for the top 12% best performing units (<1.3 g/hr). 

o The states recognized the need for lower cost/ton if one were to phase out Bin 1 

for woodstoves.

o The states noted that they are still working to identify emission limit for units 

with storage devices.

o States believe that Binning would promote and incentivize the development and 

sale of advanced technologies in the near-term, and accommodate a smooth 

transition to cleaner burning units by allowing manufacturers to continue to sell 

most current technology devices for a period of time while they design for the 

future.

o In general states prefer tighter emission limits even if it means slightly longer 

compliance deadlines. 
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CO 

 NESCAUM will develop CO AERMOD analysis for other device types in addition to the 

analyses they presented for hydronic heaters.

 EPA says that industry says there is not enough data to justify setting a weighted average 

CO level.

o EPA agreed that the proposal should require CO testing and reporting for each 

certification test.

o States pointed out that Europe has had a CO standard at max burn rate for a long 

time without a separate type of test method.

 States believe EPA needs to identify potential CO limits at least for Category 4 burn rate.

o They believe PM does not always correlate to CO.

 States suggested that CO could be added to existing LADCO mobile emissions sampling 

units.

Efficiency

 States want more specificity with regards to necessary elements with CSA B415 for 

efficiency testing.

 Greg Green will set up a meeting with OAP to discuss DOE contacts for potentially

conducting tests to support wood boilers/furnaces efficiency standards.

Economic Analysis

Key Issues

 What is the incremental cost/ton for emission limits to support an NSPS at tighter than 

the Washington state standards?

o EPA stated the acceptable national number for PM would likely need to be less 

than $10,000/ton, but $3,000/ton would be very good.

Items to Investigate

 Incremental cost of new models rather than full start up.

 Analysis of extending compliance time for more stringent standard.

 Co-benefit analysis

Outstanding Issues

 Analysis of cost benefit from other pollutants

o Since EPA thought PM cost/ton was high, states want to know what is the 

cost/ton of PAH, CO, NOx, VOC and other pollutants, and if any of these are 

reasonable to move forward with.

o States also want EPA to consider risk reduction and the sum of total pollutant 

reduction.

o States would also like to see a discussion of the added benefits to local 

communities where wood smoke is a problem.

 Control technologies for wood stoves and hydronic heaters

o Cost of add-on catalyst technology (e.g., clearstak/clearskies)

o Lisa Rector will reach out to European manufacturers for use and costs of 

residential ESPs

 EPA will reach out to retrofit catalyst folks.
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New Test Procedure

Short Term Strategies

 If states can write a new procedure by the end of the year, EPA promised to consider 

including it in this NSPS (likelihood of states meeting this date is low).

 EPA noted that there is authority for manufacturers to request alternative test methods for 

units that cannot use Method 28.

 EPA has precedents of allowing the use of Method 301 procedures for new technologies 

and methods (but this would have to show equivalence with the test methods and 

associated emission limits).

 EPA noted that there could be potential for Bins 2 and 3 to have different test methods in 

addition to different emission limits. 

Long Term Strategies

 Develop for next rulemaking or use by states or petition to use in lieu.

 States prefer to add measures to increase precision of current method (e.g., 3 replicate test 

runs), though this is not necessary for this rule.

 States are interested in developing a stakeholder process to create a new method, but they

not supportive of using the ASTM process.

Key Focus Areas for Improving Test Procedures 

 Move to the use of cordwood as soon as practical.

 Standardize fuel for testing with a standardized density range

 Improve standardization of test operation protocols to challenge units under normal 

operating conditions and reasonable worst case conditions.

 Need to ensure that the method has flexibility to allow testing of new technologies, 

including oxygen sensors and other devices.

 Accurate measurement of semi-volatiles with losses minimized to the greatest extent 

possible.

 Emission rates for start up, steady state and shutdown periods.

 Multiple runs at the same level rather than data for only one run from multiple categories.

Existing Test Procedure

 Goal of State Recommendations

o Improve precision of the test.

o Limit opportunities to “game” the test and increase precision.

o Eliminate elements (and associated costs) that do not add value.

o Characterize maximum emission rate.

 Areas of Improvement

o Fuel

o Device operation

o Measurement method

o Efficiency testing
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Fuel

Issues

 States sense that for many devices current charge is a partial charge.

 Fuel type and specifically density is a critical parameter to ensure precision – wide 

variability in density can have substantial impact on emission outcome

States’ Recommendations

 Move to density range within the species required by the method. If this requirement 

would change the basis for emission levels then at a minimum density measurements 

should be recorded and reported.

 Tighten weight range per Paul Tieg’s recommendation to less than 10%.

o EPA stated that a lot of Paul Tieg’s recommendations are already in the current draft.

 Provide the option to determine fuel as a percentage of firebox volume.

 Investigate ways to use cord and crib in this method.

o EPA suggested that perhaps manufacturers be allowed the choice to test with either 

fuel for entry via bin 1, but must use cordwood and meet the standard for bin 2/3 

designations.

Device Operation

Issues

 Start-up times provide an opportunity to “tinker.”

 Variation in coal bed can have a significant impact on emission outcome and reducing 

coal bed variation will increase precision.

 Category 2 and 3 burns add cost and do not add value in terms of characterizing 

maximum emission rates.

States’ Recommendations

 Limit the start up time based on Paul Tieg’s recommendations.

 Tighten the range of the coal bed to +-1 %.

 Eliminate category 2 and 3 burn categories and move to only require category 1 and 4 

(with at least 70% of the weighting applied to category 1).

 Replicate testing (2 additional runs in whichever category is higher or perhaps category 1 

TBD from workgroup).

 No averaging of categories – set emission standard by burn category.

Measurement

Issue

 Lack of precision due to particulate loss due to filter handling and measurement practices.

 Lack of methods to control semi-volatile loss penalizes cleaner units.

States’ Recommendations

 Require that filters be pulled every 60 minutes. These filters should be measured and 

reported independently for all devices tested.

 Require that filters weight measures for all devices be reported 12 hr, 24 hr, 48 hr and 

equilibration.
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 Move to micro-balance, as needed, if filter weights become low.

Efficiency Testing

Clarify type of testing expected

 Overall

 Combustion

 Delivered

 Tighten language and specifications for efficiency testing to ensure consistent 

measurement of delivered efficiency.

Compliance and Enforcement Issues

 Third party certification – States support independent third party testing and test review, 

but are concerned about the independence of companies hired directly by the 

manufacturers.

o EPA noted that they will investigate developing and using a CRADA to create a wall 

between manufacturers and test reviews.

 Develop a process to capture data from failed tests.

 Define appropriate holding time for units upon completion of testing.

o EPA and States agreed that tested units don’t need to be held forever (maybe pulled 

off in a year); but, states want better documentation of the test settings.

 Preference for EPA to have stronger field presence.

 States and EPA discussed the opportunity for some portions of the rule to be delegated to 

states.

Existing Stoves

 Deteriorating units – How long after a unit is sold, should they keep working as normal?

 States suggested a service contract and audit every 2 years to check that everything is 

clean.

 An analogy was made to cars:

o Cars have a warranty from the manufacturer for a certain amount of time to cover 

anything that doesn’t come out clean. Suggested something similar could be done for 

wood stoves.

o EPA agreed that manufacturers shouldn’t be off the hook if something goes wrong 

down the road, so it’s not just on the dealer.

o Some manufacturers have argued that there is no connection between manufacturers

and retailers after a unit is out; there needs to be a check for retailers.

Top Priorities for States and EPA

 Lisa Rector, NESCAUM- Getting the three “bins” concept through.

 Lisa Herschberger, Minnesota PCA- Need to be able to show states how big of a problem 

this is compared to other source categories; shorter filter times, get visible emissions 

standard in future.

 Rachel Sakata, Oregon DEQ- Developing a rule for outdoor wood boilers; binning 

concept; pushing to go past Washington’s standards.
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 Rod Tinnemore, Washington DOE- Binning process; Washington still has non-attainment 

areas; field use and test; need to clean up test methods so not to get bogus numbers.

 Amanda Aldridge, EPA- Binning concept; tightening the test methods; need more 

education.

 David Cole, EPA- Binning concept; sharing data to provide justification for what we are 

doing.

 Chebryll Edwards, EPA- Getting the wood stove standard better than Washington’s 

standard; get the binning process in the proposal and solicit public comments on it; 

methods not as important.

 Mike Toney, EPA- Reducing the number of runs, and number of categories.

 Gil Wood, EPA- Binning concept; cleaning up test methods; adding shorter filters.