Document ID: EPA-R09-OAR-2019-0005-0004
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2019-05-03T04:00Z

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
                            REGION IX AIR DIVISION

                          Technical Support Document 
                                      for
                            the EPA's Rulemaking
                                    for the
                     California State Implementation Plan
                                       
                Imperial County Air Pollution Control District
                     Rule 428  -  Wood Burning Appliances
Rule 429  -  Mandatory Episodic Curtailment of Wood and Other Solid Fuel Burning

                              
                                  April 2019
                          Author: Christine Vineyard
                                       
                                       

RULE IDENTIFICATION 
Agency
Imperial County Air Pollution Control District (ICAPCD)

New Rule Subject of this TSD

Rule 428  -  Wood Burning Appliances (except section E.4.2)
Adopted  -  September 11, 2018
Submitted  -  October 29, 2018

New Rule Subject of this TSD

Rule 429  -  Mandatory Episodic Curtailment of Wood and Other Solid Fuel Burning
Revised  -  September 11, 2018
Submitted  -  October 29, 2018

Completeness Finding

Completeness Letter: December 12, 2018

RULE SUMMARY

Rule 428, Wood Burning Appliances:
 Applies to anyone who manufactures, sells, orders for sale, or operates a permanently installed, indoor or outdoor, wood burning appliance; and anyone who installs wood burning appliances in any residential or commercial, single or multi-building unit within the Imperial County PM2.5 Nonattainment Area.
 Defines terms applicable to Rule 428.
 Exempt from the provisions of Rule 428 are devices that are exclusively gaseous-fueled and cook stoves (as defined in 40 CFR 60.531).
 Requirements are included for sale, installation, operation and transfer of new and old wood burning appliances and permitted fuel types:

Sale and installation of Wood Burning Appliances:
 Effective April 12, 2019, all new wood burning appliances must comply with New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) certification requirements in effect at the time of installation; must have a permanently affixed label certifying compliance with NSPS certification requirements in effect at the time of installation; or must be a U.S. EPA-Qualified Fireplace.
            
 Used wood burning appliances cannot be sold, supplied, installed, or transferred unless they meet the certification requirements in Rule 428, or have been rendered permanently inoperable.
            
 Effective April 12, 2019, public awareness information (pamphlets, brochures, or fact sheets) must be distributed with all new wood burning appliances educating the owner on proper installation, operation, and maintenance of the wood burning appliance; proper fuel selection and use; health effects from wood smoke; and home weatherization methods.
            
 Effective April 12, 2019, no property containing a wood heater shall be sold or transferred unless it meets the certification requirements in this rule or has been rendered permanently inoperable.

	Operation of Wood Burning Appliances:
 All wood burning appliances should be installed and operated according to the manufacturer's specification.  No appliance shall be altered, installed, or disassembled in a way not specified by the manufacturer, or operated in a manner that could result in additional emissions.

      Permitted Fuel Types:
 Only the following fuels or materials may be burned in a Wood Burning Appliance:
 Seasoned wood (less than 20% moisture content, dry basis).
  Uncolored paper.
  Manufactured logs, pellets, and similar manufactured products (i.e., processed fire starters)
                  
Rule 429, Mandatory Episodic Curtailment of Wood and Other Solid Fuel Burning:
 Applies to anyone who operates a wood burning appliance in Imperial County; and takes effect on January 1, 2020.
 Defines terms applicable to Rule 429.
 Exempts the following devices from the requirements of Rule 429:
 Exclusively gaseous-fueled devices.
 Cookstoves, as defined in 40 CFR 60.531.
 Wood burning appliances located in areas where natural gas service is not available.
 Wood burning appliances used as the sole available source of heat in a residence.
              
 Mandatory Wood Burning Curtailment:
 Curtailment shall be in effect annually during the wood burning season.
            
 A mandatory wood burning curtailment shall be declared for the Calexico area whenever the District forecasts that the 24-hour average PM2.5 concentration will exceed 35 ug/m[3] at the Calexico monitoring station.
            
 Upon notification from the EPA that the Imperial County nonattainment area has failed to meet (1) Reasonable Further Progress in the "Imperial County 2018 Annual Particulate Matter Less than 2.5 Microns In Diameter State Implementation Plan" ("Imperial Annual PM2.5 Plan") submitted by CARB to the EPA on July 18, 2018, (2) to meet a Quantitative Milestone in the 2018 Annual PM2.5 SIP, and/or (3) to submit a Quantitative Milestone Report required under 40 CFR 51.1013(b), a mandatory wood burning curtailment shall be declared for all of Imperial County whenever the forecast for the 24-hour average PM2.5 concentration is equal to or exceeds 30 ug/m[3] at the Calexico monitoring station.

 During a mandatory wood burning curtailment, no person shall operate any wood burning appliance unless the wood burning appliance is subject to one or more of the exemptions in this rule.
            
 Mandatory Wood Burning Curtailment Notice:
The public shall be notified of each mandatory wood burning curtailment by notice in newspapers, radio and television broadcasts, record telephone messages, messages on the Air Pollution Control District website, the Imperial Valley forecasting website and mobile app, or any other method determined to be appropriate.
        
EVALUATION CRITERIA - The following criteria were used to evaluate the submitted rule:

1.  Enforceability - The Bluebook (Issues Relating to VOC Regulation Cutpoints, Deficiencies, and Deviations, EPA, May 25, 1988) and the Little Bluebook 
(Guidance Document for Correcting Common VOC & Other Rule Deficiencies, EPA Region 9, August 21, 2001) were used to help evaluate compliance with the CAA §110(a)(2)(A) requirement for enforceability. 

2.  Stringency  -  Wood burning emits PM, including particulate matter of 10 microns or less (PM10) and PM2.5 directly, as well as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx), which are precursors to ozone and PM2.5.

ICAPCD regulates a Moderate nonattainment area for the 2012 annual PM2.5 standard, which was designated effective April 15, 2015. CAA sections 172(c)(1) and 189(a)(1)(C) require Moderate PM2.5 nonattainment areas to implement RACM and RACT as expeditiously as practicable and no later than four years after the designation. Therefore, ICAPCD must implement RACM, including RACT, for PM2.5 and PM2.5 precursors, as expeditiously as practicable and no later than April 15, 2019. The EPA has defined RACM for PM2.5 as "any technologically and economically feasible measure that can be implemented in whole or in part within 4 years after the effective date of designation of a PM2.5 nonattainment area and that achieves permanent and enforceable reductions in direct PM2.5 emissions and/or PM2.5 plan precursor emissions from sources in the area. . . ."  In addition, Moderate nonattainment areas must implement "additional reasonable measures,"  which are control measures that otherwise meet the definition of RACM, but "can only be implemented in whole or in part during the period beginning 4 years after the effective date of designation of a nonattainment area and no later than the end of the sixth calendar year following the effective date of designation of the area."    

ICAPCD also regulates a Serious PM10 nonattainment area (40 CFR 81.305). CAA section 189(b)(1)(B) requires Serious PM10 nonattainment areas to implement best available control measures (BACM). BACM is generally "required for all categories of sources in Serious areas unless the State adequately demonstrates that a particular source category does not contribute significantly to nonattainment of the NAAQS." Residential fuel combustion (including wood burning) is estimated to constitute 0.06% or less of daily PM10 emissions in Imperial County as of 2016. Based on this information, we consider the contribution of wood burning to PM10 in Imperial County to be de minimis. Therefore, ICAPCD is not required to implement BACM for wood burning devices at this time.  

Finally, Imperial County is currently designated nonattainment under the 1997, 2008, and 2015 ozone standards (40 CFR 81.305). CAA section 172(c)(1) requires ozone nonattainment areas to implement all RACM/RACT, as expeditiously as practicable. Therefore, ICAPCD must implement RACM/RACT for ozone precursors. We are not aware of reasonably available controls for these sources for ozone precursors that are not also reasonably available controls for PM. In addition, because residential wood burning takes place in the winter months when ozone concentrations are lower and the probability of exceeding the ozone NAAQS is low, we do not believe it is necessary to assess RACM/RACT for ozone and its precursors independently from our assessment of RACM/RACT for PM. Therefore, our stringency discussion below focuses on PM emissions. 

3.  SIP Relaxation and Non-Interference - CAA section 110(l) prohibits the EPA from approving any SIP revision that would interfere with any applicable requirement concerning attainment or reasonable further progress (RFP) or any other applicable requirement of the CAA. In addition, CAA section 193 prohibits the modification of any SIP-approved control requirement in effect before November 15, 1990, in a nonattainment area.

EPA EVALUATION - A summary of our evaluation of the three criteria follows:

1.  Enforceability - The rule requirements and applicability are clear, and sufficiently ensure that affected sources and regulators can evaluate and determine compliance with Rules 428 and 429 consistently. The rules include several provisions that together provide continuous control of PM emissions such as: 
 The restriction of burning materials to seasoned wood, uncolored paper, pellets, and manufactured logs.
 The use of NSPS certified devices or EPA-Qualified fireplaces only.
 The distribution of public awareness information (pamphlets, brochures, or fact sheets) with all new wood burning appliances educating the owner on proper installation, operation, and maintenance of the wood burning appliance; proper fuel selection and use; health effects from wood smoke; and home weatherization methods. 
In addition to the measures listed above, Rule 429 includes a mandatory burning curtailment which will take effect on January 1, 2020.

2.  Stringency  -  The EPA will address the overall RACM requirement for the Imperial County PM2.5 Nonattainment Area at a later date when we act on the Imperial Annual PM2.5 Plan. Therefore, our stringency evaluation considers whether Rules 428 and 429 include all technologically and economically feasible measures for wood burning devices by comparing the provisions of the rule with the EPA document "Strategies for Reducing Residential Wood Smoke", EPA-456/B-13-001, March 2013 and current State and District wood burning rules.

Rules 428 and 429 incorporate most of the elements outlined in the EPA's "Strategies for Reducing Residential Wood Smoke" guidance, including a wood burning curtailment program, requirements regarding wood moisture content, removal of uncertified wood burning stoves upon home resale, restrictions on wood burning devices in new construction, restrictions on the installation of wood burning fireplaces, requirement that all wood burning stoves sold or transferred within the area meet current NSPS certification standards, and education and outreach. We are not acting on the opacity in limit in section E.4.2. of Rule 428 at this time. However, ICAPACD Rule 401, which has been approved into the California SIP, establishes a 20% opacity limit that applies to most sources, including wood burning appliances. Our action on Rule 428 will not affect the applicability of this limit. 

Rules 401, 428 and 429 also include measures similar to those in other areas' analogous rules, as summarized in the following table: 

Rules 401, 428 and 429
Great Basin
Rule 431
San Joaquin
Rule 4901
Washoe County
Rule 225
Opacity limit of 20%
X
X
X
X
New fireplaces must be EPA qualified
X
X

Remove/replace uncertified appliances upon sale/remodel
X
X
X
X
Limit # wood burning devices in new developments
X
X
X
X
Prohibit use of unseasoned wood
X

X
Curtailment program
X
X
X
X

The provisions of Rules 428 and 429 are generally as stringent as the provisions of these other rules. Therefore, we believe Rules 428 and 429 implement RACM/RACT and additional reasonable measures for wood burning devices. 

We note that Rule 429 does not take effect until January 1, 2020, which is later than the April 15, 2019 RACM deadline for the Imperial County PM2.5 Nonattainment Area, but in time for the "additional reasonable measures" deadline of December 31, 2021. The Imperial Annual PM2.5 Plan explains that this delay is necessary "to allow the District to develop and identify a source of funding for an incentive program for Calexico residents to purchase devices that may operate during mandated curtailment" and "provide the District with a winter period in which they could educate the populace regarding the concept of curtailment, possibly of the control measure in 2020 when mandated curtailment provisions are in place." Accordingly, we believe Rule 429 qualifies as an additional reasonable measure.

3.  SIP Relaxation and Non-Interference  -  We believe approval of the submittal would comply with CAA sections 110(l) and 193 because rules 428 and 429 establish new requirements and would not interfere with any CAA requirements, including requirements for RFP and attainment of the NAAQS. 

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE NEXT RULE REVISION
1.  Remove or replace non-EPA certified devices on a deadline.
2.  Prohibit solid wood burning devices in new construction.
3.  Limit the number of wood burning devices per acre in new developments.

EPA ACTION - The submitted Rules 428 and 429 strengthen the SIP by adding new requirements and fulfill the relevant CAA §110 and Title I, part D requirements. Therefore, EPA staff recommends approval of Rules 428 and 429 pursuant to CAA §110(k)(3). 

REFERENCES 

    "Issues Relating to VOC Regulation Cutpoints, Deficiencies, and Deviations," (a.k.a., Bluebook) EPA OAQPS, May 25, 1988.
    "Guidance Document for Correcting Common VOC & Other Rule Deficiencies," (a.k.a., Little Bluebook), EPA Region 9, August 21, 2001.
    ICAPCD Rule 428, Wood Burning Appliances as adopted on September 11, 2018.  
    ICAPCD Rule 429, Mandatory Episodic Curtailment of Wood and Other Solid Fuel Burning, adopted September 11, 2018.
    ICAPCD Staff Report for proposed Rule 428, Wood Burning Appliances, Rule 429, Mandatory Episodic Curtailment of Wood and Other Solid Fuel Burning and revised Rule 804, Open Areas, dated September 11, 2018.
    "Imperial County 2018 Annual Particulate Matter Less than 2.5 Microns In Diameter State Implementation Plan" ("Imperial Annual PM2.5 Plan") submitted by CARB to the EPA on July 18, 2018.
    "Imperial County 2018 Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan for Particulate Matter less than 10 Microns in Diameter" adopted October 23, 2018.
    General Preamble Addendum for Serious PM10 Nonattainment areas, 59 FR 41998 (August 16, 1994).