Source: http://www.deq.state.ok.us/aqdnew/newsletters/Dec10/dec10.html
Timestamp: 2018-03-18 03:39:10
Document Index: 496142925

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 70', 'arts 5', 'art 70', 'art 70', 'arts 7', '§51', '§51']

December, 2010, Vol 13, No 4
OCTOBER 2010 AIR QUALITY ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING SUMMARY
The Air Quality Advisory Council meeting was held October 27 at the DEQ headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Several rule proposals were presented by the AQD Rules and Planning staff, including both emergency and permanent changes. Many of the proposals were held over to the January 19, 2011 Council meeting, as further review is needed.
Fees for Toxics
A new section of Subchapter 5 of the air pollution control rules that would alter the Air Quality Division’s current fee structure was presented to the Council. The new section would allow the agency to invoice sources for emissions of hazardous air pollutants, lead, and lead compounds at a rate different from other regulated air pollutants. The section would require area sources subject to a National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) to pay an annual operating fee. The changes were suggested to help offset legislative budgetary shortfalls and cover current and anticipated staffing requirements in administering the Department’s air pollution control programs. The proposal was held over for discussion to the January 2011 advisory council meeting. A copy of the presentation is available at: http://www.deq.state.ok.us/aqdnew/council_mtgs/oct10/Oct10rules.htm.
Modifications to Subchapters 1, 7 and 8 were suggested to ensure that State rules affected by recent changes to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) policies and programs for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are not perceived to be more stringent than the corresponding federal requirements. GHG, an aggregate group of six gases including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride, will become subject to regulation as an air pollutant for the first time on January 2, 2011. The EPA rules for GHG would have set permitting thresholds as low as 109 and 250 tons per year if they had not promulgated the GHG Tailoring Rule in the Federal Register on June 3, 2010 (75 FR 21514). EPA's rule defines the term “subject to regulation” to establish thresholds of 100,000 tons per year CO2 equivalent (CO2e) for PSD and Part 70 applicability and a significant level of 75,000 tons per year CO2e for PSD. Without the tailoring rule, the Department would have been facing large numbers of new permits that could have extended to include agricultural, commercial, and residential sources. Although the Department accepts EPA's mechanism for implementing the higher GHG thresholds by accepting EPA's definition of "subject to regulation", these higher thresholds are not reflected directly in the Department's current rules. Consequently, the general public and the owners of many smaller sources that are exempted from GHG permitting may only see the thresholds set forth in the Department's rules and interpret it to apply to smaller sources. The proposed modification to Parts 5 and 7 of Subchapter 8 clarifies the change and should prevent smaller sources of GHG from expending resources in preparing unnecessary PSD or Part 70 permit applications for GHG emissions.
The Department also proposed to add a new section to Subchapter 7 to clarify that GHG is excluded from the minor facility permitting program. It is not excluded if it is necessary to set enforceable limits to keep GHG emission levels at a facility below the applicability threshold levels for the PSD construction permit program or the Part 70 operating permit program. At this time, EPA does not have a GHG permitting program for minor facilities.
The Department proposed to add a definition for "greenhouse gas" or "GHG" to Subchapter 1. These rule proposals for Subchapters 1, 7, and 8 were recommended as emergency rules by the Council to be forwarded to the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) for its consideration at the November 16, 2010 meeting. The staff felt emergency rulemaking was necessary due to requirements of the State's rulemaking process, which would require the permanent rules to take effect in July 2011, which is after the January 2, 2011 federal implementation date. Therefore, owners or operators of a large number of smaller sources of GHG that would be exempt by the GHG tailoring rule, could possibly interpret the Department's current rules to require them to obtain permits for new or modified sources of GHG from January 2, 2011 until the proposed modification becomes effective as a permanent rule change. The State's permitting programs could be perceived to be more stringent than the federal programs during this period.
The emergency rules were adopted by the EQB at its November 16 meeting. The hearings on the permanent modifications of Subchapters 7 and 8 for the GHG proposal were held over until the January 2011 Council meeting.
The Department presented proposed modifications to Parts 7 and 9 of Subchapter 8 to implement the New Source Review (NSR) program (PSD and Nonattainment NSR) for the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) which were published on July 18, 1997 (62 FR 38652) and revised on October 17, 2006 (71 FR 61144). EPA's implementation requirements were published in the Federal Register on May 16, 2008 (73 FR 28321) and October 20, 2010 (75 FR 64864). The proposed rule changes established provisions for a major source threshold, significant emissions rates, offset ratios for PM2.5 NAAQS, and interpollutant trading for offsets that are consistent with those in the federal regulations set forth in 40 CFR §51.165 and 40 CFR §51.166. Because the final elements of EPA's implementation rule were not published until October, 20, 2010, it was not possible to include them in the proposed modification. Staff felt it was preferable to incorporate EPA's entire implementation rule at one time. The Council postponed the hearing on this permanent modification to Subchapter 8 to the January 2011 Council meeting.
Once each year the Department updates Chapter 100 of the OAR, Appendix Q, Incorporation By Reference, in order to incorporate federal regulations that the Department enforces as written in the federal regulations. New regulations may be added to the list in Appendix Q each year, and some may have been amended by EPA. Any amendments to standards listed will be incorporated during the annual update. In addition, this year changes were proposed to Subchapter 2, Incorporation By Reference, to better reflect the connection between the subchapter and the appendix. The changes to Subchapter 2 and Appendix Q presented at the October Council meeting were held over due to the need for staff to further analyze the inclusion of the recent changes to federal regulations.
The Rules and Planning Section presented information on recent revisions to the SO2 NAAQS, and options for revising Subchapter 31 to reflect the changes. Staff expects to provide proposed changes to Subchapter 31 at a future Council meeting. A copy of the presentation is available at: http://www.deq.state.ok.us/aqdnew/council_mtgs/oct10/Oct10rules.htm.
Trevor Hammons, DEQ Environmental Attorney, gave an overview of upcoming proposed changes to the Lead-Based Paint rules in Chapter 110 of the Oklahoma Administrative Code. The new federal regulations add Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Requirements in the Code of Federal Regulations. The state rulemaking would ensure that the rule is no more stringent than the federal rule and would incorporate changes to be consistent with the Department’s current rules.
The next Council meeting and public hearing will be held on Wednesday, January 19, 2011, at DEQ headquarters in Oklahoma City.
2011 EMISSIONS INVENTORY AND REDBUD WORKSHOP PLANNED
DEQ will host its annual emission inventory workshop on Thursday, January 20, 2011, at the Metrotech Springlake Campus in Oklahoma City and again on Thursday, February 3, 2011, at the OSU-Tulsa campus. In a change from last year, the main workshop, held from 9 am to noon, will precede an optional Redbud session for new users between 1 pm and 4 pm on each day.
The morning session will cover training on how to identify emission units using a permit, ways to gather pertinent information and ways to use the information to build an emissions inventory, emission inventory policy updates, terms and concepts and improvements in Redbud. The afternoon session will offer a Redbud overview for new users and hands-on assistance to participants who need help with inventories. Afternoon attendees are encouraged to bring their laptops and Redbud passwords to follow the data entry and submittal process. Wi-Fi internet access will be available. Both sessions will conclude with a question-and-answer period.
Redbud is Oklahoma’s web-based electronic emissions reporting system. More details on the workshop are available at http://www.deq.state.ok.us/AQDnew/emissions/2011Workshop.html. To register, please email Michelle Horn or call (405) 702-4176 or email Carrie Schroeder or call (405) 702-4178.
(Note: this information is unchanged since the August newsletter)
Currently, EPA lists four chapters under review. Comments on Chapter 2, Section 4: Municipal Solid Waste Landfills, were due by May 5, 2009. The comment period on Chapter 4, Section 12: Manufacture of Rubber Products, closed February 2, 2009; Chapter 13.2.1: Paved Roads closed July 30, 2010 and Chapter 15: Ordance Detonation, closed December 7, 2009. Instructions for using draft sections that have completed the comment period but are not designated as “final” are available on the webpage listed below.
Changes Coming January 2011
New Annual Compliance Certification and Semi-Annual Monitoring & Deviation Report Forms
Major, or Title V sources of pollutants are required to submit Annual Compliance Certifications and Semi-Annual Monitoring & Deviation Reports. Please be aware that beginning January 2011 new Title V reporting forms will be available on the DEQ website: http://www.deq.state.ok.us/AQDnew/whatsnew/index.htm. The new Annual Compliance Certification form will replace current DEQ Forms #100-902 through #100-919. The Semi-Annual Monitoring & Deviation Report form will be a revised version of the current form. More information will be available soon.
Ozone Season 2010 Recap
Oklahoma remains in attainment for ozone standards under the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The NAAQS is set at 0.075 parts per million (ppm) of ozone allowed to be compliant and in attainment status. To determine the NAAQS, the Department of Environmental Quality takes the averages for concentrations of ozone measured in an eight hour period and then averages the fourth highest readings across a three year period. If the average of the concentrations is higher than 0.075, the area is considered nonattainment. The chart below shows the highest four daily eight hour average concentrations at each of the DEQ ozone monitoring sites in 2010. It also shows the fourth highest concentrations for the years 2007 through 2009. The columns marked 07-09 Avg. 4th Highs and 08-10 Avg. 4th Highs are all in attainment with the NAAQS because their value is less than .076 ppm. The column marked 2010 critical value shows the number a reading would have to reach that when averaged with the other columns, would add up to more than 0.075 ppm, making the site non-attainment. The three year averages of the 4th high concentrations for 2008-2010 show that no sites are over the .075 ppm eight hour average standard.
Ozone concentrations are influenced by the weather. Stagnation and the transport of pollutants from other areas both play major roles in causing ozone levels to rise. Oklahoma’s ozone season of 2010 contained little stagnation and transport as the upper winds were unusually consistent and strong from the west.
The 2010 ozone season began in May with two days showing concentrations of ozone above 0.075 ppm eight hour average. June had no days over .075 ppm eight hour average. One day in July and two days in August ozone levels rose above the .075 ppm eight hour average.
Oklahoma’s designation as attainment with the ozone NAAQS may be short lived. EPA has announced that it is reconsidering and will tighten the ozone standard before the 2011 season.
New Lead-Based Paint Rule To Protect Citizens
The EPA’s new Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule regulates activities that might disturb lead-based paint in pre-1978 housing, schools and certain other child-occupied facilities. These activities can include sanding, painting, remodeling and window replacement. Prior to 1978, lead was commonly used in paint as well as other common materials such as gasoline. Lead is a toxic metal that has been proven to cause a range of health effects, from behavioral problems and learning disabilities, to seizures and death. Lead poisoning can affect anyone, but pregnant women and children six years old and under are most at risk. No safe level of lead has been established.
Before the promulgation of the RRP rule, there was no mechanism to protect housing occupants and renovation workers from the accidental exposure to lead-based paint dust. The RRP rule establishes safe work practices and training requirements for renovation workers, requires certification of renovation firms, and requires notification of housing occupants when lead-based paint may be present.
Since 1996, the DEQ has regulated all lead-based paint removal and abatement activities in Oklahoma through the Air Quality Division’s Lead-Based Paint unit. This unit will use their expertise in the current program to insure that the new RRP rule is smoothly implemented and provides protection from lead-based paint to housing occupants while providing a one-stop shop for firms and workers in the renovation industry. Questions about the scope of the rule, training and certification requirements or other lead-based paint information can be obtained by calling the Lead-Based Paint Program at 405-702-4100.