GA Code § 12-9-6 (2021)
2021 Georgia Code|Title 12 - Conservation and Natural Resources|Chapter 9 - Prevention and Control of Air Pollution|Article 1 - Air Quality|§ 12-9-6. Powers and Duties of Director as to Air Quality Generally

  The director shall represent the public interest and shall not derive a significant portion of his income from persons subject to rules, regulations, permits, or orders under this article. Any potential conflict of interest shall be adequately disclosed.   The director shall have and may exercise the following powers and duties:   To exercise general supervision over the administration and enforcement of this article and all rules, regulations, and orders promulgated under this article;   To encourage, participate in, or conduct such studies, reviews, investigations, research, emission inventories, and demonstrations relating to air quality or sources of air pollution in this state as he deems advisable and necessary or as may be required by the federal act and to provide any data or information obtained from such activities to the administrator;   To issue permits contemplated by this article, stipulating in each permit the conditions or limitations under which such permit is issued, and to deny, revoke, modify, or amend permits;   To establish, implement, revise, and amend permit application criteria, forms, procedures, and requirements consistent with this article;   To establish expedited procedures to respond to requests from small business stationary sources for changes in any work practice or technical method of compliance or schedule of milestones for implementing such work practice or method of compliance preceding any applicable compliance date, based on the technological and financial capability of any such small business stationary source or facility; provided, however, that no such change shall be granted unless it is in compliance with the applicable requirements;   To advise, consult, cooperate, and contract on air quality matters with persons for purposes of carrying out the powers and duties conferred upon the director pursuant to this article; provided, however, that when negotiating and entering into agreements with the governments of other states or the United States and their several agencies, subdivisions, or designated organizations of elected officials the director shall first obtain the approval of the Governor;   To conduct such public hearings as he deems necessary for the proper administration of this article;   To collect and disseminate information and to provide for public notification in matters relating to air quality. The director shall make publicly available on the division's website information regarding any spill or release of ethylene oxide reported to the division pursuant to paragraph (3) of subsection (a) of Code Section 12-9-7;   To collect fees, assessments, penalties, or other payments provided for by this article;   To issue orders as may be necessary to enforce compliance with this article and all rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to this article;   To institute, in the name of the division, proceedings of mandamus, injunction, or other proper administrative, civil, or criminal proceedings to enforce the provisions of this article;   To exercise all incidental powers necessary to carry out the purposes of this article;   To prepare, develop, amend, modify, submit, and enforce a comprehensive plan or plans sufficient to comply with the federal act including emission control and limitation requirements, standards of performance, preconstruction review, and other requirements for the prevention, abatement, and control of air pollution in this state, for the prevention of significant deterioration of air quality, for protection against hazardous air pollutants, and for the achievement and maintenance of ambient air quality standards;   To encourage voluntary cooperation by persons and affected groups to achieve the purposes of this article; and   To receive, accept, hold, use, and administer on behalf of the state and for purposes provided in this article gifts, grants, donations, devises, and bequests of real, personal, and mixed property of every kind and description.     The powers and duties described in this Code section may be exercised and performed by the director through such duly authorized agents and employees as he deems necessary and proper.    (Code 1933, 88-904, 88-905, enacted by Ga. L. 1967, p. 581, § 1; Ga. L. 1978, p. 275, § 6; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 12; Ga. L. 1992, p. 918, § 2; Ga. L. 1992, p. 2886, § 1; Ga. L. 2020, p. 739, § 2/SB 426.)    The 2020 amendment,  effective January 1, 2021, added the second sentence to paragraph (b)(8).   Code Commission notes.   - Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1992, "article" was substituted for "chapter" throughout this Code section.   JUDICIAL DECISIONS   Judicial review of air quality permit.    - Trial court decision invalidating an air quality permit issued by the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to a power company to construct a pulverized coal-fired electric power plant in a particular county contained an erroneous ruling that the permit was invalid because the permit failed to include a limit on the power plant's carbon dioxide gas (CO2) emissions since no provisions of the Clean Air Act (CAA), 42 U.S.C. § 7401 et seq., or the state implementation plan controlled or limited CO2 emissions. Because CO2 was not a pollutant that "otherwise is subject to regulation under the CAA," CO2 was not a regulated new source review pollutant in the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program and was not required to be controlled by use of best available control technology (BACT), therefore, the trial court erred by ruling that the PSD permit was required to include a BACT emission limit to control the power company's CO2 emissions. Longleaf Energy Assocs., LLC v. Friends of the Chattahoochee, Inc., 298 Ga. App. 753, 681 S.E.2d 203 (2009), cert. denied, No. S09C1879, 2009 Ga. LEXIS 809 (Ga. 2009).   Enforceability of emissions limitations.   - Permit conditions, which required nitrogen oxide emissions reductions from operating units at each of a power company's plants and which served as the offsets for the main plant's new emissions, were fully enforceable by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Sierra Club v. Ga. Power Co., 365 F. Supp. 2d 1287 (N.D. Ga. June 8, 2004).   OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL    Environmental Protection Division has authority to obtain emission and operating information from sources of air pollution.  1980 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U80-19; 1981 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 81-78.   RESEARCH REFERENCES   Am. Jur. 2d.   - 63C Am. Jur. 2d, Public Officers and Employees, § 237 et seq.   C.J.S.   - 67 C.J.S., Officers and Public Employees, §§ 323 et seq., 339. 73 C.J.S., Public Administrative Law and Procedure, §§ 147, 190, 207, 212 et seq. 73A C.J.S., Public Administrative Law and Procedure, § 277 et seq.   ALR.   - Right to maintain action to enjoin public nuisance as affected by existence of pollution control agency, 60 A.L.R.3d 665.