South Carolina Code of Regulations › Chapter 61 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL › Subchapter 61-79 - Hazardous Waste Management Regulations › Part 61-79.266 - STANDARDS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF SPECIFIC HAZARDOUS WASTES AND SPECIFIC TYPES OF HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITIES › Appendix 61-79.266.IX - Methods Manual for Compliance With the BIF Regulations Burning Hazardous Waste in Boilers and Industrial Furnaces › Section 61-79.266.6.0 - SIMPLIFIED LAND USE CLASSIFICATION PROCEDURE FOR COMPLIANCE WITH TIER I AND TIER II LIMITS

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 6, June 28, 2024
6.1
				  Introduction
This section provides a simplified procedure to classify
					 areas in the vicinity of boilers and industrial furnace sites as urban or rural
					 in order to set risk-based emission limits under subpart H of 40 CFR part 266.
					 Urban/rural classification is needed because dispersion rates differ between
					 urban and rural areas and thus, the risk per unit emission rate differs
					 accordingly. The combination of greater surface roughness (more
					 buildings/structures to generate turbulent mixing) and the greater amount of
					 heat released from the surface in an urban area (generates buoyancy-induced
					 mixing) produces greater rates of dispersion. The emission limit tables in the
					 regulation, therefore, distinguish between urban and rural areas.
EPA guidance (EPA 1986) provides two alternative procedures
					 to determine whether the character of an area is predominantly urban or rural.
					 One procedure is based on land use typing and the other is based on population
					 density. Both procedures require consideration of characteristics within a 3-km
					 radius from a source, in this case the facility stack(s). The land use typing
					 method is preferred because it more directly relates to the surface
					 characteristics that affect dispersion rates. The remainder of this discussion
					 is, therefore, focused on the land use method.
While the land use method is more direct, it can also be
					 labor-intensive to apply. For this discussion, the land use method has been
					 simplified so that it is consistent with EPA guidance (EPA 1986; Auer 3978),
					 while streamlining the process for the majority of applications so that a
					 clear-cut decision can be made without the need for detailed analysis. Table
					 6.0-1 summarizes the simplified approach for classifying areas as urban or
					 rural. As shown, the applicant always has the option of applying standard
					 (i.e., more detailed) analyses to more accurately distinguish between urban and
					 rural areas. However, the procedure presented here allows for simplified
					 determinations, where appropriate, to expedite the permitting process.
Table 6.0-1.-Classification of Land Use Types
Type [FN1]
Description
Urban or rural designation
[FN2]
I1
Heavy Industrial
Urban.
I2
Light/Moderate Industrial
Urban.
C1
Commercial
Urban.
R1
Common Residential (Normal Easements)
Rural.
R2
Compact Residential (Single Family)
Urban.
R3
Compact Residential (Multi-Family)
Urban.
R4
Estate Residential (Multi-Acre Plots)
Rural.
A1
Metropolitan Natural
Rural.
A2
Agricultural
Rural.
A3
Undeveloped (Grasses/Weeds)
Rural.
A4
Undeveloped (Heavily Wooded)
Rural.
A5
Water Surfaces
Rural.
FOOTNOTE: [FN1] EPA, Guideline on Air Quality
								  Models (Revised), EPA-450/2-78-027, Office of Air Quality Planning and
								  Standards, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, July, 1985.
FOOTNOTE: [FN2] Auer, August H. Jr., "Correlation
								  of Land Use and Cover with Meteorological Anomalies." Journal of Applied
								  Meteorology, pp. 636-643, 1978.
6.2 Simplified Land Use Process
The land use approach considers four primary land use
					 types: industrial (I), commercial (C), residential (R), and agricultural (A).
					 Within These primary classes, subclasses are identified, as shown in table
					 6.0-1. The goal is to estimate the percentage of the area within a 3-km radius
					 that is urban type and the percentage that is rural type. Industrial and
					 commercial areas are classified as urban; agricultural areas are classified as
					 rural.
The delineation of urban and rural areas, however, can be
					 more difficult for the residential type areas shown in table 6.0-1. The degree
					 of resolution shown in table 6.0-1 for residential areas often cannot be
					 identified without conducting site area inspections and/or referring to zoning
					 maps. This process can require extensive analysis, which, for many
					 applications, can be greatly streamlined without sacrificing confidence in
					 selecting the appropriate urban or rural classification.
The fundamental simplifying assumption is based on the
					 premise that many applications will have clear-cut urban/rural designations,
					 i.e., most will be in rural settings that can be definitively characterized
					 through a brief review of topographical maps. The color coding on USGS
					 topographical maps provides the most effective means of simplifying the typing
					 scheme. The suggested typing designations for the color codes found on
					 topographical maps are as follows:
Green Wooded areas (rural).
White White areas generally will be treated as rural. This
					 code applies to areas that are unwooded and do not have densely packed
					 structures which would require the pink code (house omission tint). Parks,
					 industrial areas, and unforrested rural land will appear as white on the
					 topographical maps. Of these categories, only the industrial areas could
					 potentially be classified as urban based on EPA 1986 or Auer 1978. Industrial
					 areas can be easily identified in most cases by the characteristics shown in
					 Figure 6.0-1. For this simplified procedure, white areas that have an
					 industrial classification will be treated as urban areas.
See
					 Image