December 1995
Assessing your current status under the Clean Air Act and analyzing your options for compliance are the most important steps in preparing an operating permit. When done correctly, this information will assist you in obtaining a permit that provides the maximum flexibility for future growth and operational changes.
In our last issue we briefly presented five review and analysis tasks for beginning the permit application process. This issue takes a look at each of these tasks.
The Title V applicant must identify every applicable requirement for each emission source. In Michigan, this includes every Federal Regulation, every State Regulation, and all existing permit conditions. The burden is on the applicant to not only identify every requirement, but to devise a credible argument to defend compliance certification.
Requirements that are obsolete, or do not make sense, or are simply impossible to meet, should be carefully examined before they are locked into a Title V permit. This task must be completed by a professional who understands the regulatory impacts on the facility equipment and operation, and can devise regulatory approaches that minimize the economic burden on the business. In the worst case, inappropriate interpretation, or incomplete review, can result in prosecution for obsolete or nonsensical requirements that remain in the permit.
All Title V applicants are subject to perpetual compliance demonstration. This will require, at the minimum, that credible evidence be available showing that the facility is in compliance with existing regulations. Where compliance cannot be certified, a compliance plan must be developed that is practical and convincing, yet is neither extensively expensive, nor capable of interfering with continuing operations. Be aware that if you propose a compliance plan as part of the application, it will probably be clear to the Agency that you were in violation historically, which may trigger enforcement action. (Michigan, by the way, is not offering forgiveness for too many historical sins).
Operating flexibility was a major issue in passing the Clean Air Act. The applicant can expect, on average, a period of two years for processing the permit application and the five year term of the permit itself. So an applicant that submits the forms in 1996 must expect to live with his submittal until the year 2003. Permit changes are possible in the interim, but they won't come quickly or easily. Most industries would be hard pressed to predict how much operational freedom is necessary for a seven year period.
Opportunities therefore exist for creative and thoughtful applicants. Emission units can be defined so that an increase at one source can be paired with a reduction at another. Operating limits can be defined to facilitate compliance or, conversely, to make compliance very difficult. Monitoring, record keeping, and reporting can be designed to be anything from "no-extra-work" to a nightmare with criminal liabilities attached. Flexibility issues must be timely and competently analyzed, or opportunities to respond to new business needs will be hampered by a permit that requires an extended period for modifications.
Title V creates unprecedented obligations for compliance (remember that under Title V you have the burden of proof to certify) plus potentially onerous monitoring, record keeping, and reporting requirements. So, finding a way out seems very attractive, without even considering the cost of emission fees.
Title V may seem inescapable, but the right inspiration by an analyst with the right background, just might do it. Material substitution, process changes, and modifications to your operating schedule are all options that should be considered when developing a strategy for escaping Title V requirements.
As we have already said, the changes associated with Title V are subtle-you don't have to meet any more stringent limits, but now the state is not obliged to develop a case against facilities wandering outside their limits. Facilities are, in fact, expected to devise a system to monitor exceedences, record them, and report them. It is the same sort of automatic confession involved in NPDES reporting of your water discharge.
The penalty for failure to comply is directed to the Vice President level in your organization. And just in case your agency thinks your transgressions are too trivial to deal with, the permit process provides ample opportunity for your neighbors to seek legal remedies, since their case is already prepared in your reports.
Keep in mind that this discussion has guided your thinking to only the threshold of formulating a strategy for the application. The next step is preparing and submitting the application document, a job for which a Xerox and some big binders are necessary. Beyond submittal, there is the added issue of managing the inevitable interview with the permit engineer or addressing written responses to the draft permit. The agency knows the law and wrote the rules. The agency will have checked your calculations and your data against their records. If they have taken enforcement action against you in the past, that will somehow reflect in their behavior.
Plan your strategy well, and obtain assistance from someone that has been through it, and knows plant operations, the regulations, and the nuances of the permit process in your state, and you will either escape Title V requirements, or end up with a permit that you can live with for seven years.
For more information on environmental programs for your business, contact Mr. Thomas Wackerman, Managing Partner at Applied Science &Technology, Inc. at 800.395.ASTI or visit our homepage
The RCRA Corrective Action program has been around for awhile, but in Michigan, there hasn't been much activity. That will be changing next year. Next issue we look at Michigan's Corrective Action Program.
Applied Science &Technology, Inc. staff is presenting a one semester course on Environmental Information Management using the Internet. at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. The course starts January 1996 and is taught entirely on the Internet. For more information call Tom Wackerman at 800.395.ASTI or send email request to twacker@chem1.eng.wayne.edu
1st: Retailers and wholesale purchaser-consumer handling over 10,000 gallons of fuel per month must limit gasoline-and methanol-fuel pump dispensing rates to a maximum of 10 gallons per minute. [CAA: 40 CFR 80.22, FR 3/24/93]
1st: A laboratory conducting analyses of inorganic or organic chemical samples no longer may perform such sampling under a provisional certification. [SDWA: 40 CFR 141.23 and 141.24, FR 07/01/94]
25th: Each owner or operator of an existing decorative chromium electroplating tank that is subject to hazardous air pollutant emissions standards must comply with those standards. [CAA: 40 CFR 63.343, FR 01/25/95]
31st: OMB approval of information collection requirements applicable to the standard governing the use and disposal of sewage sludge expires. [CWA: 40 CFR 503, FR 03/17/93]
TECH-BITS is a monthly publication of Applied Science &Technology, Inc. (ASTI), P.O. Box 1328, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48106. For a free mail subscription call 800.395.ASTI. For a free electronic subscription, send an email message to twacker@chem1.eng.wayne.edu, referencing Tech-Bits in the body of the message.
TECH-BITS is intended to provide information concerning current environmental issues, and is not intended to provide technical or legal advice regarding any particular situation. Questions about individual situations should be addressed to your environmental engineer. Copyright 1995 by ASTI