Air Compliance News
New Year's Resolutions
For many of us, the New Year brings on at least a few resolutions. Based on a Google® search, there are a few that almost everyone's made at some time. I've reviewed them carefully and I'm sure Air Compliance Testing can help you with all of them:
- Lose weight. Are you one of those people who eat when they are under stress? Our full service testing certainly takes away your stress. In combination with having more time to exercise (because we're preparing your Test Notifications, Test Reports, negotiating with EPA on your behalf, etc.), you can plan on at least a few pounds coming off or staying off during your test event.
- Get out of debt. Keep in mind that Price does not always equal the total Cost you pay for testing services. We won't pay your bills, but we will help you maintain your budget. The price Air Compliance Testing provides in our proposals actually represents the total cost, from Test Notifications to the Final Report. Everything is included in our price.
- Enjoy life more. It is easiest to enjoy life when it runs calmly and simply. We can't make any guarantees about the rest of your life, but we do guarantee the validity of our testing services. We worry about the test event so you don't have to. So go ahead. Enjoy life more, on us.
If any of these resolutions has a place on your 2012 list, please let us know. We'll be happy to help.
Happy New Year!
Louise Barton | Sales/Marketing Director
EPA Releases 2010 TRI Data
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its annual national analysis of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The TRI program publishes information on toxic chemical disposals and other releases into the air, land and water, as well as information on waste management and pollution prevention activities. Total releases including disposals for the latest reporting year, 2010, are higher than the previous two years but lower than 2007 and prior year totals. Many of the releases from TRI facilities are regulated under various EPA programs and requirements.
The 2010 TRI data show that 3.93 billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released into the environment nationwide, a 16% increase from 2009. The increase is mainly due to changes in the metal mining sector, which typically involves large facilities handling large volumes of material. In this sector, even a small change in the chemical composition of the ore being mined (which EPA understands is one of the reasons for the increase in total reported releases) may result in large changes in the amount of toxic chemicals reported nationally. Several other sectors also reported increases in toxic releases in 2010, including the chemical and primary metals industries.
Total air releases decreased 6% since 2009, continuing a trend seen over the past several years. Releases into surface water increased 9% and releases into land increased 28% since 2009, again due primarily to the metal mining sector.
EPA has added new information on facility efforts to reduce pollution to this years report, and also consideration of whether economic factors could have affected the TRI data. With this report and EPA's Web-based TRI tools, citizens can access information about the toxic chemical releases into the air, water, and land that occur locally.
TRI data is submitted annually to EPA and states by multiple industry sectors including manufacturing, metal mining, electric utilities, and commercial hazardous waste facilities. Facilities must report their toxic chemical releases to EPA under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) by July 1st of each year. The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 also requires information on waste management activities related to TRI chemicals.
EPA Proposes Changes to Boiler/Incinerator Standards
EPA proposed changes to Clean Air Act standards for boilers and certain incinerators based on extensive analysis, review and consideration of data and input from states, environmental groups, industry, lawmakers and the public. The proposed reconsideration would increase the rule's flexibility and address compliance concerns raised by industry and labor groups. The changes also cut the cost of implementation by nearly 50 percent from the original 2010 proposed rule while maintaining health benefits. These standards meet requirements laid out in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.
More than 99% of boilers in the country are either clean enough that they are not covered by these standards or will only need to conduct maintenance and tune-ups to comply. This proposal focuses on the less than 1% of boilers that emit the majority of pollution from this sector. For these high emitting boilers, typically operating at refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities, EPA is proposing more targeted emissions limits based on currently available technologies that are in use by sources across the country.
Using a wide variety of fuels, including coal, natural gas, oil and biomass, boilers are used to power heavy machinery, provide heat for industrial and manufacturing processes in addition to a number of other uses, or heat large buildings. EPA's proposal recognizes the diverse and complex range of uses and fuels and tailors standards to reflect the real-world operating conditions of specific types of boilers.
Some of the key changes EPA is proposing include:
- Boilers at large sources of air toxics emissions: This covers approximately 14,000 boilers (less than 1% of all boilers in the US) located at large sources of air pollutants, including refineries, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities. EPA is proposing to create additional subcategories and revise emissions limits. EPA is also proposing to provide more flexible compliance options for meeting the particle pollution and carbon monoxide limits, replace numeric emissions limits with work practice standards for certain pollutants, allow more flexibility for units burning clean gases to qualify for work practice standards and reduce some monitoring requirements.
- Boilers located at small sources of air toxics emissions: This covers about 187,000 boilers located at small sources of air pollutants, including commercial buildings, universities, hospitals and hotels. However, due to how little these boilers emit, 98% of area source boilers would only be required to perform maintenance and routine tune-ups to comply with these standards. Only 2% of area source boilers may need to take additional steps to comply with the rule. To increase flexibility for most of these sources, EPA is proposing to require initial compliance tune-ups after two years instead after the first year.
- Solid waste incinerators and revisions to the list of non-hazardous secondary materials: This covers 95 solid waste incinerators that burn waste at a commercial or an industrial facility, including cement manufacturing facilities. EPA is proposing to adjust emissions limits for waste-burning cement kilns and for energy recovery units.
EPA is also proposing revisions to its final rule which identified the types of non-hazardous secondary materials that can be burned in boilers or solid waste incinerators. Following the release of that final rule, stakeholders expressed concerns regarding the regulatory criteria for a non-hazardous secondary material to be considered a legitimate, non-waste fuel, and how to demonstrate compliance with those criteria. To address these concerns, EPA's proposed revisions provide clarity on what types of secondary materials are considered non-waste fuels, and greater flexibility. The proposed revisions also classify a number of secondary materials as non-wastes when used as a fuel and allow for a boiler or solid waste operator to request that EPA identify specific materials as a non-waste fuel.
EPA will accept public comment on these standards for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register. EPA intends to finalize the reconsideration by spring 2012.
EPA Issues Mercury Standards for Power Plants
EPA has issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. The standards will reduce emissions of mercury, arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium, and cyanide by relying on widely available, proven pollution controls that are already in use at more than half of the nation's coal-fired power plants.
More than 20 years ago the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and mandated that EPA require control of toxic air pollutants including mercury. To meet this requirement, EPA worked extensively with stakeholders, including industry, to minimize cost and maximize flexibilities in these final standards. There were more than 900,000 public comments that helped inform the final standards being announced today. Part of this feedback encouraged EPA to ensure the standards focused on readily available and widely deployed pollution control technologies, that are not only manufactured by companies in the United States, but also support short-term and long-term jobs.
Power plants are the largest remaining source of several toxic air pollutants, including mercury, arsenic, cyanide, and a range of other dangerous pollutants, and are responsible for half of the mercury and over 75% of the acid gas emissions in the United States. Today, more than half of all coal-fired power plants already deploy pollution control technologies that will help them meet these achievable standards. Once final, these standards will level the playing field by ensuring the remaining plants – about 40% of all coal fired power plants - take similar steps to decrease dangerous pollutants.
As part of the commitment to maximize flexibilities under the law, the standards are accompanied by a Presidential Memorandum that directs EPA to use tools provided in the Clean Air Act to implement the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards in a cost-effective manner that ensures electric reliability. For example, under these standards, EPA is not only providing the standard three years for compliance, but also encouraging permitting authorities to make a fourth year broadly available for technology installations, and if still more time is needed, providing a well-defined pathway to address any localized reliability problems should they arise.
The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which are being issued in response to a court deadline, are in keeping with President Obama's Executive Order on regulatory reform. They are based on the latest data and provide industry significant flexibility in implementation through a phased-in approach and use of already existing technologies.
The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and the final Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which was issued earlier this year, are the most significant steps to clean up pollution from power plant smokestacks since the Acid Rain Program of the 1990s.
Power Plant Emission Limits Delayed
New emissions limits for US power plants were delayed just hours before they were due to come into force following a ruling by a Federal appeals court. The regulations would have introduced new limits on Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxide for 27 states from the beginning of January under rules formulated by EPA in July.
The limits were contested by US utilities and industrial groups, which claimed the introduction date did not allow enough time to install pollution-control equipment, would drive up energy prices and force some plants to shut down.
Texas, along with 14 other states, launched a legal challenge to the rules, with Texan officials alleging the EPA included the state in its final regulations without allowing it to provide input on how it would be affected. They also claimed the agency used inaccurate assumptions about Texas' electricity grid when developing the regulations.
Both utilities and states now have a temporary reprieve after the court granted a delay to the introduction of the new rules pending further court review.
FY 2011 Enforcement and Compliance Results
EPA released its annual enforcement and compliance results in December. EPA's enforcement and compliance program enforces environmental laws by taking action to cut illegal pollution. In Fiscal Year 2011, EPA enforcement actions led to more than 1.8 billion pounds in pollution reduced, an estimated $19 billion in required pollution controls and approximately $168 million in civil penalties.
In FY 2011, EPA enforcement resulted in:
- $19 billion invested to improve environmental performance and compliance efforts, a record year, including $3 billion dollars to clean up hazardous waste.
- 1.8 billion pounds of air, water, and chemical pollution reduced and 3.6 billion pounds of hazardous waste reduced, properly disposed of or treated.
- $168 million in civil penalties assessed ($152 million in federal penalties and $16 million in actions taken jointly by EPA and state and local governments)
- $35 million in fines and restitution, $2 million in court ordered environmental projects and 89.5 years of incarceration to deter future violations and hold violators accountable
- $25 million committed by companies through enforcement settlements to conduct supplemental environmental projects in communities
Cases under EPA's national enforcement initiatives, which focus enforcement and compliance resources and expertise on serious pollution problems affecting communities, produced the majority of commitments to install pollution controls.
For information on EPA's national enforcement initiatives: Click Here.
2010 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data Now Available
The first comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) data reported directly from large facilities and suppliers across the country is now easily accessible to the public through EPA's GHG Reporting Program. The 2010 GHG data includes public information from facilities in nine industry groups that directly emit large quantities of GHGs, as well as suppliers of certain fossil fuels.
EPA's online data publication tool allows users to view and sort GHG data for calendar year 2010 from over 6,700 facilities in a variety of ways—including by facility, location, industrial sector, and the type of GHG emitted.
GHG data for direct emitters show that in 2010:
- Power plants were the largest stationary sources of direct emissions with 2,324 million metric tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) equivalent (mmtCO2e), followed by petroleum refineries with emissions of 183 mmtCO2e.
- CO2 accounted for the largest share of direct GHG emissions with 95%, followed by Methane with 4%, and Nitrous Oxide and Fluorinated gases accounting for the remaining 1%.
- 100 facilities each reported emissions over 7 mmtCO2e, including 96 power plants, two iron and steel mills and two refineries.
Mandated by the FY2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act, EPA launched the GHG Reporting Program in October 2009, requiring the reporting of GHG data from large emission sources across a range of industry sectors, as well as suppliers of products that would emit GHGs if released or combusted. Most reporting entities submitted data for calendar year 2010. However, an additional 12 source categories will begin reporting their 2011 GHG data this year.
 |
Upcoming EventsMarch 27 – 28, 201221st Annual Sustainability & EHS Symposium, Cincinnati, OH Click Here for details.June 19 – 22, 2012A&WMA Annual Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, TX. For more information, go to: http://www.awma.org for more information |