A practical explanation of the prevention of significant deterioration and non-attainment policies that affect most major sources in the U S .
Barbara J. Goldsmith James R. Mahoney Environmental Research & Technology, Znc. ( E R T ) Concord, Mass. 01 742
On August 7, 1977, President Carter signed P.L. 95-95, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977. These Amendments impose a wide range of new responsibilities upon the operators of stationary source facilities and substantially change the conditions for obtaining permits for new and expanded plants. Compliance with the Amendments will require development, interpretation and submission of several kinds of technical data and will generally increase the lead time for 144
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obtaining required permits to construct. This discussion focuses on two sets of provisions contained in the 1977 Amendments: Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) of air quality and Non-Attainment (NA). These provisions impact all new, and most of the existing, major emitting facilities in the U S . The language of the Amendments is complex. In some cases, the Act: contains multiple definitions of the same term which are applicable to the different provisions in the Act to which sources may be subject stipulates interim rules for both PSD and N A until State Implementation Plans (SIP’S) are revised to reflect the requirements of the new law and
exempts some sources in certain cases from the PSD requirements and so forth. While this discussion covers the principal requirements for stationary source operators wishing to expand or modify existing facilities or construct new facilities in PSD or N A areas, a careful review of the law will generally be required in individual cases and the technical advice of air quality experts should be obtained. Designation of PSD and NA areas By December 6 , 1977 every state was required to submit to EPA a listing of the attainment status of its Air Quality Control Regions (AQCR’s) for each of the six pollutants, for which a National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) has been pro-
0013-936X/78/0912-0144$01.00/0
0 1978 American Chemical Society
mulgated. The pollutants are sulfur dioxide (SO>), oxides of nitrogen (NO,), carbon monoxide (CO), total suspended particulate matter (TSP), photochemical oxidants, and hydrocarbon compounds. I f an area is shown to have air quality better than the NAAQS for SO2and T S P (based on air pollution monitoring or modeling data), it will be designated as a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (attainment) area for these pollutants; i f air quality is worse than the NAAQS, it will be designated as a non-attainment area. Entire AQCR’s may be designated as attainment or non-attainment areas or such regions may be subdivided by the state. Areas for which there is insufficient information to determine whether the standards have been met will be classified as PSD areas. The final designations promulgated by EPA will have very important influence upon the development of industries within each state. Because attainment/non-attainment designations will be made on a pollutant-specific basis, an industry desiring to construct in a particular area of the country may be subject to PSD rules for one pollutant (for example, sulfur dioxide) and N A rules for another pollutant (for example, nitrogen oxides). The compliance status of AQCR’s throughout the country for four of the criteria pollutants based upon 1974 EPA monitoring data is shown in the maps. Since states have been instructed to utilize the most recent data available, the actual designations made by EPA will in some cases differ from the compliance status shown here.
PSD The I977 Amendments essentially ratify, extend and generally make more stringent the Prevention of Significant Deterioration provisions promulgated by EPA in December 1974. Three classes of clean air areas are established for which maximum allowable increases in pollution levels for SO2 and T S P are set. The provisions require that the maximum increases in SO2 and T S P concentrations throughout these regions not exceed the specified increment limits, which are small percentages of the related NAAQS concentrations for these pollutants. The classes and their allowable air quality increment limitations established in the 1977 Amendments are shown in Table I . Facilities commencing construction between June I , 1975 and August 7, I977 will be reviewed for a permit according to EPA PSD regulations as promulgated in 1974. The term
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statutory deadline
Action
Listing of AQCR’s by attainment status Short-term NO2 standard Stack height regulations (limiting credit to 2% time the height of the source) Analysis requirements in PSD areas Revised NSPS for fossil boilers Ozone protection regulations PSD regulations for other criteria pollutants Visibility protection regulations NSPS for stationary sources
February 1978 February 1978 February 1978 February 1978 August 1978 November 1979 August 1979 November 1979 August 1979August 1982a
a EPA is required to list major stationary source categories for NSPS by August 1979 and promulgate NSPS for 25%. 75% and 100%of list by August 1981. 1982 and 1983, respectively.
“commenced construction’’ means having all permits and having begun a program of continuously preparing a site, or having entered into binding agreements for construction equipment, and the like. Facilities commencing construction after August 7, 1977 will be reviewed according to the PSD requirements of the 1977 Amendments. However, for these latter facilities the EPA PSD regulations remain in effect until State Implementation Plans (SIP’S) are revised to incorporate the PSD requirements of the 1977 Amendments. States are required to complete appropriate SIP revisions by Dec 1, 1978. The EPA significant deterioration regulations apply to all areas of the country not exceeding the NAAQS for SO2 and particulate matter in.1974. For consistency, the EPA regulations have been interpreted to include: the Class I area designations, stack height limitations, allowable increment limitations and rules for area redesignations legislated in the 1977 Amendments. Immediately effective changes to PSD requirements are found in the Fed. Regis!., Volume 42, No. 212, pages 57459-57462, dated Nov. 3, 1977.
Facilities that had permit applications pending when the Amendinents passed or had received preconstruction permits under the EPA PSD regulations but did not commence construction prior to August 7, 1977, are required to undergo a new PSD review based upon the immediately effective modifications described above. For example, the Edison Electric Institute estimated that about 38 planned units, representing almost 22 000 MW, would require additional review (see Electrical Week, October 24, 1977). Once SIPS are revised, all units commencing construction after August 7, 1977 will be subject to the full PSD requirements of the new law. Approximately 143 fossil-fueled steam power units are scheduled to be brought on-line within the five-year period, 1978-1982 (Source: New Capacity Additions Planned or in Construction as of April 1, 1977, Electrical World). Immediately upon passage of the 1977 Amendments, the following PSD areas were designated as Class I areas: all international parks national wilderness apeas national memorial parks greater than 6000 acres in size. Areas redes~
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TABLE 1 Class I
SO2 Annual
24-hour 3-hour TSP Annual 24-hour
2 8 25 5 10
Class II
20 91 512 19
37
C1arr 111
40 182 700 37 75
a All 24-hour and 3-hour values may be exceeded once per year secondary standard
NAAQS
80 365 13OO(s) 7560(s) 260 150(s) (5)
indicates a
Volume 12. Number 2, February 1978
145
The Nation’s 247 air quality control regions Status of comaliance with ambient air aualitv standards for Susoended Particulates
a Based an 1974 EPA monitoring data. This ma is based on data contained in,the EPA report Status of Compliance with Ambient Air Quality S t a n i r d s of Air Quality Control Regions, February (976 Source: ERT
Status of compliance with ambient air quality standards for Sulfur Dioxidea
a Bared 9” 1974.EPA menitorin data This map is basgd on data contained jn the EPA report Status of Compliance with Ambient Air%uaii
