September 17, 2020
By:
Walter G. Wright
Category:
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published a September 10 Federal Register Notice finalizing the results of a Residual Risk and Technology Review (“RRTR”) of the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (“NESHAP”) for the Iron and Steel Foundries (“I&S”) category. See 85 Fed. Reg. 56080.
The final rule also addresses:
- Removal of exemptions for periods of Startup, Shutdown, and Malfunction (“SSM”) (specifying that emissions standards apply at all time)
- Require electronic reporting performance test results and compliance reports
- Minor corrections and clarifications to certain other rule revisions from major sources/area sources
EPA determines in the final rule that the health risks due to hazardous air pollutant emissions from Major Source iron and steel foundries are acceptable. Therefore, the I&S major source NESHAP is deemed by the agency to provide an ample margin of safety to protect public health. Consequently, the agency determined that no additional standards were necessary to prevent an adverse environmental effect.
EPA is also proposing that no revisions to the I&S NESHAP are necessary based on its technology review.
By way of background, Section 112 of the Clean Air Act requires in the first stage the establishment of technology-based standards. The second stage requires that EPA evaluate those standards. This evaluation determines whether the current technology-based maximum available control technology is adequate or additional are needed to address any remaining risks associated with hazardous air pollutant emissions (IE, “the residual risk review”).
A copy of the Federal Register Notes can be downloaded here.
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