EPA recently published a notice in the Federal Register that it has officially delegated authority to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to implement and enforce some (but not all) Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) regulations (found in 40 CFR Part 63, National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants) according to a Trinity Consultants report.

This removes some of the long-standing confusion in the regulated community as to which agency is the official lead concerning the federal New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and NESHAP regulations. To the regulated community, this is largely a government interagency housekeeping issue, but it does affect the important question of “who do I send my NSPS/NESHAP notifications and reports to?”

The standard procedure, now as in the past, is for ADEQ to include applicable provisions of federal NSPS and NESHAP regulations in air permits. Associated notices and reports required by these federal regulations were many times mailed to both the EPA and ADEQ since there was uncertainty about which was the official “lead” agency. The recent delegation of some Part 63 NESHAP regulations to ADEQ removes some of this uncertainty. The following contains the highlights of the recent Federal Register notice of interest to Arkansas permittees:

• The only Part 63 regulations officially delegated to ADEQ are the ones that affect Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) major sources (those with permitted emissions ≥ 10 tons/year of a single HAP, or ≥ 25 tons/year total of all HAPs), and a select few regulations for smaller HAP “area sources” that explicitly contain the requirement for Title V permitting.
• The vast majority of Part 63 “area source” regulations are not officially delegated to the ADEQ, so EPA will remain the official lead agency. However, note ADEQ will continue to include these area source regulations in air permits.
• ADEQ will have authority to make most regulatory determinations concerning the delegated Part 63 rules. In effect, this means that a permittee would ask the ADEQ (instead of EPA) to make a determination concerning specific applicability of a regulatory provision to his facility. ADEQ will consult with EPA Region 6 in making any such applicability determination. (Note that the EPA does retain authority to make determinations for some listed provisions which are forbidden to be delegated to the states.) The table below summarizes the regulations.

What this means to you
EPA has delegated authority to regulate some MACT NESHAP regulations to the state of Arkansas for NSPS (40 CFR Part 60) and for NESHAP (40 CFR Part 61). See the table above for more information

MIRATECH can help
Contact MIRATECH for emission systems solutions in Arkansas.