June 19, 2020
On June 10, 2020, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality announced it has adopted EPA’s 2015 eight-hour ozone NAAQS (National Ambient Air Quality Standard) Emissions Inventory (EI) State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision for the HGB (Houston-Galveston-Brazoria), DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) and Bexar County (San Antonio) Nonattainment Areas. (On October 26, 2015 EPA lowered the NAAQS for ozone from 75 to 70 parts per billion.)
TCEQ says the SIP revision satisfies Federal Clean Air Act Emissions Inventory reporting requirements for areas designated nonattainment for the 2015 eight-hour ozone NAAQS. The revision also includes certification statements to confirm that the emissions statement and that nonattainment new source review requirements have been met for the HGB, DFW, and Bexar County 2015 eight-hour ozone nonattainment areas.
The U.S National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) are limits on atmospheric concentration of six criteria air pollutants that cause smog, acid rain and other health hazards and were established by the EPA under the authority of the Clean Air Act. NAAQS is applied for outdoor air throughout the country.
The six criteria air pollutants for which limits are set in the NAAQS are ozone (O3), atmospheric particulate matter, lead, carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur oxides (SOx), and nitrogen oxides (NOx). These are typically emitted from many sources in industry, mining, transportation, electricity generation and agriculture. In many cases they are the products of the combustion of fossil fuels or industrial processes.
A State Implementation Plan (SIP) is a United States state plan for complying with the federal Clean Air Act, and administered by the Environmental Protection Agency. The SIP, developed by a state agency and approved by EPA, consists of narrative, rules, technical documentation, and agreements that an individual state will use to control and clean up polluted areas.
In United States environmental law, a non-attainment area is an area considered to have air quality worse than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards as defined in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970. Non-attainment areas must have and implement a plan to meet the standard, or risk losing some forms of federal financial assistance. An area may be a non-attainment area for one pollutant and an “attainment area” for others.
What this means to you
TCEQ has adopted the EPA’s 70 ppb 2015 NAAQS ozone standard’s emissions inventory state plan revisions for its three largest ozone non-attainment areas: HBG (Houston-Galveston-Brazoria), DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth), and Bexar County (Essentially San Antonio).
MIRATECH can help
Contact MIRATECH for stationary engine emission compliance in Texas.