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Region 6: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
For
EPA related news and events in Region 6,
click
here.
Louisiana
MARCH 2011
EPA recently
published a
proposed rule
to terminate the applicability of CAA 185 fees for the Baton Rouge, LA, ozone
nonattainment area. The region received an attainment
designation for the applicable standards in February 2010.
APRIL 2009
Baton Rouge Ozone
Area Subject to CAA 185
Clean Air Act 185
requirements may apply to several parishes in Louisiana, given the region failed
to meet the 125 part-per-billion 1-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard
for Ozone by its 2007 attainment deadline. These parishes include:
-
Ascension
-
East Baton
Rouge
-
Iberville
-
Livingston
-
West Baton
Rouge
To date, no action
has been taken in Louisiana. For more information on CAA 185,
click here.
Texas
JULY 2011
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated an EPA guidance document which
would have allowed states to implement alternative programs in lieu of assessing
Clean Air Act Section 185 penalty fees. As a result of the ruling, major
source facilities located in the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) ozone
nonattainment areas will face penalty fees in the coming months. Companies
in this region may be assessed nearly $9,000 per ton of emissions that exceeded
80 percent of baseline emissions. Baseline emissions are considered the
lower amount of either allowable permitted emissions or actual emissions for the
year in which the state failed to meet its attainment deadline. Major
facilities located in the HGB nonattainment area are expected to be assessed
penalty fees for calendar years 2008 to present, based on 2007 emissions.
JULY 2010
EPA Rejects Flexible Air Permits for Facilities in Texas
– On
July 15, EPA issued a
final rule
disapproving the Texas flexible air permit program for refineries, chemical
plants and power plants. There are 122 facilities currently operating under
flexible air permits in Texas. EPA Region 6 Administrator has stated that none
of these facilities will be required to shut down. However, all of them will be
required to obtain a new operating permit. EPA is encouraging flexible permit
holders to participate in a voluntary compliance audit program to speed up the
process of identifying emission limits and setting operating and reporting
requirements.
MAY 2010
EPA May Federalize
Texas’ Title V Emissions Permitting Program
On May
25, Region 6 Chief Al Armendariz announced that the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) would require a refinery owned by Flint Hills Resources in Corpus
Christy, TX to submit a new application for a federal Clean Air Act (CAA)
Title V operating permit. The refinery’s existing “flexible permit” was issued
by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in 1995, then amended in
2002.
EPA presently faces
a court-ordered deadline to act on the permissibility of flexible permits.
These allow for unanticipated emissions exceedances from individual sources
provided total facility emissions remain below an overall cap. Armendariz has
said EPA plans to disapprove of the program, claiming that flexible permits
violate the CAA. TCEQ’s practice of issuing flexible permits went into effect
in 1994 under the Clinton administration. Through this announcement, EPA
threatens to federalize the state’s permit issuing process.
TCEQ is pushing back. The commission’s chief,
Mark Vickery, denies that flexible permits violate any CAA requirement. TCEQ
Chairman Bryan Shaw claims that flexible permits are similar to a federal
Plant-wide Applicability Limits (PAL) program for site-wide caps and stated that
EPA’s action is a “blatant power grab.” The Texas governor was quick to side
with TCEQ. On May 28, Governor Perry sent a letter to President Obama claiming
“overreach” by the federal government which would undermine TCEQ’s focus on
“results instead of big-government control.”
Armendariz, an Obama appointee and self-avowed
environmental activist, has acknowledged that federalizing a process in this
manner is “unprecedented.” If EPA is successful in this instance, terminals
could be required to seek new permits from the federal government on a
source-by-source basis.
Additional information on this
precedential issue is available here:
JUNE 2009
TCEQ May Begin Using Helicopters to Monitor Air
Emissions
TCEQ has teamed up with the University of Houston to increase remote sensing
technology capabilities. During June, Bell Jet helicopters equipped with
Differential Absorptions Light Detection and Ranging (DIAL) sensors will be used
to conduct field research over the Houston Ship Channel. For these tests, the
DIAL technology had been adjusted to detect the presence of benzene. This is
the first time a specialized airborne benzene detection system was used in a
field setting. If successful, the aerial monitoring of benzene may be an added
as inspection tool for regulatory enforcement efforts. For more information on
the project, please contact Terry Clawson at 512-239-0046. For additional
information on TCEQ’s use of aircraft-based monitoring,
click
here.
TCEQ Releases Draft Language for CAA-185 Fee
Assessments
On June
8, the TCEQ released a
draft rule for the assessment and collection of Clean Air Act
Section185 fees from facilities located within the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria
Attainment Area. CAA-185 requires each major stationary source of VOCs and NOx
located in severe and extreme nonattainment areas to pay a penalty to the state
for failure to attain the ozone NAAQS. TCEQ has suggested a May 2010
implementation date with the first invoice issued in 2011 for 2008 emissions.
More information on how the draft rule is available through TCEQ’s “Section
185 Stakeholders Participation” website.
APRIL 2009
Houston-Galveston-Brazoria Ozone Area Subject to CAA 185
Clean Air Act 185
requirements may apply to several counties in Texas, given the region failed to
meet the 125 part-per-billion 1-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard for
Ozone by its 2007 attainment deadline. These counties include:
-
Brazoria
-
Chambers
-
Fort Bend
-
Galveston
-
Harris
-
Liberty
-
Montgomery
-
Waller
For more
information on CAA 185,
click here.
JUNE 2007
TCEQ
Publishes Additional Requirements for Storage Tanks
On June 14, 2007, the Texas Council on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) published a
final rule subjecting volatile organic compound (VOC) tanks in
the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) metropolitan area to more stringent control
and monitoring requirements. The effective date for implementation of the rule
is January 1, 2009. Among other things, the rule:
-
Prohibits
floating roof landings, except for inspection and maintenance purposes or for
change of product service; and
-
Requires
more stringent controls for tank fittings on floating roofs, including slotted
guide poles and other openings.
-
Requires
more stringent controls for storage tank degassing.
The rule was
initially proposed December 29, 2006.
Click
here for a detailed summery of the final
TCEQ Reg V Requirements for Storage Tanks in the Houston/Galveston/Brazoria
area.
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