ILTA Comments to Ohio EPA on January 2020 Draft Engineering Guide #8 – Compliance Tests at Bulk Gasoline Terminals

March 12, 2019

Ohio EPA – Central Office Division of Air Pollution Control

50 West Town Street Suite 700 P.O. Box 1049

Columbus, OH 43216-1049

Re: Request for Comment; January 2020 Draft Engineering Guide #8 – Compliance Tests at Bulk Gasoline Terminals

To Whom it May Concern,

The International Liquid Terminals Association (ILTA) represents nearly 90 companies operating liquid terminals in all 50 states and in over 40 countries. Our members’ facilities provide critical links between all modes of transportation for liquid commodities, such as crude oil, petroleum products, chemicals, renewable fuels, fertilizer, vegetable oils and other food-grade materials that are central to the U.S. economy. Terminals provide essential logistics services that spur trade both within the United States and connect the U.S. economy with overseas markets. ILTA’s membership also includes about 400 companies that supply equipment and services to the terminal industry.

ILTA is submitting these comments on the January 2020 Draft Engineering Guide #8 – Compliance Tests at Bulk Gasoline Terminals that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OHEPA), Division of Air Pollution Control (DAPC) released for interested party review and comment. We are writing to request that OHEPA remove requirements for testing that are inconsistent with 40 CFR Part 60 Subpart XX. Specifically, we request that OHEPA remove options 3.a and 3.b from the Engineering Guide and to allow compliance testing to be in accordance with the Subpart XX requirements.

OHEPA recently revised Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) 3745-21-10(E)(2) to remove the requirement to conduct compliance testing at 90 percent of the maximum throughput of the loading rack. A letter requesting these revisions was submitted by Envirospec on behalf of Buckeye, CITGO and Energy Transfer dated April 18, 2018. Engineering Guide #8 is inconsistent with the revised regulations and requires terminals to test at near maximum throughput, a requirement that was specifically removed from the regulation. OAC 3745-21-10(E)(2) currently states: “The VOC emission rates shall be determined in accordance with the methods and procedures contained in 40 CFR 60.503(b), (c), (e) and (f) of "Subpart XX - Standards of Performance for Bulk Gasoline Terminals."” ILTA requests that Engineering Guide #8 be consistent with the regulation and that OHEPA require testing to only be in accordance with Subpart XX.

For source categories where there is no guidance regarding operating rates, it may be appropriate to define a target range or “worst case” operating scenario. However, in rules where the minimum capacity and/or duration have been clearly defined for a source category, as is the case for bulk terminals, it is an unnecessary burden to add these requirements. While the EPA Clean Air Act Stack Guidance recommends maximum capacity testing in certain circumstances, the guidance does not recommend such testing when individual standards, such as Subpart XX, provide operating conditions for stack testing:

“Individual standards may more specifically define operating conditions under which performance tests should be conducted. In the absence of such specifications, the question often arises as to what operating conditions should be used when conducting a stack test. If operating conditions are not indicated by the applicable requirements in individual standards, they should be developed as part of the site-specific test plan.”

[Clean Air Act National Stack Testing Guidance, EPA, Apr. 27, 2009 (available at https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-09/documents/stacktesting_1.pdf)]

The specific testing parameters for tests under NSPS XX are listed at 40 CFR 60.503(c)(1). NSPS XX requires the performance test to be at least six hours in duration during which at least 300,000 liters (80,000 gallons) of gasoline is loaded. 40 CFR 60.503(c)(1) further states that if 300,000 liters of gasoline is not possible, “the test may be continued the same day until 300,000 liters of gasoline is loaded or the test may be resumed the next day with another complete six-hour period. In the latter case, the 300,000-liter criterion need not be met. However, as much as possible, testing should be conducted during the six-hour period in which the highest throughput normally occurs.” Therefore, the operating parameters for the performance test are already established by Subpart XX. The requirement under either Option 3.a or 3.b of Engineering Guide #8 is not practical for a truck rack for a six-hour period, nor is it representative of normal daily operations. Permitted loading rack throughput is an annual limit (i.e. gal/year) and does not reliably correlate to a short-term value that can be achieved during a test.

To accurately reflect the requirements of Subpart XX, the following should be added to Engineering Guide #8 under Item 2, 40 CFR 60.503 Test Methods and Procedures, bullet 4: “If 300,000 liters of gasoline is not possible, the test may be continued the same day until 300,000 liters of gasoline is loaded or the test may be resumed the next day with another complete six-hour period. In the latter case, the 300,000-liter criterion need not be met. However, as much as possible, testing should be conducted during the six-hour period in which the highest throughput normally occurs.”

A bulk terminal loading rack is not a continuous operation like a boiler or other combustion source. There are many variable steps associated with tanker truck loading operations. For example, when a truck pulls into the rack, a driver must first “card in” before he or she can load. This allows the electronic system to confirm that the trailer being loaded has the proper certifications. Once the trailer certification is confirmed, the trailer receives a permissive to load. A driver then connects the liquid and vapor lines and begins loading various compartments on the tank truck. Once loading is complete, the driver must disconnect loading arms and the vapor line before pulling away and allowing the next truck to pull in and the process to start again. This process can take 15 to 30 minutes per truck depending on the circumstances. Varying factors may include trouble carding in, how many compartments are loading and the pace of the driver. A typical terminal truck loading rack can theoretically load a maximum of three or four trucks per hour per bay if the trucks are queued up and there are no loading or driver related delays. This hourly rate is not representative of an overall annual permitted throughput and is not a sustained rate as truck traffic is variable throughout the day. It is not possible to load this number of trucks over a six-hour period as required by Option 3.a. Typically, there is a busy period or short periods of peak truck traffic throughout a day; however, it is not a constant hourly flow of trucks and it is not practical to sustain a maximum number of trucks over the required six-hour performance test period. In addition, it is difficult for a terminal to control truck traffic since loading activity on any given day is most often determined by local market conditions, which the terminal has no control over. These are the real-world inherent physical limitations.

Option 3.b of Engineering Guide #8 requires a five-year look back at operations. The petroleum market fluctuates regularly, and a five-year window is not an accurate representation of market conditions on a given day. The terminal has no way to control the daily flow of customers and is unable to meet the maximum throughput requirements that may have been achieved up to five years prior. If Option 3.b were included, then it would be necessary to include a provision to allow for relief if, because of a change in business volume, the five-year look-back window was no longer representative. Contacting customers prior to testing is not a guarantee for more volume, especially to meet the unnecessarily high throughput limits required by either Option 3.a or 3.b.

Finally, truck racks are not regulated on an hourly or daily basis, and it is not accurate to use an annual permitted throughput level as a daily or hourly maximum for compliance testing purposes. Truck racks are regulated on a mg/L of gasoline loaded basis and not on a pound/hour basis. These reasons further support testing in accordance with Subpart XX requirements.

For the reasons provided above, we respectfully request that Ohio EPA modify the proposed requirements of Engineering Guide #8 to incorporate the Federal New Source Performance Standards testing requirements for bulk terminals of a minimum of 80,000 gallons of loaded gasoline in a six-hour period.

Sincerely,

Peter T. Lidiak

Vice President, Regulatory Affairs