ILTA Meets with EPA on Air Permitting Technology Review
On July 21, ILTA and a team of terminal industry representatives met with Brenda Shine and Michael Cantoni of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Durham, North Carolina to discuss pending rulemaking regarding the Gasoline Distribution Industry package of air regulations that EPA proposed last year and the NSPS Subpart Kb storage tank standard that EPA is currently reviewing. In addition to the 5-person delegation representing ILTA, over fifty additional members called into the meeting.
The Gasoline Distribution rulemaking package, involving revisions to Part 63 Subparts R and BBBBBB and promulgation of a new NSPS Subpart XXa, will impact every terminal and pipeline facility that stores or transfers gasoline. The package was originally proposed June 10, 2022, and the final rules were due to be released by the end of August 2023 to meet a court-ordered deadline. A notice, however, recently has been posted to the docket indicating that the court has granted an extension to February 29, 2024, for signing the final rules. EPA would not confirm whether the final rules will, in fact, be delayed until February 2024 or whether they will be released sooner. EPA did indicate, though, that they will not be issuing a re-proposal, which means that provisions (such as fence line monitoring) which were not included in the proposed package will also not be in the final package.
The ILTA team then pressed EPA on clarifications to NSPS Subpart Kb inspection and reporting deadlines that ILTA had previously requested in comments submitted in response to changes EPA had proposed to Subpart Kb in 2020. That revision of Subpart Kb, which became final on January 19, 2021, was for the purpose of adding the option to elect to comply with Part 63 Subpart WW in lieu of NSPS Subpart Kb. EPA had responded then that ILTA’s requested clarifications were outside the scope of that rulemaking but could be considered in the future. The ILTA team requested that these issues be taken up in this current round of rulemaking.
EPA’s review of NSPS Subpart Kb is to result in promulgation of a new NSPS storage tank standard, Subpart Kc. The court-ordered schedule for this rule is for proposal by September 29, 2023, and a final rule by September 30, 2024. At a previous meeting with industry, EPA had requested input on a number of issues. The ILTA team reviewed these issues with EPA, and particularly emphasized to EPA that the statutory mandate for an NSPS standard is not simply to specify the “least emitting” technology, but rather the Clean Air Act requires EPA to consider costs and whether the given technology has been adequately demonstrated. The ILTA team pointed out to EPA that, in the case of storage tanks, a key consideration should be whether a given technology, such as a type of floating roof rim seal, has been adequately demonstrated to have expected service life that is as long as scheduled intervals between tank cleaning and degassing events.
ILTA will continue to follow these rulemaking initiatives and engage with EPA for the benefit of the terminal industry.