Partner Wayne D’Angelo Quoted in The Fabricator Article on EPA Air Emissions Regulation

Partner Wayne D’Angelo was quoted in The Fabricator article ​“EPA considers air emissions status reductions for coating application.” Many metalworking sectors are watching with interest as the Environmental Protection Agency decides whether to allow major sources of air emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) to reclassify as area sources, which are less regulated.

Major sources are facilities that emit 10 tons/year of any single HAP or 25 tons/year of any combination of HAP. Once classified as major sources, those facilities have to implement maximum achievable control technology (MACT), which the EPA specifies. Those emission control limits can be costly. It is then difficult under current regulations for major sources to reclassify as less regulated area sources, which are subject to a generally achievable control technology (GACT) standard, which are less onerous and, in many instances, prescribed by the state in which the facility is located, not the EPA. The EPA wants to allow a major source to become an area source at any time by limiting its HAP ​“potential to emit” (PTE)—a term of EPA regulatory art—to below the major source thresholds.

Part of the issue is whether reclassifying as an area source, and thereby shucking the MACTs associated with their specific National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants, would result in greater emissions of HAPs if the facility qualified for the less stringent GACT. Some NESHAPs do include deadlines for companies covered to apply to become area sources. In some cases, those are very specific deadlines established when the NESHAP first went into effect. Many of those deadlines have passed. “…the EPA should extend those deadlines for facilities doing surface coating of metal coil and those doing surface coating of miscellaneous metal parts and products,” said Wayne in response to the debate.

To read the full article, click here.