A Little Help When You Need It – Georgia’s Expedited Air Permitting Program

To close out 2012, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (Georgia EPD) rolled out a draft version of its anticipated expedited air permitting program. As it stands today, the program will become effective on July 1, 2013, and though participation in this program would require a fee, it may help facilities that are under a time crunch to implement a change to an existing process or to install a new process. After consideration solicited during two (2) public stakeholder meetings, Georgia EPD has decided to self-execute the expedited permitting process (opposed to using a third-party contractor). For those interested in this option, Georgia EPD has identified the following mandatory procedures as part of the process:

• The program is not designed to address your permitting projects that come to you in the shower. Participation requires a mandatory pre-application meeting at least 30 days prior to submitting the application, except for Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) applications, which require a pre-application meeting at least 90 days in advance.
• You do not always get what you ask for. Submittal of a request for expedited review is not a guarantee that the application will be accepted into the program. Georgia EPD has stated it “expects the highest of quality in applications that are selected for expedited review.” In other words, a technically incomplete application submittal will not be processed under expedited review. Therefore, facilities must carefully consider their available internal resources to prepare the application, and consider the use of a consultant that is experienced in preparing applications in the state of Georgia to avoid impactful delays in the expedited review process.
• Make sure Georgia EPD knows how to get in touch with you. Georgia EPD will contact the applicant within five (5) business day of receipt of an application submittal requesting the expedited process. The applicant has five (5) business days to accept the expedited process, which includes the submittal of the fee within five (5) business days of accepting Georgia EPD’s offer. Responses not provided within the specified timeframes can disqualify you from the expedited program.
• A request for a public hearing would add 60 days to the expedited processing timeframe.

A link to the Georgia EPD draft fact sheet is provided here. In this fact sheet, Table 1 provides the expedited review time frames and Table 2 provides the expedited review fees.

ALL4’s staff is available to discuss the expedited permitting program. Please contact us to review your permitting projects and your available options.