Boiler MACT Update and Preparing for your July Report

Posted: June 20th, 2017

Author: All4 Staff

This article is available as a podcast episode on ALL4’s Air Quality Insider

Things have been fairly quiet with respect to Boiler MACT lately…or so it may seem. With the next semiannual report due by July 31, here’s an update on what you need to know.

December 2016 Remand

The last significant action around Boiler MACT was that the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Court) granted U.S. EPA’s petition to remand the numeric emissions limits for key subcategories for further evaluation. That action was seen as a win from U.S. EPA, industry, and environmental group perspectives because a full vacatur as was originally proposed by the Court in July 2016 would have caused undue confusion and could have minimized emissions reductions already being achieved.

Although no formal updates from U.S. EPA have been provided regarding their review of the remanded standards, we know that they have been crunching numbers to calculate proposed revised emissions limits for certain subcategories and will likely have some news to share soon.

Regulatory Reform

In April 2017, U.S. EPA’s Regulatory Reform Task Force sought public input for potential repeals, replacements, or modifications of existing regulations as directed by President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 13777. U.S. EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) held a public meeting on April 24, and comments were accepted through May 15, 2017. We attended the public hearing and reviewed the comments that were submitted, and found that, in general industry and environmental groups had reciprocating comments pertaining to various regulations. Boiler MACT received its fair share of comments, and not surprisingly from industry requesting that U.S. EPA conclude the “saga” after practically 20 years of rulemaking.

One Year Compliance Extension Deadline Approaching

For those facilities that received a one-year extension to the compliance date, from January 31, 2016 to January 31, 2017, the deadline for conducting the initial compliance demonstration is quickly approaching. Pursuant to §63.7510(e), the initial compliance demonstration (i.e., performance test, fuel sampling, etc.) must be completed within 180 days of the compliance date, or July 30, 2017. Test results must then be submitted via U.S. EPA’s Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface (CEDRI) and Electronic Reporting Tool (ERT) within 60 days of the test. The Notification of Compliance Status (NOCS) must also be submitted within 60 days of completing all compliance demonstrations. CEDRI was recently updated to optionally accept NOCS submittals electronically rather than hardcopy.

July 2017 Report

For those facilities that did not receive a one-year extension, the first semiannual compliance report was due by January 31, 2017, and the next semiannual compliance report is due by July 31, 2017. We supported several facilities with the first report, and learned some things along the way. Unlike the NOCS, this report must be submitted via CEDRI, which we sometimes found to be inconsistent with the specific Boiler MACT rule requirements. U.S. EPA has already made some updates to CEDRI to address these inconsistencies, but here are some areas to watch out for:

CEDRI previously prompted you to submit continuous monitoring system (CMS) data for all parameters, not just continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS). Pursuant to §63.7550(c)(5)(xvi), only CEMS data and particulate matter (PM) continuous parametric monitoring system (CPMS) data is required to be submitted. U.S. EPA appears to have updated CEDRI to address this item.
Pursuant to §63.7575, a 30-day rolling average for CO CEMS is defined as the arithmetic mean of the previous 720 hours of valid CO CEMS data; however, CEDRI only accepts CO CEMS data on a 30-day rolling average basis (i.e., one value per day).
CEDRI does not prompt you to submit startup and shutdown data unless you have CMS data to submit. Pursuant to §63.7550(c)(2) and (3), startup and shutdown data must be submitted regardless of whether you utilize CMS to demonstrate compliance.

Those are just some examples of things to watch out for – if you have questions about your semiannual report, your performance test, your NOCS, or anything else, just call.

Looking for some more details about any of these updates? Check out the following articles: