4 The record articles

RACT 2 Update

Posted: October 21st, 2014

Author: All4 Staff 

As part of the October 9, 2014 meeting of the Pennsylvania Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee (AQTAC), Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) senior staff, including Vince Brisini, Deputy Secretary, Waste, Air, Radiation and Remediation; Joyce Epps, Director, Bureau of Air Quality; and Krishnan Ramamurthy, Chief, Division of Permits provided an update on Pennsylvania’s proposed Reasonably Available Control Technology rule (i.e., RACT 2).  You’ll recall from a previous blog by ALL4’s Roy Rakiewicz in March 2014, the proposed rule has been winding its way through the rulemaking process.  During the October 9, 2014 AQTAQ meeting, PADEP’s update included a summary of comments received, including comments by U.S. EPA.  PADEP is anxious to finalize the rule, and a special AQTAC meeting has been scheduled for November 7, 2014 in order to present the final rule to the committee for vote.  If approved by AQTAC, the rule would likely be presented for consideration to the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) in February 2015.  If approved by the EQB, the rule would be sent to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office for final approval.  It is expected that the rule could become effective as early as the spring of 2015.  Once effective, the rule would require that all unit specific case-by-case RACT proposals would be due six (6) months after the effective date of the RACT 2 rule, with compliance for all such units required one (1) year after the effective date of the RACT 2 rule.  The proposed rule will allow facilities that need to install controls to meet either the presumptive or approved alternative RACT limits to petition PADEP for an extension of compliance for up to 3 years after the effective date of the regulation.

ALL4 encourages interested parties to attend the November 7, 2014 AQTAC meeting starting at 9:15 a.m. in Room 105 of the Rachel Carson State Office Building, 400 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA.  Look for future ALL4 blogs on this topic as the rule goes through the final approval process.

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