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Air Quality Permitting & Compliance

In compliance with the EPA’s Clean Air Act, any facility that emits air pollutants above specified levels must obtain an air quality permit. Permits can be general or individualized and specify pollutant limits, how industrial facilities must operate equipment to control pollution, and how to monitor and report emissions.

Compliance with ever-evolving state and federal regulations can create a complex air permitting path for many companies. This podcast features our air permitting experts sharing details to help you understand who needs an air permit, the different variations, the permit process, what to do if you’re not in compliance, plus a preview of the future of air permitting.

Podcast Agenda

  • Overview of Types of Air Permits (00:20)
  • Regulations Pertaining to Particulate Matter and Emissions (3:14)
  • Project Complexity Determines Timing for Obtaining an Air Permit (5:37)
  • Post-Permitting Operations & Assistance (6:57)
  • Air Permitting Compliance (8:29)
  • Common Problems Encountered in Obtaining Air Permits (11:26)
  • The Future of Air Permitting (13:10)

 

 

Understanding Air Permits

Jeff Walters (00:20)

Today I have Brent with me. He is a professional here at Snyder and Associates who specializes in air permitting. This type of permit is something we’ve found many of our clients need for various types of projects. So today, we’re going to dive into that and explain the process of air permitting, the types of permits, and why it’s important to obtain them.

So with that, let’s get started on our discussion. On a typical project, who usually needs air permits, and you know, what types of projects generally need air permits?

Brent Blanchard (00:55)

Really any business or industry, any facility that is going to put in a process or a piece of equipment or control equipment that is going to emit any of the regulated pollutants or near toxic into the ambient air needs to get a construction permit. It would be from the Iowa DNR, except for in Polk and Linn County, which had their own programs. There are two types of permits. There’s the construction permit, which we’ve been talking about, and on another end, there’s an operating permit that you must obtain if you’re a major source in the State of Iowa or if you’re in Polk or Linn County, you also have to obtain one if you’re a minor source.

Jeff Walters (1:37)

So if we need equipment, that’s going to require permitting. Are we going to get both of those permits then, in general?

Brent Blanchard (1:46)

It’s going to depend upon the size of the facility. If it’s classified as a major facility, then it’s going to have to get the operating permit, which is also commonly referred to as a Title Five permit. Minor sources in the state of Iowa do have to, except for in Polk and Lynn County, so they would have to obtain both.

Jeff Walters (2:04)

Let’s talk about some of the initials and acronyms within the air-permitting world. You know, I see them on a fairly regular basis, but even I get kind of confused with what some of those are. You talk about Title Five, MSAT, and some of these other lingos within the air permitting jargon. Can we talk about those a little bit? Maybe help me out so I can help others?

Title Five Permitting

Brent Blanchard (2:28)

Sure. I guess Title Five is a federal program that the state is required to comply with. To be subject to these Title Five Permits, you have to be a major source, which means you have the potential to emit over 100 tons of a single criteria pollutant, or 10 tons of a single toxic pollutant, or twenty-five tons of all your toxics combined. So, it can get confusing when you start talking about major sources because then you also have the PSD program, which is the prevention of significant deterioration. So really, each industry, if they don’t know, has to go through this on a case-by-case basis to make this determination.

Regulations Pertaining to Particulate Matter and Emissions

Jeff Walters (3:14)

Okay. How about the PM 2.5 and that kind of jargon? Is that still something that we’re concerned about in the air-permitting world?

Brent Blanchard (3:22)

Yes. PM is particulate matter, and then it’s broken down into PM 10 and PM 2.5, which is the regulated part of it: the 10 and the 2.5 correlates to the size of the particle. So a PM 10 particle is 10 microns or less in size a PM 2.5 particle is 2.5 microns or less in size.

Jeff Walters (3:51)

Okay, and when we started talking about PM 10 and PM 2.5, is that going down all the way to emergency generators?

yellow Kohler generator

Generators have the potential to emit sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, some volatile organic compounds, and particulates into the atmosphere.

Brent Blanchard (3:59)

Right. Yeah. The generators have the potential to emit sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, some VOCs, volatile organic compounds, and then also the particulates, the PM 10 and the PM 2.5. And, you know, with some of the diesel generators that they can add up to be a significant amount.

To go along with that, a lot of sources take that 500-hour limit because that allows them to be classified as an intermittent source. So then, they do not have to go through dispersion modeling. And with the generators that bring you also into a couple of more of the acronyms you were talking about because they’re subject to what is called the NSPS (New Source Performance Standards) and also the NESHAPs, the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants. The EPA has developed standards for both diesel and natural gas generators that the owner or the manufacturer has to meet. Those standards are based on the same type of operations that a facility will operate at. So there’s a really hard line to draw to be compliant with those emission standards and have the facility comfortable in the operation of them.

Jeff Walters (5:16)

Let’s build on that a little bit and kind of back up, say I’m an industry, I’m a banker, or I need one of these generators, and I don’t know exactly what I want, but I know I want an emergency backup for whatever reason. Walk me through the process and schedule to obtain a permit here in Iowa.

Obtaining an Air Permit in Iowa 

Brent Blanchard (5:37)

If it’s a new process or something that’s not as familiar to DNR, it could take probably two to three weeks to get that permit back.

Jeff Walters (5:47)

And is that fairly run-of-the-mill permitting? What happens if you’re a major industry or you’re adding on a complex project that may require modeling? What’s that look like?

Brent Blanchard (6:01)

The more complex it is, the longer it’s going to take, of course. If the project has to go through modeling, it depends upon is the facility going to submit the model or is going to ask DNR to run the model. If DNR just has to review the model, it will speed the process of if DNR has to run the model you’re looking at adding, you know, several more days to the review time. And if you get into the PSD, the prevention of significant deterioration for the really large projects, there’s a 30 day waiting period for public comment that the facility has to go through. And also, if anybody in the public requests that they have to hold a public meeting, which could also delay it.

Jeff Walters (6:43)

Okay. So, after one of our clients has received a permit what are some of the things that we do to help our client with the permitting or post permitting during their operations?

Post-Permitting Operations 

Brent Blanchard (6:57)

When you submit the application, there is a check box on one of the forms that asks if the facility wants to review the draft permit prior to issuance. I always recommend that the client check that as yes, and then that way, you can see the draft permit ahead of time before it’s issued and work through those issues. Whether or not limits are required, are they in a format that the facility is already doing? In other words, if there is a requirement that limits the gallons of paint per hour, is the facility monitoring the gallons of paint, or are they doing hour meters? So that you can get all those record-keeping requirements lined up ahead of time and try to reduce the burden on the facility to come up with a new accounting system or a new recording system. It really helps.

Jeff Walters (7:45)

There’s a word that I think some of our clients get scared of and that’s compliance. And a few of our clients get really uptight and scared when they hear the term notice of violation because they’re out of compliance or there’s an issue at their facility related to their permit. What have you done to help clients in that kind of situation when the DNR, or maybe the county, will call up the client and say, “Hey, there’s an issue with your operation. You’re going to be out of compliance with your permit, or we’re going to send you an NOV.”  What steps do we take to prevent that? Or when it does happen, what do we do for our clients to rectify that problem?

Ensuring Air Permit Compliance 

Small town welcome sign with a trail and road next to it

Air permits are designed to protect human health and the environment by limiting pollution so our air quality remains within state and federal standards.

Brent Blanchard (8:29)

Yeah. I mean, the best way to avoid an issue is to go through those construction permits when they get them and sit down with the facility and make sure that they understand, you know, what record keeping, what operating limits they need and maybe help them develop the forms or some type of data recording device, whatever they need. It varies with the industry and how involved they want to be in it, but try to develop all those things once you have that construction permit in hand so that they are in compliance, to begin with, and if they fall out of compliance, the best thing to do is contact us right away and work to come up with a strategy to come back into compliance. I mean, the worst thing to do is to try to cover it up because then know that opens up an a-whole-nother set of regulations and can get kicked up to the state level or EPA level. It’s best to avoid all that if you can.

Jeff Walters (9:27)

So we’ve talked about construction permits a little bit. Have we really dove into some of our operational permit issues and concerns, or are we overlapping here a little bit?

Operating Permits 

Brent Blanchard (9:37)

They do overlap in that your operating permit referred to as the Title Five permit, is really a compilation of all the construction permits that have been issued to that facility. For compliance, those that have a Title Five permit have to certify that they are in compliance with their monitoring requirements. If they’re not, they have to submit additional forms stating what units are out of compliance, why they’re out of compliance, and when they’ll be back in compliance.

And then, once a year, they have to submit an annual compliance statement in which they go through and list every requirement that that facility has in regards to air permitting, and then has to state that either they were in compliance full-time or part of the time. If they were out of compliance at any time, they have to submit the forms on which emission units were out of compliance, why they were out of compliance, how long they were out of compliance, and if they’re still out of compliance when there’ll be back into compliance.

Jeff Walters (10:36)

If a facility is out of compliance are the counties or DNR or EPA requiring the facility to shut their operations down at any time?

Brent Blanchard (10:47)

That would be very rare. Normally it depends upon the type of violation that it is. Is it an emission violation, or is it a record-keeping violation? If it’s a record-keeping or you violate your operating limits without exceeding the emission limit, then you can usually get by with a revised construction permit or some type of compliance plan that you can submit. It’ll have benchmarks in there on what you’re going to do, when you’re going to do it, and how long it would take you to come back into compliance.

Jeff Walters (11:20)

Okay. So, what are some of the biggest issues that we have with construction permitting these days?

Common Problems with Air Permitting

Brent Blanchard (11:26)

Yeah. I’d say probably the biggest frustration right now, not only for the client but also for DNR, is the PM 2.5 dispersion modeling because there’s such a narrow window between the background levels and the national ambient air quality standard that it’s really hard to get your process to fall into that range.  So you end up with a lot more facilities having to model for 2.5. If they exceed that limit it used to be, you could raise the stack and other things like that, which were fairly simple fixes that really don’t work for 2.5. You still end up with these hot spots, and it’s frustrating for the client and also for DNR. I mean, the DNR can’t issue the permit if it’s going to violate the standard, and in most cases, they help you come up with the different scenarios to try to get it to pass.

That is one of the biggest issues right now.

Jeff Walters (12:27)

I recall several years ago, we had a client that was frustrated with DNR because they didn’t have rules, but they had guidance. Is that still the case today?

Brent Blanchard (12:39)

Yeah, that really doesn’t seem to be a major concern as what it was. There are still guidelines out there, and it stems more from EPA than it does from the DNR. EPA is the one that comes out with the guidance, and then DNR will have to adopt it, and they really can’t adopt the guidance. They need a firm rule in order for the DNR to adopt it and then enforce it.

Jeff Walters (13:02)

What are some of the foreseeable changes you anticipate in the air permitting realm in the next six months, a year, three years, or five years?

Future of Air Permitting 

Brent Blanchard (13:10)

At the state level, I would anticipate a bigger push to put more things online. Right now, that is an option. I would see them trying to make that mandatory. Like they did the Title Five permitting, and then at the federal level, they’re also pushing more towards paperless accounting systems. And I would anticipate with the new administration that we have that the greenhouse gases will become a bigger issue, and I could see them do a big push to make those a regulated pollutant.

Jeff Walters (13:42)

Who do you think will be the next client or industry that will start dipping their toes in the air-permitting world? We discussed that a little bit earlier about post-derecho and various entities wanting to have emergency generator backup. What else do you see in the future?

Brent Blanchard (14:02)

What I see would be continuing growth in the data centers like Facebook here in Altoona. They have a hundred diesel backup generators with Amazon moving in and Microsoft on the south side of Des Moines and Dallas County. It’s because here in Iowa, we have a fairly cheap water supply, which is major for them. For the cooling part of it, we have stable and fairly cheap electricity. Also, we do not have earthquakes, so I could see more of those types of facilities moving into the area.

I probably just want to remind the clients that, you know, the construction permit is a pre-construction requirement, and you have to have that permit in hand before you initiate construction or begin operating the equipment. You know, that those facilities trying to get the jump on that is where you see, you know, probably the greatest number of NOV issues.

Jeff Walters (15:01)

Brent, I thank you for your time today talking about the world of air permitting. I learned quite a bit today, and I appreciate the time. Thank you.

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