Plan Approval and Operating Permit Exemptions [29 Pa.B. 373] Under 25 Pa. Code § 127.14, the Department of Environmental Protection (Department) may determine sources or classes of sources to be exempt from the plan approval and permitting requirements of 25 Pa. Code Chapter 127. A listing of these exemptions was last published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on September 21, 1996, (26 Pa.B. 4559). Notice is hereby provided that, in accordance with section 127.14(d), the listing of these determinations is being revised and a draft is now available for review and comment. After a 30-day public comment period, the plan approval and operating permit exemptions list will be revised, as appropriate, and published in final-form in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. Comments received by facsimile will not be accepted. Comments may be submitted electronically to the following e-mail address: lesher.douglas@a1.dep.state.pa.us.
The following changes are proposed to the Exemption List as published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on September 21, 1996:
Revisions to Plan Approval Exemption List 1. Category 5 will be added to provide a plan approval exemption for internal combustion engines rated at less than 100 brake horsepower.
2. Category 13 applies to storage and dispensing facilities that handle fuel products and will be revised to specify that this exemption applies only to fuel products with a vapor pressure less than 1.5 psia.
3. Category 28 consists of the plan approval exemptions for sources of VOCs previously described in Categories 28 and 29. The proposed Category 28 exemption is based on threshold limits in 25 Pa. Code § 129.52.
4. Category 38 will be added to provide a plan approval exemption for sources qualifying for exemption based on criteria contained in a general permit developed in accordance with the procedures described in 25 Pa. Code §§ 127.601 through 127.642.
5. Category 39 will be added to provide a plan approval exemption for powdered metal sintering furnaces.
Revisions to Physical Changes Qualifying for Exemption under Section 127.14(a)(9) 6. Category 15 will allow physical changes qualifying for exemption under 25 Pa. Code § 127.14(a)(9) due to the temporary replacement of an existing source with a source that has a lower potential to emit.
Revisions to Exemption
Criteria for Operating Permits7. The operating permit exemption criteria for potential and actual emissions will be applied without regard to previous permit status.
8. EPA has finalized its regulation deferring the operating permitting process for area sources subject to Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) until the year 2000. The owners and/or operators of affected area MACT sources must submit operating permit applications by December 9, 2000. (see 62 Fed. Reg. 27785, June 3, 1996). These facilities must still comply with all applicable emission control requirements established by the respective MACT standard.
Area MACT sources include non-major facilities [emitting or having the potential to emit less than 10 tons per year (tpy) of any hazardous air pollutant or 25 tpy of any combination of hazardous air pollutants] which contain the following: perchloroethylene dry cleaning, halogenated solvent cleaning, ethylene oxide commercial sterilization and fumigation operations, hard and decorative chromium electroplating, chromium anodizing tanks and secondary lead smelters. PADEP will follow the Federal schedule for deferring the permitting process for area MACT sources. The plan approval exemption for retail gasoline stations will also be included in the operating permit deferral listing of area sources.
Revisions to Trivial Activities List 9. The list of activities that need not be considered in the completion of an operating permit application will be described as a ''trivial activities'' list instead of being described as ''insignificant activities.'' This revision is being made at the request of EPA. According to EPA's White Paper for Streamlined Development of Part 70 Permit Applications (White Paper No. 1, dated July 10, 1995), ''emissions units and activities without specific applicable requirements and extremely small emissions'' are clearly trivial activities. State Permitting authorities may make trivial activity determinations on a case-by-case basis without obtaining EPA's approval.
10. Category 4 of the Trivial Activities List will be expanded to include propane and gas fired space heaters with a plant-wide capacity less than 2.5 million Btus per hour heat input.
11. In response to concerns raised by EPA, the Department will remove Category 61 from the exemptions list published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on September 21, 1996 (26 Pa.B. 4559). This exemption applied to ''Retail gasoline stations and vehicle fueling operations at industrial plant sites.''
Copies of the proposed revisions to the Plan Approval and Operating Permit Exemptions may be obtained by contacting Kimberly Maneval, Division of Permits, Bureau of Air Quality, PADEP, 12th Floor Rachel Carson State Office Building, P. O. Box 8468, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8468, telephone (717) 787-4325. TDD users may telephone the Department through the AT&T Relay Service, (800) 654-5984. Internet users can access a copy of the general permit at http:\\www.dep.state.pa.us. Choose Public Participation, then Proposals Open for Comment, then Draft--Other Proposals, then Plan Approval and Operating Permit Exemptions.
JAMES M. SEIF,
Secretary[Pa.B. Doc. No. 99-89. Filed for public inspection January 15, 1999, 9:00 a.m.]
