Comment Period Open for EPA’s Proposed NESHAP: Site Remediation Rule Amendments

By Melissa A. Gardner, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP

EPA recently published proposed rule amendments that would subject site remediation activities performed under CERCLA and RCRA to National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (“NESHAP”; referred to as the “Site Remediation Rule”). The current Site Remediation Rule exempts site remediations performed pursuant to CERCLA or a RCRA order from the rule’s requirements, which include emission limitations and work practice standards for hazardous air pollutants emitted from site remediation activities. Those current exemptions are found at 40 C.F.R. § 63.7881(b)(2) and (3).   

EPA is also proposing to remove the applicability requirement from the Site Remediation Rule that a remediation site must be co-located with a facility that is regulated by another NESHAP.  EPA states that the removal of this requirement is necessary to ensure that the Site Remediation Rule will apply to site remediations that are themselves considered major sources of hazardous air pollutants, without regard for co-location with another facility.

EPA estimates that 69 major source facilities performing remediation under CERCLA or RCRA may become subject to the Site Remediation Rule as a result of these proposed rule changes.  

The comment period on these potential changes closed on June 27, 2016.

EPA’s proposed rule amendments may be found online here.

Additionally, my colleague, Devin Parram, recently published an article that includes more detail on the proposed amendments.  Devin’s article may be found online here.

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