EPA Asks for Extension on Boiler Rules

The U.S. EPA has filed a motion with a federal District Court for an extension for issuing the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rules for boilers. The extension would allow 15 more months for the EPA to release rules reducing harmful air emissions from large and small boilers, and solid waste incinerators. Without the extension, the agency is on a court-ordered timeline to issue final rules by January having already proposed standards in April.

“While the EPA requested and received some information from industry before the proposal, the comments the EPA received following the proposal shed new light on a number of key areas, including the scope and coverage of the rules and the way to categorize the various boiler types,” the agency stated in a press release.

“After receiving additional data through the extensive public comment period, the EPA is requesting more time to develop these important rules,” said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Regulation.

The extension request push back the final release date to April 2012. The EPA would like to re-propose the rules, allowing for another public comment period. “After reviewing the data and the more than 4,800 public comments, the agency believes it is appropriate to issue a revised proposal that reflects the new data and allows for additional public comment,” the EPA said.

Areas of concern also include defining sub categorizations of commercial and industrial solid waste incinerator units that burn biomass, an area the CMRA and many other organizations commented on as being so restrictive that the use of C&D wood as a fuel product would end.

Under the current proposed rule, biomass boilers previously considered multi-fuel boilers would instead be classified as incinerators and be subject to new emission limits for five pollutants: mercury, hydrogen chloride, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and dioxin. The Biomass Power Association has argued since its release that the proposed rule would ruin the biomass power industry, requiring expensive retrofits at nearly all existing facilities.

| More...