Overall Agency Supports Many of AGC’s Positions
In response to a court ordered deadline, on Dec. 14 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule to require a 20 percent reduction in the amount of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) allowed in outdoor air through the entire country. The current standard has been in place since 1997. Reduction in the emission of fine particulate matter is expected to come chiefly from diesel engines and coal-fired power generation plants. States must meet the standard by 2020 or face penalties. The standard will make it harder for some industries to expand operations without strict pollution controls.
Specifically, EPA lowered the annual national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for PM2.5 to 12.0 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) – down from the current level of 15 µg/m3. EPA picked the more stringent standard of the choices laid out in its draft rule proposed in June 2012. AGC strongly opposed the rule at that time and offered significant comments in a 20-page comment letter. EPA estimates that the annual costs of implementing the new annual PM2.5 standard are between $53 million to $350 million.
However, many of AGC’s suggestions were adopted by EPA. For example, the final rule makes no change to the existing daily (24-hour) standard for fine particles or the existing daily standard for coarse particles (PM10 – e.g., dust from farms and construction sites). In addition, EPA also abandoned its plan to set a separate secondary 24-hour standard specific to PM-related urban visibility, which AGC strongly opposed and offered significant comments against in its letter on EPA’s proposal. To ensure a smooth transition to the revised standards – and closely tracking AGC’s recommendations – EPA will grandfather pending preconstruction permitting applications under a variety of situations, as explained in the final rule.
Against AGC’s recommendations, however, EPA did finalize changes to the nationwide monitoring requirements for fine particulate matter, including the addition of fine particulate ambient air monitors along urban highways. EPA will require near-roadway PM2.5 monitoring at one location in each urban area with a population of 1 million or more. These monitors will likely be located at existing near-road monitoring sites also measuring nitrogen dioxide or carbon monoxide. The near-roadway monitoring will be phased in, beginning with the largest urban areas (population of 2.5 million or more) by Jan. 1, 2015; and extending to the remainder of the areas by Jan. 1, 2017. According to EPA, data from these monitors will be available too late for use in making initial attainment and nonattainment designations for the revised primary annual PM2.5 standard.
EPA anticipates attainment/nonattainment designations to be in place by early 2015. States would have until 2020 (five years after designations are effective) to meet the revised annual PM2.5 standard. Based on 2009-2011 air monitoring data, EPA anticipates that 66 counties will not meet the new PM2.5 air standard (areas of California and many cities on the East Coast of the US); 47 of those areas already are in nonattainment with the current fine particulate requirement, but 19 areas will be in nonattainment for the first time. EPA’s preliminary estimates show that by 2020 only 7 counties (all located in California) will remain in violation of the new PM2.5 NAAQS.
Additional Information:
To read the revised standards and additional summaries, visit http://www.epa.gov/airquality/particlepollution/actions.html. For information on the designation process for PM2.5 standards, visit http://www.epa.gov/pmdesignations/. For information on EPA’s preconstruction permitting program, visit http://www.epa.gov/nsr/.
For more information, please contact AGC’s Leah Pilconis at pilconisl@agc.org.