Where is the line between routine maintenance and a modification that requires a permit? What are the criteria for determining routine? Since the EPA has made non-compliance of New Source Review (NSR) requirements an enforcement priority, the narrowing of the routine maintenance exemption is critical to NSR compliance. As such, EPA has closely examined the utility industry, especially coal fired boilers, to determine if some repairs of these units would not be considered routine and should theoretically trigger Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) or New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) requirements. Several court cases and EPA guidance memos over the last fifteen years have attempted to clarify the NSR/NSPS exemption for "routine maintenance, repair, and replacement". From the WEPCO decision in 1989 to the Tennessee Valley Authority decision in September 2000, much has happened to cloud the use of the routine maintenance, repair and replacement definition. This paper will review these and other decisions and guidance memos and attempt to shed some light on the evolving definition of "routine".
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