EPA Questions Legality Of Pennsylvania Oil, Gas 'Aggregation' Guidance

摘要

Epa is questioning the legality of Pennsylvania's controversial draft guidance that aims to set a first-time distance boundary for when Clean Air Act permit writers must "aggregate," or combine, emissions from dispersed oil and gas drilling operations, saying it fails to follow EPA's aggregation policies and violates the Clean Air Act. In Nov. 21 comments on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) draft guidance, EPA Region III highlights several flaws, including an apparent attempt by the state to rewrite the legal definition of an emissions "source" and by ignoring other conditions EPA uses to determine when to aggregate. "We disagree with the policy pronouncements in the PA DEP guidance which differ from established federal law and the Commonwealth's own state implementation plan (SIP) and regulations by attempting to emphasize proximity and 'common sense notion of a plant' above other factors including conducting case-by-case analysis," the region says. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. Seepage 2 for details. {Doc ID: 2383529) The draft guide set a quarter-mile boundary for determining whether to combine emissions from oil and gas drilling sources. Those located less than a quarter mile apart would automatically have to aggregate - a concern for industry as combined emissions that exceed the 100 or 250 tons per year thresholds for triggering a "major" source prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) air permit would require expensive pollution controls.