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August 19-25, 2023
In this week's issue:
- EPA Initiates New Review of Ozone NAAQS; Issues Call for Information on Integrated Science Assessment (August 21-25, 2023)
- EPA Inspector General Calls Upon EPA to Better Address Cumulative Impacts (August 22, 2023)
- Extends Public Comment Period for Primary Copper Air Toxics Proposal (August 23, 2023)
- EPA Opposes Motions to Stay Good Neighbor Plan; Another Stay Motion Filed (August 18-22, 2023)
- EPA Publishes Final Amendments to NSPS for Electric Arc Furnaces (August 25, 2023)
- Environmental Groups Call On Congress To Preserve Clean Air and Climate Funding (August 23, 2023)
This Week in Review
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EPA announced that it will undertake a new review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone in lieu of completing its reconsideration of the Trump Administration’s October 2020 decision to retain the existing ozone NAAQS. The existing NAAQS – 70 parts per billion for both the primary and secondary standards – date from 2015. According to the agency, the decision to launch a new review process was made by EPA Administrator Michael Regan after consideration of advice provided by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), which recommended that EPA consider new scientific studies that were not available in the 2020 ozone NAAQS review and conduct additional risk analyses that might support more stringent standards. The new review, EPA says, will “facilitate additional consideration of newer studies and updated analyses in the context of a full and systematic review of the standards and the underlying science, with the appropriate opportunities for CASAC advice and engagement with our state partners and the public.” Information developed during the reconsideration process will be incorporated into the new review. To launch the new review, EPA published in the Federal Register (99 Fed. Reg. 58,624) a call for information on the Integrated Science Asssessment (ISA) for ozone and related photochemical oxidents. The ISA, which forms the scientific foundation for the ozone NAAQS review, will build on the prevous (2020) ISA for ozone by incorporating research studies and data that have been published or accepted for publication since January 1, 2018. Members of the public are invited to “submit scientific literature that they want to bring to the attention of the Agency as it begins this process.” All information must be submitted to EPA by October 24, 2023. EPA plans to convene a public science and policy workshop in spring 2024 to gather information from the scientific community and the public. In summer 2024, the agency expects to summarize the proceedings of the workshop, and in fall 2024, it plans to release its Integrated Review Plan, Volume 2 to guide CASAC consideration and development of the ISA. This timetable indicates that the agency will not complete its review of the existing standards until well beyond the end of 2024, the date by which it had expected to complete its reconsideration proceedings.
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-08-25/pdf/2023-18335.pdf
and
The EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) has recommended that EPA improve its efforts to address cumulative impacts and disproportionate health effects. In response to an audit of EPA action related to air, water and waste issues at a Superfund site in Birmingham, Alabama, the OIG determined that EPA carried out a siloed approach due to a lack of statutory mandates and agencywide policies for considering cumulative impacts and disproportionate health effects across programs. The OIG noted that various Executive Orders call upon federal agencies to include environmental justice as part of their mission by addressing the disproportionately high adverse health, environmental, climate or other cumulative effects on disadvantaged communities. The OIG examined how the air, water and waste programs coordinated with one another regarding the Superfund site that was the focus of the review. As a result, the OIG recommended that “EPA develop and implement policies and guidance to increase and improve coordination between EPA programs to assess and address cumulative impacts and disproportionate health effects” and “develop and implement performance measures to monitor progress.” The OIG reported that EPA has agreed with the recommendations and has proposed acceptable corrective actions, including the establishment of a working group that will promote collaboration and coordination within the agency and develop policies, procedures and practices to improve coordination and consistency across programs. Additionally, EPA is developing performance measures to consider cumulative impacts and is developing a process for quarterly reporting on progress in addressing cumulative impacts in permitting and other activities.
For further information:
EPA has announced a 15-day extension to the public comment period for the proposed National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for the Primary Copper Smelting source category (88 Fed. Reg. 57381). The comment period, which was to have ended on September 7, will now end on September 22, 2023. The proposed rule, published on July 24, 2023, includes additional standards for several hazardous air pollutants: benzene, toluene, hydrogen chloride, chlorine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, naphthalene and dioxin/furans. EPA is also revising some of the particulate matter standards (as a surrogate for hazardous air pollutant metals), revising some of the mercury standards and proposing two options for particulate controls for a scrubber (one of which will be adopted into the rule).
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-08-23/pdf/2023-18117.pdf
and
and
EPA, along with a group of states and localities and a coalition of environmental and health groups, filed responses in opposition to motions by other states and industry groups to stay the June 5, 2023, final “Good Neighbor Plan” (rule) for the 2015 8-hour ozone standard. Six groups of petitioners had filed motions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to stay all or parts of the rule pending completion of judicial review. EPA argues in its consolidated response that the petitioners have not demonstrated any likelihood of success on the merits, nor have they demonstrated they will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of a stay. “Petitioners take a kitchen-sink approach in their stay motions, rehashing arguments and allegations of harm raised against previous Good Neighbor rules. But those contentions have consistently been rejected by this Court and the Supreme Court and disproven by the consistent, successful implementation of these rules,” the agency asserts. On August 22, four days after the responses were filed by EPA and its supporting intervenors, U.S. Steel Corp. filed a seventh stay motion (U.S. Steel had previously filed a request for an administrative stay, to which EPA has not responded). The company seeks a stay of the rule as it applies to reheat furnaces and boilers at iron and steel mills.
For further information:
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/Utah-v.-EPA-EPA-Opp.-to-Stay-8-18-23.pdf,
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/Utah-v.-EPA-State-Opp.-to-Stay-8-18-23.pdf,
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/Utah-v.-EPA-Env-Health-Opp.-to-Stay-8-18-23.pdf
and
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/Utah-v.-EPA-U.S.-Steel-Stay-Motion-8-22-23.pdf
EPA published in the Federal Register (88 Fed. Reg. 58,442) a final rule titled, “New Source Performance Standards Review for Steel Plants: Electric Arc Furnaces and Argon-Oxygen Decarburization Vessels.” The agency finalized this rule, which amends existing New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for electric arc furnaces (EAF) and argon-oxygen decarburization (AOD) vessels in the steel industry, after completing a statutorily mandated review of the standards. The Clean Air Act requires all NSPS to be reviewed and, as necessary, amended every eight years; the EAF and AOD NSPS were last amended in 2005. Under this final rule, EAF and AOD facilities that began construction, reconstruction or modification after May 16, 2022, must comply with a particulate matter (PM) standard in the format of facility-wide PM emitted per amount of steel produced, and opacity limits for melt shops of 0 percent during melting and refining and 6 percent during charging and tapping. The PM and opacity limits and other rule requirements apply at all times. In addition, periodic testing for compliance is required at least once every five years; electronic copies are required for performance tests and “demonstration of compliance with semiannual reports to be submitted through EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX) using the Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface (CEDRI) and electronic reporting tool (ERT).” The rule also amends the NSPS that apply to EAFs constructed after October 21, 1974, and on or before August 17, 1983, and EAF and AOD vessels constructed after August 17, 1983, and on or before May 16, 2022; the agency says these amendments are intended to clarify and refine certain provisions. The final rule is effective August 25, 2023.
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-08-25/pdf/2023-16747.pdf
and
A coalition of sixty-five environmental groups has written a letter to Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, arguing for preservation of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and regularly appropriated funds to support clean air and climate actions by federal, state, and local agencies in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. “Insufficient funding limits agencies’ abilities to develop and staff robust, impactful programs or enforce regulations to protect families, the environment, and the economy”, they wrote. The letter comes as the Senate begins to advance appropriations considerations for FY 2024, following a bipartisan congressional deal that would continue funding at FY 2023 levels that is being challenged by Republican members of the House Freedom Caucus. While it does not call for specific funding levels, the letter from the environmental advocates includes opposition to “measures that cut agencies’ core capacities, including staffing, and restrict their ability to efficiently and effectively distribute funds and execute environmental, public health, and other climate-related programs and regulations”, as well as “measures to limit or block agencies’ ability to implement or enforce bedrock environmental laws or regulations.” Signatories include Climate Mayors, Earthjustice, the Environmental Defense Fund, Evergreen Action, the League of Conservation Voters, Moms Clean Air Force, Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, and WE ACT For Environmental Justice, among others.
For further information:
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/de4d5a_286db63a6c484dd4aae7d988978ef31d.pdf