Georgia Environmental News

In response to the recent Senate Bill 427 requesting that EPD allow avenues for expedited permitting, EPD conducted stakeholder meetings in October and December of 2012. EPD has released the draft expedited permitting program, which can be found on their website at: http://www.georgiaair.org/airpermit/html/sspp/expeditedssppmeeting.htm

The draft plan includes the permit types and likely fees supported by EPD's new program. The expedited permitting program will be implemented by July 1, 2013.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), per a notice of opportunity for public comment issued January 17, 2013, has determined that the 24-hour fine particle data (PM2.5) for a series of sites, obtained on dates in 2010, could have been influenced by local events that were not truly representative of the air quality in this area. The data is currently flagged in EPA's Air Quality System (AQS) databased as an "exceptional event". EPD is providing documentation of the exceptional events that occurred in 2010 through this document in order to exclude the monitoring data from being included in the state's PM2.5 NAAQS status determination.

The complete draft document is available online at the following location: http://www.georgiaair.org/airpermit/downloads/amp/2010events.pdf

Anyone who wishes to comment on the draft is required to submit their comments to EPD in writing at the following address:

Air Protection Branch
Attn: Annual Air Monitoring Plan Comments
4244 International Parkway, Suite 120
Atlanta, Georgia 30354.
Comments can also be submitted via email to Susan Zimmer-Dauphinee, Program Manager of the Ambient Monitoring program, at Susan.Zimmer Dauphinee@dnr.state.ga.us.

The Atlanta area is currently considered a moderate non-attainment area under the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS. On April 4, 2012, Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), submitted a request to EPA to re-designate the metro Atlanta area as an attainment area for the 8-hour ozone standard. The following counties are included in the Atlanta area: Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Doublas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Newton, Paulding, Rockdale, Spalding, and Walton.

EPA has proposed to approve the re-designation request as part of a Federal Register notice released on February 4, 2013. The complete notice can be found here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-02-04/pdf/2013-02380.pdf

Comments on the proposed change must be received on or before March 6, 2013. Re-designation of the metro Atlanta area could lead to future regulatory updates in the state of Georgia.

The Georgia EPD is proposing to certify that Georgia's current State Implementation Plan (SIP) contains the Section 110(a) elements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) that meets the requirements of the NO2 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) as finalized in 2010. EPD will be holding a public hearing on January 22nd at 3:30 PM in the EPD Training Center, 4244 International Parkway, Suite 116, Atlanta, GA.

Public comments can be made at the meeting or sent via mail or email to the Branch Chief of the Air Protection Branch. Written comments must be received by January 25th in order to ensure consideration in the final submission of EPD's SIP certifications to the U.S. EPA. For more details, visit the following websites:

http://georgiaair.org/airpermit/downloads/planningsupport/regdev/sips_and_revisions/infsipcert/notice_2012no2.pdf

http://georgiaair.org/airpermit/downloads/planningsupport/regdev/sips_and_revisions/infsipcert/2010_ no2.pdf

A new version of AERMOD (dated 12345) was released this past month. A new version of AERMET (dated 12345) was also released along with the updated AERMOD model. Modifications to the new version of AERMOD are described in Model Change Bulleting #8 (dated 12/10/2012), which can be found on EPA's SCRAM website at the following link: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/scram/models/aermod/aermod_mcb8.txt

Changes made to the model code (AERMOD 12345) have altered results as were obtained from the prior effective version of the model (AERMOD 12060).

New BETA options (non-Default) to address concerns regarding low wind speed conditions are addressed as part of the model change. A new "LINE" source option has also been included as part of the updated version.

Future Modeling for PSD projects in Georgia will require the use of the newest version of AERMOD.

On December 11, 2012, the Georgia Environmental Division (EPD) Air Protection Branch will be holding a stakeholder meeting to discuss how EPD should implement Expedited Permitting as set forth by Senate Bill 427. An initial meeting on this topic took place on October 30, 2012 and this follow-up meeting will likely focus on the implementation aspect (fees, timelines, etc.) of an expedited program for permits in Georgia. Registration is required for meeting attendance and can be done online at:

http://georgiaair.org/airpermit/html/sspp/expeditedssppmeeting.htm

The link above also includes the presentation from the 10/30/2012 meeting along with a white paper on the proposed program.