BAY AREA AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
939 ELLIS STREET
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
DATE: February 16, 2000 AGENDA NO: 7
 
PROPOSAL: Adopt proposed amendments to Regulation 10: Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and approve filing of a CEQA Notice of Exemption.
SUMMARY: Public hearing to adopt proposed amendments to Regulation 10. The proposed amendments incorporate changes in the federal standards for significant new stationary sources of air pollution since the last update to Regulation 10 in October, 1997.
 
RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Adopt proposed amendments to Regulation 10 and approve the filing of a CEQA Notice of Exemption for the proposed amendments.
  Ellen Garvey
Executive Officer


Background
The District’s Regulation 10: Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources incorporates, by reference, the federal standards promulgated by EPA into Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 60 (40 CFR 60). Adopting new federal standards into Regulation 10 is a biennial process that gives the District the authority to implement and enforce the federal standards. EPA encourages districts to adopt the standards by reference as it saves both the District and EPA the time and expense of re-writing federal standards and performing a line by line review for consistency.
Proposal

The proposed amendments to Regulation 10 address the following source categories:

  • Electric Utility Steam Boilers,
  • Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Steam Boilers,
  • Hospital, Medical and Infectious Waste Incinerators,
  • Phosphate Fertilizer Storage Facilities,
  • Electric Arc Furnaces at Steel Plants
  • Municipal Solid Waste Landfills.

In most of these source categories, the District’s existing regulations are at least as stringent as the federal promulgations. In the case of the standards for hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerators, the only affected facility in the Bay Area is more stringently controlled by the District’s operating permit. For landfills, the amendments to District Regulation 8, Rule 34 adopted on October 6, 1999 incorporate the federal standards and reporting requirements.

In addition, the proposal deletes references to federal Emission Guidelines, which are planning requirements for states, and provides an exemption for sources subject to federal toxics rules that contain specific exemptions from these new source performance standards.
Cost and Environmental Impacts

The California Health and Safety Code requires analysis of various impacts when regulatory amendments will set more stringent requirements or impose costs on regulated entities. The proposed amendments to Regulation 10 are existing nationwide standards, consequently they do not impose new costs and are therefore not subject to requirements in the Health and Safety Code for socioeconomic analysis (Section 40728.5), incremental cost analysis (Section 40920.6), or regulatory overlap analysis (Section 40727.2).

These proposed amendments are administrative in nature because the federal standards must be complied with regardless of District adoption. Therefore, it can be seen with certainty that the proposed amendments have no environmental impacts. The amendments are therefore exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061, subd. (b)(3).



Attachment A - Proposed Amendments to District Regulation 10
Attachment B - Staff Report