Set Public Hearing July 12, 1996 to Amend Rule 430 - Breakdown Provisions

BOARD MEETING DATE: June 14, 1996

AGENDA NO. 2

Proposal:

Set Public Hearing July 12, 1996 to Amend Rule 430 - Breakdown Provisions.
Synopsis:
The proposed amendments to Rule 430 will clarify rule requirements for equipment breakdowns affecting non-RECLAIM pollutants, add permit condition relief, and pro-vide reporting procedures consistent with Rule 2004 - Re-quirements.
Committee:
Not applicable.
Recommended Action:
Set Public Hearing July 12, 1996 to amend Rule 430 - Break-down Provisions.

James M. Lents, Ph.D.
Executive Officer

Background
AQMD Rule 430 was originally adopted by the Governing Board on May 7, 1976 to provide relief from violations of Regulation IV - Prohibitions, (except Rule 402 - Nuisance, or Rule 430), and Regulation XI - Source Specific Standards, for a breakdown that meets AQMD criteria. The period covered under this relief is lim-ited to a maximum of twenty-four hours from the time the owner or operator knew or reasonably should have known of the breakdown, or to the end of the operating cycle, whichever is sooner. This rule was subsequently amended on October 8, 1976, December 2, 1977 and May 5, 1978 to improve its enforceability. The sub-sequent amendments require that the owner or operator submit a written follow-up report, and that AQMD staff promptly investigate the site to determine whether an occurrence meets all AQMD criteria to qualify as a breakdown. The vast ma-jority of breakdowns occur at refineries.

However, Rule 430 does not address violations of permit conditions as a result of a breakdown that meets AQMD criteria. In addition, the current rule language does not identify a method for the owner or operator to report a breakdown in a timely manner. These concerns need to be corrected prior to the issuance of Ti-tle V permits.

Proposal
Staff proposes to add rule language to provide relief for violations of certain rules or permit conditions that meets AQMD criteria. In addition, staff proposes to clar-ify the definition of operating cycle, to add additional flexibility as to the methods that can be used to notify the AQMD of a breakdown in a timely manner, and to clarify that petitions for emergency variances filed during weekends or holidays must be filed according to the directions of the Hearing Board. Finally, these amendments will make the reporting requirements of Rule 430 consistent with the reporting requirements for RECLAIM facilities specified under Rule 2004 - Re-quirements. Most of the proposed amendments reflect the current operating pro-cedures at the AQMD.

AQMP & Legal Mandates
The proposed amended rule is administrative in nature and will not impact any AQMP control strategies. In addition, the proposed amended rule is in accor-dance with existing state and federal regulations.

CEQA & Socioeconomic Analysis
Pursuant to CEQA, staff has prepared a draft Supplemental Environmental As-sessment (SEA) for the proposed amendments to Regulation XX - RECLAIM and Rule 430. The draft SEA was circulated for a 45-day public review and comment period ending May 10, 1996. Comments received on the draft SEA will be incor-porated into the final SEA for Regulation XX and Rule 430. The draft SEA has been incorporated into this rule package. In addition, a Socioeconomic Impact Assessment has been prepared and is part of the rule development package.

Implementation Plan
Currently, inspectors are promptly assigned to investigate a reported breakdown. In order to investigate the reported breakdown in a timely manner, certain inspec-tors are assigned on-call duty during the periods outside of the normal AQMD working hours, including but not limited to weekends. In the event that the owner or operator files for a variance, engineers are assigned to determine the excess emissions resulting from the breakdown. The above implementation will not be changed by the proposed amendments. The Hearing Board shall establish pro-cedures to assist those facilities that need to file petitions for emergency vari-ances during weekends or holidays. As always, staff will be available to assist those facilities affected by the proposed amendments.

Resource Impacts
The proposed amendments to Rule 430 will provide breakdown relief from permit conditions and eliminate conflicting reporting requirements between Rule 430 and Rule 2004. No additional AQMD resources are required to implement the pro-posed amendments. The variance proceedings under the proposed amended rule and the current rule are similar; therefore, it is expected that the public will continue to obtain assistance through AQMD�s Clerk of the Board, Hearing Board Liaison, and General Counsel�s Office.

Attachments

Summary of Proposed Amendments
Rule Development Flow Chart
Key Contacts List
Rule Language
Draft Staff Report
Draft Supplemental Environmental Assessment
Draft Socioeconomic Analysis


This page updated: July 09, 2015
URL: ftp://lb1/hb/1996/June/96062a.html