BOARD MEETING DATE: February 1, 2008
AGENDA NO. 33
(Continued from January 4, 2008 Board Meeting)

PROPOSAL:

Amend Rule 1110.2 - Emissions from Gaseous- and Liquid-Fueled Engines

SYNOPSIS:

Unannounced emission tests by AQMD enforcement staff have discovered that about half of stationary engines tested were out of compliance with their emissions limits, due to poor operating and maintenance procedures and inadequate monitoring required by the rule. The proposed amendments are intended to: 1) improve the compliance record of engines with better monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting; 2) achieve further emission reductions based on the cleanest available technologies; and 3) address rule changes recommended by U.S. EPA Region IX.

COMMITTEE:

Stationary Source, September 28, 2007 and January 18, 2008 Reviewed

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Adopt the resolution from the January 4, 2008 Agenda item 20:

1. Certifying the CEQA Final Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed amendments.
2. Amending Rule 1110.2 - Emissions from Gaseous- and Liquid-Fueled Engines, and including additional amendments included in this Board letter.

Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer

Background

At the January 4, 2008 Governing Board meeting, a public hearing for proposed amendments to Rule 1110.2 - Emissions from Gaseous- and Liquid-Fueled Engines was conducted. The objectives of the proposed amendments are to: 1) improve the compliance record of engines with better monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting; 2) achieve further emission reductions based on the cleanest available technologies, in accordance with the 2007 Air Quality Management Plan; and 3) address rule changes recommended by U.S. EPA Region IX and the California Air Resources Board. After listening to the public comments, the Board continued the public hearing until February 1, 2008, and directed that certain monitoring issues be addressed at the next Stationary Source Committee (SSC) meeting on January 18, 2008.

At the SSC meeting, staff recommended two changes to the proposed amendments. One was to excuse public transit agencies from installing a continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS) on their CNG compressor engines if they replace the engines with electric motors by December 31, 2014. The other was to exclude from the low-use exception for CEMS, operation of engines by an electric utility in the Big Bear Lake area due to the failure of a transmission line that normally brings electric power to the area. These changes were to address comments by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Agency (MTA) and the Bear Valley Electric Service (BVES).

The SSC received comments from MTA, BVES, Southern California Gas Company and Eastern Municipal Water District about the monitoring issue. The SSC agreed with staff’s recommendation about BVES. However, the SSC recommended that staff provide in the rule an option for public agencies to not install a CEMS on an engine if the operator does periodic monitoring with a portable analyzer, as smaller engines would be required to do, but on a more frequent schedule. The SSC also recommended that if the periodic monitoring showed a significant frequency of excess emissions, then a CEMS would be required.

Proposal

In addition to the amendments that staff proposed at the January 4, 2008 Board meeting, staff proposes the following revisions to those amendments.

Clause (d)(1)(F)(i) of Proposed Amended Rule 1110.2 is revised by deleting the reference to the state Distributed Generation standards, that is no longer applicable for VOC and CO. It will read:

6. New Non-Emergency Electrical Generators
9. All new non-emergency engines driving electrical generators shall comply with the following emission standards, based on the emissions standards of the Distributed Generation Certification Program, Article 3, Subchapter 8, Chapter 1, Division 30, Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations that became effective January 1, 2007.

In subdivision (e), paragraph (9) is added to provide a compliance schedule for the case of an engine that is initially exempt from a new requirement in subparagraph (d)(1)(B), (d)(1)(C) or (f)(1)(A) because of low engine usage, but later exceeds the usage limit.

9. Exceedance of Usage Limits

   1. If an engine was initially exempt from the new concentration limits in subparagraph (d)(1)(B) or subparagraph (d)(1)(C) that take effect on or after July 1, 2010 because of low engine use but later exceeds the low-use criteria, the operator shall bring the engine into compliance with the rule in accordance with the schedule in Table VI with the final compliance date in Table VI being twelve months after the conclusion of the first twelve-month period for which the engine exceeds the low-use criteria.

2. If engines that were initially exempt from new CEMS by the low-use criterion in subclause (f)(1)(A)(ii)(I) later exceed that criterion, the operator shall install CEMS on those engines in accordance with the schedule in Table VII, except that the date for submitting the CEMS application in Table VII shall be six months after the conclusion of the first twelve-month period for which the engines exceed the criterion.

In clause (f)(1)(A)(ii), subclause (III) is revised by adding the double-underlined language as follows to allow operators of engines used to fuel natural gas transit fleets that are required to install CEMS to elect to remove their engines in lieu of installing CEMS.

3. The following engines shall not be counted toward the combined rating or required to have a CEMS by this clause: engines rated at less than 500 bhp; standby engines that are limited by permit conditions to only operate when other primary engines are not operable; engines that are limited by permit conditions to operate less than 1000 hours per year or a fuel usage of less than 8 x 10⁹ Btus per year (higher heating value of all fuels used); engines that are used primarily to fuel public natural gas transit vehicles and that are required by a permit condition to be irreversibly removed from service by December 31, 2014; and engines required to have a CEMS by the previous clause. A CEMS shall not be required if permit conditions limit the simultaneous use of the engines at the same location in a manner to limit the combined rating of all engines in simultaneous operation to less than 1500 bhp.

Subclause (f)(1)(A)(ii)(III) provides a low-use exception from the requirement for a CEMS. Subclause (f)(1)(A)(ii)(V) is added to allow BVES to exclude from the low-use limits, operation of its engines during the failure of a transmission line that imports power into the area.

5. Operation of engines by the electric utility in the Big Bear Lake area during the failure of a transmission line to the utility may be excluded from an hours-per-year or fuel usage limit that is elected by the operator pursuant to subclause (f)(1)(A)(ii)(III).

In order to specify when an application should be submitted to add permit conditions limiting usage as previously discussed, subparagraph (e)(2)(C) is revised by the following strikeout and double-underline language.

3. The operator of any stationary engine that is required to add operating restrictions to a permit to operate to meet the requirements of this ruleparagraph (h)(2), shall submit to the Executive Officer an application for a change of permit conditions by (six months from date of adoption).

Also in clause (f)(1)(A)(ii), subclause (VI) is added to address the recommendation of the SSC.

6. In lieu of complying with this clause, an operator that is a public agency, or is contracted to operate engines solely for a public agency, may comply with the Inspection and Monitoring Plan requirements of subparagraph (f)(1)(D), except that the operator shall conduct emission checks at least weekly or every 150 operating hours, whichever occurs later. If any such engine is found to exceed an applicable NOx or CO limit by the operator or by District staff on more than three or more occasions in any six-month period, the operator shall comply with the CEMS requirements of this subparagraph for such engine in accordance with the compliance schedule of Table VI, except that the operator shall submit a CEMS application to the Executive Officer within six months of the third exceedance.

Subclause (f)(1)(A)(iii)(I) is revised by removing an unnecessary reference to Rule 218.1.

1. Comply with the applicable requirements of Rule 218 and 218.1, including equipment specifications and certification, operating, recordkeeping, quality assurance and reporting requirements, except as otherwise authorized by this rule.

The first sentence of clause (f)(1)(C)(i) is modified by the double-underlined language below to allow a grace period for transition from triennial to biennial source testing.

1. Effective six months from (date of adoption), Cconduct Provide source testing information regarding the exhaust gas, specifically for NOx, VOC reported as carbon and CO concentrations (concentrations in ppm by volume, corrected to 15% oxygen on a dry basis) at least once every two3 years, or every 8,760 operating hours, whichever occurs first.

The Board package from the January 4, 2008 Board meeting is incorporated by reference as part of this proposal. The revisions proposed above are primarily clarifications and corrections. Proposed revisions to the CEMs requirements of the staff proposal are expected to reduce compliance costs and improve cost-effectiveness.

Attachments (EXE 11.2 MB)