Category: Environmental Permitting

Don’t let refrigeration lead to violation

Recently, EPA announced it had reached a settlement agreement with one of the nation’s largest grocery store chains for violations of regulations governing emissions of ozone-depleting substances from refrigeration equipment.  Alleged violations included failing to promptly repair leaks and failing to keep adequate service records for refrigeration equipment. No one wants to be the subject […]

SO2 NAAQS: What’s Next?

By Timothy P. Fagan, BLR Air Expert tfagan@blr.com How were nonattainment designations determined? Once the NAAQS was set in 2010, EPA and state agencies worked together using monitoring data to determine what areas should be designated nonattainment and establish the area’s boundaries.  The newly designated nonattainment areas were designated as such because each had air […]

LPG Odorants in Rail Tank Cars

But in what appears to be a regulatory lapse, the federal odorant standards overseen by the Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) apply only to LPG rail shipments in cargo and portable tank containers; there is no comparable regulation for LPG transported in railroad tank cars.  In a safety advisory issued April 2012, the […]

Equipment Leak Violations Inspectors are Looking For

Equipment Tagging is required for regulated equipment to distinguish it from non-regulated equipment. The Appendix sets the following penalties for failure to tag: $250 per valve, flange, connector, open-ended valve or line, sampling connection system, or instrumentation system; $1,000 per pump or agitator; and $5,000 per compressor, pressure relief device, surge control vessel, or bottoms […]