U.S. SBA pushes EPA to keep 2004 MACT hammer deadline. (Washington Alert).On September 25, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA SBAabbr. Small Business Administration Noun 1. SBA - an independent agency of the United States government that protects the interests of small businesses and ensures that they receive a fair share of government ) asked EPA EPA eicosapentaenoic acid. EPA abbr. eicosapentaenoic acid EPA, n.pr See acid, eicosapentaenoic. EPA, n. to drop the proposed settlement in the Sierra Club lawsuit challenging the deadline for case-by-case hazardous air pollution (HAP HAP. An old word which signifies to catch; as, "to hap the rent," to hap the deed poll." Techn. Dict. h.t. ) permits. Specifically, the settlement would reduce by a year the time companies have to submit applications for permits associated with HAP emissions based on maximum achievable control technology (MACT MACT Maximum Achievable Control Technology MACT Maximum Available Control Technology MACT Men of All Colors Together MACT Minnesota Association of Community Theatres MACT Maulana Azad College of Technology (Bhopal, India) ) standards (Sierra Club v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 02-1135, 8/15/02). In its letter to EPA, SBA outlines that the lawsuit could force 80,000 facilities to file detailed applications for individual MACT determinations. Compiling this information could cost these facilities up to $50,000 and the industry billions, far surpassing the $100 million dollar threshold for rules subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), formerly the Bureau of the Budget, is an agency of the federal government that evaluates, formulates, and coordinates management procedures and program objectives within and among departments and agencies of the Executive Branch. . Under the Clean Air Act (CAA Caa See CCC. ), EPA is required to regulate major sources of emissions of 188 listed HAPs and select emission standards that reflect the application of MACT. MACT standards for all the covered industry sectors were due by May 15, 2002. EPA failed to finalize all the standards within this deadline and the CAA "hammer" went into effect, triggering the process for case-by-case MACT for facilities in the categories without final rules. Iron and steel foundries are two of the industry sectors without final MACT standards. In response to its failure to finalize all the MACT rules, EPA published a rule on April 5 to establish a two-step case-by-case MACT application process, with detailed emissions information not required by industrial facilities until May 15, 2004. Part 1 of the application, which was due May 15, included basic information such as source type and location. Part 2 of the application requires detailed information about each source's emissions and how they are produced. The Sierra Club, however, filed a lawsuit against the two-year extension for the Part 2 deadline. The recent settlement between EPA and the Sierra Club agreed to reduce the deadline extension in the final rule by one year to May 15, 2003. EPA published a notice of proposed settlement August 26, and the comment period on this change closed Sept. 25. AFS A distributed file system for large, widely dispersed Unix and Windows networks from Transarc Corporation, now part of IBM. It is noted for its ease of administration and expandability and stems from Carnegie-Mellon's Andrew File System. AFS - Andrew File System submitted comments to EPA opposing the settlement and requested EPA maintain the 2004 deadline. For more in formation, contact Amy Blankenbiller at the AFS Washington Office at 202/842-4864. |
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