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Regulatory - Alert (RA 99-14)

Member Pipeline - Regulatory - Alert (RA 99-14)

To:

Members & Affiliates

From:

National Office

Date:

August 5, 1999

Subject:

National Integrated Urban Air Toxics Strategy

Reference:

RA 99-14

EPA published its National Integrated Urban Air Toxics Strategy in the Federal Register on July 19, 1999. The document provides an overview of EPA's national effort to reduce air toxics, including stationary (area sources) and mobile source standards, cumulative risk initiatives, assessment approaches, and education and outreach. The Strategy includes a description of risk reduction goals and identifies a list of 33 hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) judged to pose the greatest potential threat to public health in the largest urban areas. Thirty of these HAPs have the potential to be released by 29 types of area sources, including publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) and municipal landfills.

Area sources are small stationary sources of air toxics which emit less than 10 tons per year of any one HAP or less than 25 tons per year of a combination of HAPs. Area sources are not considered major under the Clean Air Act and not subject to existing MACT standards under section 112 (d) of the statute. According to EPA, area sources account for 34 percent of air toxics emissions and mobile sources (cars, trucks, etc) account for 42 percent. Over the past five years, AMSA has been working closely with EPA to successfully demonstrate that POTWs are not major sources of HAP emissions (potential to emit 10 or more tons of any single HAP per year, or 25 or more tons/year of any combination of HAPs).

The Strategy by itself does not automatically result in regulation or control of emissions. It instead outlines actions to reduce emissions of air toxics and to improve EPA's understanding of the health risks posed by air toxics in urban areas. EPA will perform further analyses of HAP emissions, control methods and health impacts, as appropriate, for stationary and mobile sources, and these analyses will serve as the basis for any regulatory requirements that EPA develops under the strategy.

The four key components of the Strategy include: 1) regulations addressing sources of air toxics at both the national and local level; 2) initiatives at both the national and local level to address specific pollutants (e.g., mercury) and to identify and address specific community risks (e.g., through pilot projects); 3) air toxics assessments (including expanded air toxics monitoring and modeling) to identify areas of concern, to prioritize efforts to reduce risks, and to track progress; and 4) education and outreach efforts to inform stakeholders about the Strategy and to get input into designing programs to implement it.

There are three goals for the Strategy: 1) reduce by 75 percent the risk of cancer associated with air toxics from both large and small industrial/commercial sources; 2) substantially reduce noncancer health risks (e.g., birth defects and reproductive effects) associated with air toxics from small industrial/commercial sources; and, 3) address disproportionate impacts of air toxics hazards across urban areas, such as those in areas known as “hot spots,” and minority and low-income communities in urban areas.

The Strategy also includes a schedule for addressing remaining risks from air toxics by setting new standards for categories of small, stationary sources not targeted under the agency's existing air toxics program. EPA plans to propose regulations for POTWs and municipal landfills in 2003 and promulgate final regulations by 2004.

Many of the activities identified in the Strategy will require public notice and comment. Later this year EPA will begin stakeholder discussions on implementing the strategy with states, tribes and local governments. Although initial indications from the Office of Air & Radiation (OAR) were that POTWs would be withdrawn from the list of source categories in the proposed Strategy, EPA has apparently decided to include POTWs in the final strategy. AMSA, with the guidance and support of the Association's leadership and the Air Quality Committee, will seek to be involved early and actively in the stakeholder process, including working collaboratively with other municipal organizations and city mayors to ensure that POTWs' interests are represented and that EPA's analyses and decision making with regard to potential new Clean Air Act regulations are based upon accurate data and scientifically defensible methodologies.

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