Page 454 - Fundamentals of Air Pollution 3E

402 24. The U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990

to introduce economic flexibility for the electric power industry, to recognize
controls already implemented by progressive utilities and to reduce the
economic impact on high-sulfur coal regions of the United States.

Title V: Permits
The new law introduces an operating permits program modeled after a
similar program under the Federal National Pollution Elimination Discharge
System (NPDES) law. The purpose of the operating permits program is to
ensure compliance with all applicable requirements of the CAAA90 and to
enhance EPA's ability to enforce the Act. Air pollution sources subject to
the program must obtain an operating permit; states must develop and
implement the program; and EPA must issue permit program regulations,
review each state's proposed program, and oversee the state's efforts to
implement any approved program. EPA must also develop and implement
a federal permit program when a state fails to adopt and implement its
own program. The final rulemaking for this Title V program was published
on July 21, 1992 as Part 70 of Chapter I of Title 40 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (57FR32250).
The new program clarifies and makes more enforceable a source's pollu-
tion control requirements. Currently, a source's pollution control obliga-
tions may be scattered throughout numerous hard-to-find provisions of
state and federal regulations, and in many cases, the source is not required,
under the applicable State Implementation Plan, to submit periodic compli-
ance reports to EPA or the states. The permit program will ensure that all
of a source's obligations with respect to its pollutants will be contained in
one permit document and that the source will file periodic reports identi-
fying the extent to which it has complied with those obligations. Both of
these requirements will greatly enhance the ability of federal and state
agencies to evaluate a source's air quality situation.
In addition, the new program will provide a ready vehicle for states to
assume administration, subject to federal oversight, of significant parts of
the air toxics program and the acid rain program. Through the permit
fee provisions discussed later, the program will greatly augment a state's
resources to administer pollution control programs by requiring sources of
pollution to pay their fair share of the costs of a state's air pollution program.
Under the new law, EPA was required to issue program regulations by
November 15, 1991. By November 15, 1993, each state must submit to EPA
a permit program meeting these regulatory requirements. After receiving
the state submittal, EPA has 1 year to accept or reject the program. EPA
must level sanctions against a state that does not submit or enforce a permit
program.
If a state fails to comply, EPA will promulgate and administer the state's
program. That could mean lengthy permitting delays and additional pa~