April 3, 2006—The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released final amendments to a set of requirements common to all air toxics regulations, which make clear that affected industries must minimize emissions during startup and shutdown, and at times when equipment is malfunctioning.
The final amendments make changes to the General Provisions, which require facilities to develop plans that outline how they will operate to minimize emissions during times of startup, shutdown, and malfunction. The final amendments allow a facility to deviate from the plan, but require facilities to minimize emissions at all times.
Facilities must maintain these plans on site and must report to their state or local permitting authorities whether they have followed the plans and what actions were taken to control emissions.
