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SEPTEMBER, 2001
UP FRONT
2 USEPA Approves Illinois' ERMS Program
Top officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) Region V office have approved Illinois’ innovative cap and trade program to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ground-level ozone precursors, in the metropolitan Chicago area. The Illinois program is the first VOC cap and trade program in the country, and it is one of the first state trading programs of any type ever to be approved by USEPA. The cap and trade strategy, formally known as the emission reduction market system (ERMS) program, was crafted by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) with significant input from the state’s regulated community. Under the program, IEPA issues allowances to major VOC sources that require each source to emit 12 percent less than its baseline emissions (based on 1994 to 1996 data), its upper limit threshold or "cap" (see IEC 8/97, p. 12). The source then has a choice: cut emissions by 12 percent or buy emission allowances from another source that will cut its emissions by that amount, in addition to achieving its own 12 percent reduction (see IEC 11/97, p. 7).
The result is a 12 percent VOC emission reduction in the metro Chicago ground-level ozone (smog) area, and facilities have the flexibility to choose to cut emissions at emission points that are easiest and cheapest to control.
The approval, signed September 6 by USEPA deputy regional administrator David Ullrich, will be published soon in the Federal Register. "We congratulate Illinois for making this ground-breaking effort to reduce emissions that cause ozone," Ullrich said. "This approach will help reduce emissions more efficiently than under traditional means."
According to Ullrich, emissions control is not one size fits all. "This program will allow each company to find its own best means of achieving environmental improvement," Ullrich told IEC.
Metropolitan Chicago is classified by USEPA as a "severe" nonattainment area for ozone. The Chicago ozone nonattainment area includes Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties, Oswego Township in Kendall County, and Aux Sable and Goose Lake townships in Grundy County. IEPA’s ERMS is applicable to all major stationary sources located in the area.
2 Citgo Wins Relaxation Of Standards
3 Exelon Wants Back Into Fossil
4 Problems Mount For Lockformer In Lisle
PRAIRIE STATE BRIEFS
Operating permit update ... Keystone seeks
help ... Disapproval appealed ... Meet the
neighbors ... RCRA reforms ... Disposal plan
stalled ... Soil removal ... Creal controversy ...
MTBE threat ... Lead ... All begin on page 6
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
11 New Brownfields Law Signed
REGULATORY ROUNDUP
11 MTBE Cleanup Standards Proposed
13 Public Water Supply Revisions
13 IEPA Yanks Variance Proposal
14 Livestock Waste Rules Go To JCAR
ENFORCEMENT REPORT
14 Federal Enforcement
14 Administrative Action For Stepan
15 Clinton Plant Cited
15 State Enforcement
15 Macon Landfill Does Costly Deal
16 Spill Leads To Water Penalty
16 Settlement For Cook County Facility
17 Setback For Johns Manville
17 Charges Of LUST Throughout Illinois
18 Discharge Permit Enforcement Coming
SUPERFUND/HAZARDOUS WASTE
18 Sauget Sites Proposed For NPL
19 Showdown Over Chanute
COMPLIANCE LIBRARY
24 Air, Permitting, Waste Cleanup And Other Titles
WEB SPECIAL: LINKS FROM PAST STORIES
USEPA Says OK To IEPA’s ERMS Program
Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) Region V office in Chicago on December 15 went forward with a rulemaking action proposing to approve Illinois’ innovative trading program for the control of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the Chicago metropolitan ground-level ozone nonattainment area. This is the first "cap and trade" program in the nation that a state has adopted to reduce VOC emissions. The program is mandatory for major VOC sources in the Chicago metropolitan area and its upper limit threshold ("cap") means that, on average, affected sources must reduce their VOC emissions by 12 percent. Regardless of the cap, individual sources may nevertheless trade emission allowances amongst themselves, provided the buying and selling of allowances yields the same overall 12 percent VOC emission reduction. The program, which is administered by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), is an important element of the state’s plan for meeting the ozone standard in the Chicago metropolitan area. The proposal was published in the December 27 issue of the Federal Register, commencing a 30-day public review and comment period. USEPA sources told IEC that the comment period will likely be extended for another 45 days beyond the original deadline. USEPA’s plan to approve IEPA’s emission reduction market system (ERMS) is likely to be bitterly attacked by environmental activists. IEPA staffers meanwhile are still reviewing the results from last summer, the ERMS program’s first season after the IEPA abruptly delayed the program’s planned debut in 1999 (see IEC 11/98, p. 2). The Metro Chicago ground-level ozone nonattainment area includes Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties, Oswego Township in Kendall County and Aux Sable and Goose Lake Townships in Grundy County. Metro Chicago currently does not meet the national ambient air quality standard for ground-level ozone (smog) and is classified by USEPA as a "severe" nonattainment area. Subscribers desiring additional information on USEPA’s proposed approval of Illinois’ ERMS program for the control of VOCs in the Metro Chicago ozone nonattainment area should click here.
IEPA Likes Chicago Regional Air Plan
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) director Tom Skinner has come out in support of an innovative new plan developed by the Chicago Regional Dialogue on Clean Air and Redevelopment (CRD) coalition and the Chicago Department of Environment (CDOE) aimed at relieving new source review (NSR) headaches for stationary sources locating or expanding in "smart growth areas" of the Chicago ground-level ozone nonattainment area. New or expanding businesses who locate in a smart growth zone in the region would have access to emissions credits from the growth allowance instead of having to purchase them on the market. Emissions credits for the growth allowance would come from local government actions which are currently not accounted for in the state implementation plan (SIP). The proposal has been submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) for its review as a potential candidate for the agency’s Project XL (eXcellence and Leadership) program (see IEC 7/00, p. 8). If the proposal passes USEPA’s muster, and early indications are that it will, it would give a boost to economic development efforts in the affected area while easing the cumbersome air permitting process facilities operating in the area face. Complete details on the proposed XL project involving NSR offsets for the Chicago metropolitan ozone nonattainment are available here. Meanwhile, USEPA’s "notice of availabiltiy of FPA" can be found here. Skinner, in a July 12 letter, endorsed the idea behind CDOE's proposal.
Ryan Punts Problematic Peakers To Pollution Board
Illinois Governor George H. Ryan on July 6 tackled the continuing controversy over auxiliary peak usage electric power plants by telling the state’s Pollution Control Board to deal with the problem. In a June 6 letter to the seven members of the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB), Ryan told the political appointees "I have recently received a great deal of public comment over potential environmental threats caused by the recent proliferation in Illinois of new, natural gas-fired, peak-load electrical power generating facilities." He then instructed the IPCB to convene hearings on the issue to see what, if anything, will be done to silence upset lawmakers from the northern suburbs and their constituents. The governor’s passing of the problem to the IPCB followed unsuccessful efforts by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) to enlist the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) help in defraying the growing political fallout the issue has caused (see IEC 5/00, p. 5). IEPA director Tom Skinner had asked USEPA for "guidance" on imposing tougher new source performance standards (NSPS) permitting requirements on many of the newly proposed peaker plants. USEPA responded to Skinner’s overtures by saying, in effect, "the ball is in your court," where it has been since the issue of peakers, permits and associated problems first emerged (see IEC 2/99, p. 3). Everything that you wanted to know about peaker plants in Illinois is available here.
IEPA, USEPA At Work On New PPA
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) and USEPA have negotiated a new "performance partnership agreement" (PPA) that will guide environmental protection, monitoring, permitting and enforcement efforts in Illinois during the coming year. Full text of the 171-page deal is available here.
Illinois RMPs Go Public
Risk management plans (RMPs) required under section 112(r) of the federal Clean Air Act were submitted by 961 Illinois facilities on June 21. The RMPs, which detail possible catastrophic effects from a "worst-case" industrial mishap, were supposed to enjoy limited public disclosure. An environmental interest group however has made all the Illinois RMPs available here.
Illinois Environmental Compliance is the state's sole source of independent business-related environmental regulatory and compliance data. Subject matter (no advertisements accepted) is limited to administrative, legal and public policy developments impacting commercial activities conducted in Illinois. Published monthly by Compliance Publishers, Inc., Chicago, Illinois. A limited number of annual subscriptions are available for $375.00 per year.
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