Wednesday, January 31, 2024

ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: Listening Session Scheduled for ADEQ's Air Integrated Regulation Streamlining Project

Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality issued the following announcement on Aug. 6.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) is announcing a listening session scheduled for 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on August 13, 2018, to provide an additional opportunity to provide feedback to ADEQ on a pre-proposal draft regulation, prior to initiation with the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission (APC&EC).

The pre-proposal draft regulation seeks to consolidate four APC&EC regulations—Regulation No. 18, Arkansas Air Pollution Control Code; Regulation No. 19, Regulations of the Arkansas Plan of Implementation for Air Pollution Control; Regulation No. 26, Regulations of the Arkansas Operating Air Permit Program; and Regulation No. 31, Nonattainment New Source Review Requirements—into a single regulation: Regulation No. 35, Arkansas Air Quality Regulation. The purpose of this regulatory streamlining project is to clarify Arkansas air pollution control requirements by simplifying the regulatory provisions, consolidating overlapping provisions, and revising or removing confusing language. The consolidation is expected to facilitate continued trends in achieving clean air by providing additional regulatory clarity to our stakeholders and facilities in order to foster compliance with air quality regulations. ADEQ anticipates the streamlined regulation to ultimately result in reduced costs both for the State and for the facilities covered under the consolidated regulation.

ADEQ has posted corrections to the original pre-proposal draft regulation and index of changes and two new documents: a draft state implementation plan (SIP) narrative and a draft of SIP regulatory provisions. The draft SIP narrative explains how the streamlined regulation satisfies Clean Air Act requirements. The draft of SIP regulatory provisions indicates which provisions of the pre-proposal draft regulation would be sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for inclusion in the SIP. These documents can be viewed from the AIR Streamlining Project Webpage: https://www.adeq.state.ar.us/air/planning/streamlining/.

ADEQ has already held one public meeting June 18th to provide an overview and receive feedback on the pre-proposal draft regulation. Attendees of this meeting requested an additional opportunity to discuss the preproposal draft prior to initiation. Pursuant to this request, ADEQ will be hosting a listening session August 13, 2018, via conference call. The time and call-in information is as follows:

August 13, 2018

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

USA Toll-Free: (877) 411-9748

ACCESS CODE: 8652725

Interested persons can also submit feedback on the pre-proposal draft regulation and associated documents electronically by emailing AirPlanComments@adeq.state.ar.us or by mail addressed to Tricia Treece, Office of Air Quality, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, 5301 Northshore Drive, North Little Rock, AR 72118. Feedback on the pre-proposal draft is due by no later than August 20, 2018. The public and regulated community will also have the opportunity to comment on the record once APC&EC initiates rulemaking. ADEQ anticipates filing for initiation with APC&EC after the conclusion of the stakeholder process.

Original source can be found here.