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May 26, 1992
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Applicability of Prevention of Significant Deterioration
(PSD) and New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) to the Cleveland
Electric, Incorporated, Plant in Willoughby, Ohio
FROM: Edward J. Lillis, Chief
Permits Programs Branch, AQMD (MD-15)
TO: George T. Czerniak, Chief
Air Enforcement Branch, Region V
This memorandum responds to your request for a written applicability
determination for a Cleveland Electric, Incorporated, facility in
Willoughby, Ohio. As discussed below, my staff has determined that
this Cleveland Electric facility is subject to a 100 tons per year
(tpy), major source applicability threshold for the PSD requirements
at 40 CFR 51.21. If this facility has commenced construction with
a minor source construction permit from Ohio, but without undergoing
new source review (NSR), as required by 40 CFR 52.21, the source
may be in violation of Federal PSD requirements. At this time, the
Cleveland Electric Plant does not appear to be subject to the current
emissions guideline for municipal waste combustors or NSPS of 40
CFR Part 60, subparts Ca and Ea, respectively. This response has
been coordinated with the Compliance Monitoring Branch of the Stationary
Source Compliance Division (SSCD), to whom your applicability request
was addressed, and with the Standards Development Branch of the
Emission Standards Division (ESD) on the applicability of NSPS and
emissions guidelines.
In reviewing the information forwarded to our office, we have
determined that, for PSD applicability purposes, the Cleveland Electric
facility is both a municipal waste incinerator and a fuel conversion
plant, as listed at 40 CFR 52.21(b)(1)(c)(iii), and would be major
if the source "...emits, or has the potential to emit, 100 types
of any pollutant subject to regulation under the (Clean Air) Act".
The facility appears to meet the criteria for both categories by
disposing of municipal waste using combustion and by producing a
low heat value fuel gas. While there are no definitions in the PSD
regulations for "municipal waste incinerator," "fuel conversion
plant," and other categories listed as subject to the 100 tpy, major
source threshold, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
relied on case-by-case determinations in assessing source applicability.
These assessments are based on precedents established by NSPS and
other regulatory definitions, as well as technical analysis of the
character and functions of both the proposed source and the listed
source categories. We have used these guidelines in determining
that the Cleveland Electric plant is considered listed under two
source categories for which the lower PSD applicability threshold
applies.
The NSPS regulations define "municipal waste combustor" at 40
CFR 60.51a to mean "... any device that combusts solid, liquid,
or gasified (municipal solid waste) including, but not limited to,
field-erected incinerators (with or without heat recovery), modular
incinerators (starved air or excess air), furnaces (whether suspension-fired,
grate-fired, mass-fired, or fluidized bed-fired) and gasification/combustion
units." The emissions guideline of subpart Ca also incorporates
this definition by reference (40 CFR 60.31a). On page 10 of Cleveland
Electric's December 20, 1991 permit application submittal, the source
is described as consisting of seven units, charging 50 tons per
day (tpd) per unit, "...converting municipal solid waste into...fuel
gas." For NSPS purposes, the Cleveland Electric source is a municipal
waste combustor and would be subject to the NSPS standards of 40
CFR Part 60, subpart Ea, if each unit were not below the 250 tpd
of refuse combustion capacity per unit applicability threshold of
subpart Ea [40 CFR 60.50a(a)].
A municipal waste incinerator "combusts" solid waste and thus
is functionally synonymous with municipal waste combustor. Accordingly,
EPA has adopted the NSPS definition of municipal waste combustor
for determining if a source is subject to the 100 tpy applicability
threshold for PSD in section 169(1) of the-3- CAA. Section 169(1),
as amended by Section 305(b) of the CAA Amendments of 1990 [P.L.
101-549, sec. 305(b)], lists "municipal incinerators capable of
charging more than 50 tons of refuse per day" as being subject to
the 100 ton emissions threshold. Under EPA's sourcewide plant definition
[40 CFR 52.21(b)(5 and 6)], the 50 tpd charging rate applies to
the sum of all units at the Cleveland Electric facility (which will
be capable of charging a total of 350 tons of refuse per day). Therefore,
the Cleveland Electric facility will be a major source for PSD purposes
if the source emits, or has the potential to emit, 100 tpy of any
pollutant regulated under the CAA [except HAP's listed under .112(b)
of the CAA].
The production of low heat value fuel gas at the Cleveland Electric
facility also classifies the source as a fuel conversion plant.
Fuel conversion plants obviously include those plants which accomplish
a change in state (e.g., solid to liquid to gas) for a fuel. This
definition includes conversion of the following fuels: fossil (e.g.,
coal or oil shale); biomass (e.g., wood or peat); and anthropogenic
(e.g., municipal waste derived fuel and inorganic fuel). The majority
of such sources are likely to accomplish these changes through either
gasification, liquefaction, or solidification. The category of fuel
conversion plants may include, but is not limited to, some types
of sources within standard industrial classifications 1311, 2819,
2969, 2421, and 2999. Generally, however, applicability for this
source category is determined by whether a facility changes the
state (e.g., solid to gas) or form (e.g., process sawdust into a
pellet) of a fuel. Therefore, the Cleveland Electric facility fits
into the fuel conversion plant category as well. In both cases,
as a municipal waste incinerator and as a fuel conversion plant,
the source is major and subject to PSD requirements if the source
has the potential to emit 100 tpy of a regulated pollutant other
than a HAP.
If you have any questions concerning our PSD applicability determination,
please contact Bill Lamason of my staff at (919) 541-5374. Questions
concerning NSPS should be directed to Walt Stevenson, ESD, at (919)
541-5264. On compliance issues, you may contact Clara Poffenberger,
SSCD, at (703) 308-8709.
cc:
NSR Contacts, EPA Regions I-X.
K. Berry, AQMD
C. Poffenburger, SSCD
W. Stevenson, ESD
B. Tyndall, OGC
J. Domike, OE
B. Lamason, PPB
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