Environment DEC
From the January 2004 issue
State Environmental Board Adopts Ozone Regulation
The New York State Environmental Board has approved a revision to a state regulation that will help protect public health and the environment by reducing emissions of oxides of nitrogen, (NOx), a pollutant that contributes to ozone formation. The regulation requires an additional 25 to 75 percent reduction in NOx emissions beyond existing requirements for stationary combustion engines.
The 16-member board, which is chaired by DEC Commissioner Erin M. Crotty, is composed of state agency heads and representatives of the environmental community, citizens groups, business and industry.
Ozone: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Ozone occurs naturally in the stratosphere where it shields the earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays, which may cause skin cancer. Ground-level ozone, however, causes or aggravates many respiratory and heart conditions. Ozone is a secondary pollutant not emitted directly, but is formed in the atmosphere by a variety of photochemical reactions involving volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and NOx in the presence of sunlight. NOx is a by-product of fossil fuel combustion and is emitted primarily by utilities, motor vehicles and major industrial facilities.
New Requirements
The revisions mark the latest in a series of measures adopted by New York State to achieve the level of reductions of VOCs and NOx that were identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as necessary to meet the one-hour ozone federal standard in the New York metropolitan area. Taking measures to reduce NOx and VOCs will help New York attain the current one-hour standard for ozone and improve air quality.
Stationary internal combustion engines are used at electric generating power plants, natural gas transmission compressor stations, and water and sewage treatment plants, among others. The revision reduces NOx emission limits; reduces the size of engines regulated in the New York metropolitan area from 225 brake horsepower (bhp) to 200 bhp; maintains, at 400 bhp, the size of engines regulated in upstate New York, and exempts test cells at engine manufacturing facilities used for research and development or reliability performance testing.
Compliance will be achieved by implementing reasonably available control technologies (RACT). Compliance plans must be submitted by July 1, 2004 and final compliance must be achieved by April 1, 2005. Operators of regulated sources will evaluate RACT options, including fuel switching, selective catalytic reduction, or system-wide averaging. DEC will accept applications to approve alternative control or emission limits from sources who demonstrate that the applicable emission limits are not economically or technically feasible.
