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PA EPA DEVELOPS COMMON SENSE AIR TOXIC PROPOSAL

Release Date: 08/30/96
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PA EPA DEVELOPS COMMON SENSE AIR TOXIC PROPOSAL

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1996



EPA DEVELOPS COMMON SENSE AIR TOXIC PROPOSAL FOR ALUMINUM PLANTS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INDUSTRY AND STATE, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

As part of EPA's flexible, common sense approach to environmental regulation, the Agency today announced a proposed rule significantly reducing emissions of air toxics and other pollutants from primary aluminum reduction plants. Reduction plants produce molten aluminum which other manufacturing facilities use to make cans, aircraft, automotive parts and other products. The proposal, which will affect 24 existing facilities nationwide and any new plants built in the future, would reduce air toxic and other emissions by about 5700 tons annually -- a 50 percent reduction from current levels. Air toxics are those pollutants known or suspected of causing cancer, birth defects and other serious health effects. The proposal would also cut particulate matter (dust, dirt, smoke) emissions by 16,000 tons a year, a 50 percent reduction from current levels. Particulate matter can aggravate existing respiratory and cardiovascular disease and increase risk of premature death. Today's action was developed as a pilot project through a rulemaking process known as Maximum Achievable Control Technology Partnerships, in which industry expertise, state and local government skills in monitoring and controlling sources, and EPA's national program experience are all combined to develop more streamlined and cost-effective regulations. For example, emissions tests supporting today's proposal were funded jointly by EPA, the Washington State Department of Ecology and the aluminum industry (Washington has the largest number of facilities affected by today's proposal.) Today's proposal contains a common sense principle called "emissions averaging," that would allow facilities flexibility to vary the level of control among certain sources in order to achieve the required emission reductions. Plants may find it more cost-effective to overcontrol certain emission sources and undercontrol others, the overall result being equivalent or greater emission reduction at less cost. Today's action also demonstrates EPA's commitment to making pollution prevention an integral part of regulatory actions whenever possible. As an example of one of these pollution prevention techniques, aluminum plants will meet emissions limits by capturing and recycling back into the manufacturing process toxic air pollutants which formerly were allowed to be released into the atmosphere. In addition, the proposal contains a cost-saving incentive allowing plants to reduce the frequency of sampling and emissions testing if they consistently perform better than EPA requirements. Today's proposal will appear soon in the Federal Register, but will be computer-accessible immediately through EPA's electronic bulletin board system, the Technology Transfer Network (TTN) at 919-541-5742 (backup number for access problems is 919-541-5384) under "Recently Signed Rules" on the TTN's Clean Air Act Amendments Bulletin Board. For further technical information on the proposal, contact Steve Fruh at 919-541-2837. In a related issue, EPA recently met the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments to issue final air toxics rules for the first 25 percent of industrial categories targeted for regulation. Together, all these rules are expected to reduce, from more than 45 different industries, a variety of toxic air pollutants by about one million tons annually, as well as smog-causing volatile organic compounds by more than 1.5 million tons a year. EPA will issue regulations reducing air toxics from over 170 different industries by the year 2000. 

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