Using Standards to Promote Clean Air

2018 Status Update

Clean Air Act (CAA)

As directed by the CAA, EPA carries out Risk and Technology Reviews (RTRs) on large industrial sources of air pollutants such as chemical plants, petroleum refineries, and paper mills (referred to as “source categories” in the CAA). RTRs evaluate whether there have been developments in technologies or other reduction approaches to reduce air toxics emissions, and RTRs are used to determine if additional regulations are needed to reduce residual risks. This generally results in the publication of new or revised EPA regulations. EPA is under a consent decree to complete RTRs for one source category and a court-order to complete RTRs for 33 source categories by 2020. In other words, EPA is scheduled to complete significantly more of RTRs in FY2018, FY2019 and FY2020 than in past years. This has resulted in a higher volume of regulations issued under the CAA in FY2018 than in past years (this is likely to be the case in FY2019 and FY2020 as well). EPA conducted a broad search and review of existing Voluntary Consensus Standards (VCS) to determine if they are available and practical for use in EPA regulations resulting from RTRs described above. This search and review process identified nearly 20 VCS that were deemed acceptable for use in EPA regulations published or signed in FY2018.