EPA Proposeds Updates to VOC standards

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EPA Proposes Updates to 2012 Performance Standards for VOCs
March 28, 2013 - EPA proposed updates to its 2012 VOC performance standards for storage tanks used in crude oil and natural gas production to facilitate compliance with the standards and clarify requirements. The proposed changes reflect recent information showing that more higher-volume storage tanks will be coming on line than the agency originally estimated.
• Proposed rule (PDF) (147pp, 680k)
• Fact sheet (PDF) (6pp, 374k)
Also…

Industry Wins Delay, Exemptions In EPA Drilling Storage Tank NSPS Update
Posted: March 29, 2013
EPA is proposing to amend parts of its recent final new source performance standards (NSPS) for oil and natural gas drilling to extend compliance deadlines and allow potential exemptions for some storage tank emission controls, a win for industry, which argued that the agency vastly underestimated the amount of sources covered in the rule.
The agency announced the proposed changes March 29 in a pre-publication Federal Register notice, in response to several petitions for reconsideration of its NSPS and air toxics rules for the oil and natural gas production sector, issued in August.
EPA is granting reconsideration on a limited set of issues related to its emissions controls for storage tanks, which include proposing to extend an Oct. 15 compliance deadline to April 15, 2014 for storage vessels that come online after the proposed amendments to install controls and to ease control requirements for vessels constructed or modified between the August 2011 proposed rule and the publication date of the March 29 proposal in the Federal Register.
Additionally, EPA is proposing a potential exemption where facilities would not have to comply with the controls in the rule, which requires a reduction of emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 95 percent, if they can show that VOC releases have tapered to less than 4 tons per year (tpy) without additional controls.
“This alternative limit would reflect the decline in emissions that occurs at most tanks over time and allow owners/operators to shift control equipment to higher-emitting tanks,” EPA says in a fact sheet released March 29 with the Register notice.
The agency says the changes are necessary to avoid further delays to the control requirements, given that a sufficient supply of control devices is not expected to be available until 2016.
Environmentalists are wary of the proposed changes, however. “We're disappointed with the proposed delay in the NSPS compliance date for tanks, and with the increased pollution that will result,” one environmentalist says, adding that they are still reviewing the agency's reason for the delay and its estimates of air quality impacts.
EPA's final rules revise the 1985 NSPS and 1999 air toxics regulations to address emissions from some oil and gas sources not previously regulated, including hydraulic fracturing wells. The rules set strict controls for storage tanks used in oil and gas production if they had the potential to emit six or more tons per year (tpy) of VOCs, requiring them to install controls resulting in at least 95 percent VOC reductions annually.
Industry pushed for EPA to soften the storage tank controls, arguing in its Aug. 16 petition for reconsideration that EPA underestimated the amount of storage vessels that would fall under the 6 tpy of VOCs threshold and urging the agency to give facilities more time to comply with the control requirements.
“Specifically, we believe that EPA has inadvertently written some of the requirements in a manner that will cause widespread non-compliance with the rules,” Matt Todd, American Petroleum Institute's (API) senior policy adviser, said in an Aug. 16 statement. “Additionally, because EPA has significantly underestimated the number of [storage] tanks affected by this rule, there will be significant impact on our ability continue operations unless the Agency modifies the rule language.”
API in its petition for reconsideration said that “several thousand tanks per year will trigger the standard,” compared to EPA's previous estimation that the rules would affect about 300 vessels.
Storage Vessels
In the Register notice, however, EPA is acknowledging that “[b]ased on our analysis and the information provided to us, we believe that there are on the order of 970 storage vessels per month being installed at this time and expected in the future, and over 20,000 affected storage vessels constructed, modified or reconstructed between the August 23, 2011, proposal date of the NSPS and” the date that EPA publishes the notice.
To address the limited availability of controls, EPA is proposing to bifurcate the storage tanks into two groups, allowing those built since EPA proposed the NSPS in August 2011 to report only the date the vessel became active and its geographic coordinates, barring any changes that would potentially increase emissions. Tanks that become active after the proposed changes would have until April 15, 2014, or within 60 days of the startup.
The agency outlined its plans to reconsider provisions of the NSPS and national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for the oil and gas industry in a Jan. 16 legal filing to hold in abeyance multiple suits filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit over the rules.
The lawsuits have been filed by environmental groups, including Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Clean Air Council and others Group Against Smog and Pollution. Other legal challenges to the rules are from industry groups American Petroleum Institute, Texas Oil and Gas Association, Gas Processors Association, Independent Petroleum Association of America and its state affiliates, and others. Environmental groups are seeking, among other provisions, first-time controls on methane from the oil and gas sector.
EPA also in the Register notice is proposing to clarify that the rules do not apply to certain types of storage vessels, such as fuel tanks or those located at refineries. Instead, the rules would only apply to “[t]anks that are considered 'affected sources' would have VOC emissions of 6 or more tons per year and are used to store crude oil, condensate, unrefined petroleum liquids known as 'intermediate hydrocarbon liquids,' and produced water.” --