1. Air Strategic Permitting
and Compliance
Mid-America Environmental
Compliance Conference
April 3, 2014
Presented by
Piyush Srivastav, President
NAQS-Environmental Experts

2. ORGANIZATIONAL POSITION
• Our Vision: The preeminent leader in air quality, water quality, risk
management plans, and climate change.
• Our Purpose: Partner with clients to provide value added
environmental solutions that ensure:
– Regulatory Compliance
– Increased Operational Flexibility
– Successful Project Planning
– Liability Identification, Reduction
• Our Mission: Bridge the gap between industry and regulators by
engaging employees with undisputable expertise, excellent critical
thinking abilities, and strong communication skills.

3. SERVICES
• Permitting –
– Applications
– Strategies
– Draft Permits
– Permit Reviews
• Compliance Assistance
• Regulatory Analysis
• Emissions Inventories
• Compliance Certifications
• Deviation Reports
• Stack Testing Assistance
• Litigation Support
• Training
• Audits
• Compliance Management
• Executive Training
• Risk Management Planning
• GHG Inventories and
Management
• Strategic Project Planning
• Dispersion Modeling

4. SELECT CLIENTS
Partnering with a spectrum of clients
ranging from small municipalities to
Fortune 500 Companies
Cargill/Polyols
ABENGOA BIOENERGY

5. Air Strategic Permitting

6. Strategic Permitting
• Why is Strategic Permitting Important?
– A permit is a legally binding document
– Facilities can and do incur significant fines from
violating permit conditions
– Regulatory agencies have made permits more
prescriptive by establishing more conditions and
more stringent conditions
– Compliance process
•

7. Strategic Permitting
• Getting Off to a Good Start
– Use the services of a firm with air permitting expertise
during the permit application preparation process
– Be familiar with your existing permit
– Allow enough time to prepare permit application
– Schedule pre-application meeting with Agency
– Think about potential future implications of permit
conditions
– Determine if pre-application monitoring is required
for PSD sources
– January 22, 2013

8. Strategic Permitting
• Getting Off to a Good Start
– Submit a complete and timely application
– Submit Draft Permit Documents/Comments
•Clearly explain the regulatory basis for
proposed permit conditions
•Identify potential liabilities (i.e., stringent
conditions that an agency may typically try to
establish) and be prepared to address why
there is no regulatory basis for such a condition

9. Strategic Permitting
• Permit Condition Negotiation Process
– Request opportunity to review agency draft
documents, including various iterations of the
draft documents
– Involve facility personnel in review of the draft
– Request meetings with regulatory agency
– Provide comments in writing
– Request responses in writing to agency conditions
that you disagree with and made comments on

10. Strategic Permitting
• Permit Condition Negotiation Process
– Strategize which issues are worth sticking
to, which are open to compromise
– Keep focus on underlying regulatory requirements
– Use hypothetical scenarios during negotiation
(can help to get the point across)

11. Strategic Permitting
• Permit Negotiation Stalemate
– For Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD)
and Title V sources, involve and meet with EPA
Regional Office if no progress is being made with
local agency on important issues
– Comment during the formal public notice period
– Comment on response summary
– Consider appeal to the Environmental Appeals
Board (EAB)

12. Effective Permits

13. Effective Permits
• Effective Permits Contain Permit Conditions
that:
– Have a sound regulatory basis
– Are attainable
– Provide operational flexibility
– Are clear
– Are concise
– Are enforceable

14. • Effective Permits Do NOT Contain Permit
Conditions that are:
– Unnecessary
– More stringent than the regulations require
– Unclear
• These Types of Conditions Inhibit Operational
Flexibility and Increase Liability
Effective Permits

15. Effective Permits
• Effective Permits Do NOT Contain
Unnecessary Permit Conditions:
– Redundant limits
–Pound per hour (lb/hr) AND lb/MMBtu limits
–Emission limits AND throughput limits (can be
exceptions) AND production limits
– Conditions that are more prescriptive than the
regulations
–Spare bags requirement for baghouses
–Size/Brand/Model # of boiler or engine

16. Effective Permits
• Effective Permits Do NOT Contain
Conditions that are More Stringent than
the Regulations Require:
– Short-term emission limits when the applicable
regulation is a long-term emission threshold
– Exact specification of stack heights and
diameters and reference to the National
Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
– Emission limits where no limit is required

17. Effective Permits
• Effective Permits Do NOT Contain
Unclear Permit Conditions:
–Partial incorporation of New Source
Performance Standards (NSPS)
requirements by reference
–Vague or Open-ended permit conditions

18. Compliance

19. Compliance
• Permitting Liability
– Facility may violate a permit condition that is
unnecessary or more stringent than the regulations
require
– Even though the facility does not violate an
underlying regulatory requirement, significant fines
can be incurred
– Unclear conditions lead to confusion and non-
compliance
– Vast majority of construction permit conditions
become applicable requirements of Title V or Class
II Operating Permit

20. Compliance
• Permitting Liability Example
– Stringent or unnecessary permit condition
– Notice of Violation (NOV) of condition
occurs, though no regulation is violated, and no
enforcement action is taken
– Permit revised to remove/revise condition
– A subsequent regulatory agency inspection finds
several issues that don’t warrant an NOV, and one
issue that does – everything is included in NOV

21. Compliance
• Permitting Liability (continued)
– Even though no one item meets any of the specific
criteria for a high priority violation (HPV), there is
a general HPV criteria for chronic and recalcitrant
violators
– Regulatory agency characterizes one or more NOV
items as HPVs as a result of current NOV in
combination with previous NOV, considering the
combination as a chronic violator

22. Compliance
• Permitting Liability Example (continued)
– Refers NOV to the Attorney General
– Attorney General’s Office typically defers to
regulatory agency’s opinion
– Other considerations

23. Summary

24. Strategic Permitting and Compliance
• Summary
– Know your permit
– Ensure that permit conditions are effective
– Provide draft permit language for new projects
– Evaluate existing permit language for possible
revisions
– Spend time and resources negotiating effective
permit conditions with regulatory agency

25. NAQS-Environmental Experts
Contact Piyush Srivastav at:
402-310-5321 (cell)
Piyush Srivastav
piyush@NAQS.com
402-489-1111 (office)
402-310-5321 (cell)
QUESTIONS?