Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 6, September 16, 2024
(a) For
the purposes of this Rule, the definitions listed in
15A NCAC
02D .0101 and
15A NCAC
02Q .0103 shall apply.
(b) This Rule shall not apply to:
(1) facilities whose potential emissions
require a permit pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0500 (Title V Procedures); or
(2) a source emitting a pollutant that is
part of the facility's
15A NCAC
02D .1100 (Control of Toxic Air Pollutants)
modeling demonstration if that source is not exempted pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0702.
(c) The owner or operator of an activity
exempt from permitting pursuant to this Rule shall not be exempt from
demonstrating compliance with any other applicable State or federal
requirement.
(d) Any facility whose
actual emissions of particulate matter (PM10), sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides,
volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, hazardous air pollutants, and
toxic air pollutants are each less than five tons per year and whose actual
total aggregate emissions are less than 10 tons per year shall not be required
to obtain a permit pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0300. This Paragraph shall not apply to
synthetic minor facilities that are regulated pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0315.
(e) Any facility that is not exempted from
permitting pursuant to Paragraph (d) of this Rule and whose actual total
aggregate emissions of particulate matter (PM10), sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, hazardous air pollutants,
and toxic air pollutants are greater than or equal to five tons per year and
less than 25 tons per year may register their facility pursuant to
15A NCAC
02D .0202 instead of obtaining a permit
pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0300. This Paragraph shall not apply to:
(1) synthetic minor facilities that are
regulated pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0315;
(2) facilities with a source subject to
maximum achievable control technology pursuant to 40 CFR Part 63;
(3) facilities with sources of volatile
organic compounds or nitrogen oxides that are located in a nonattainment area;
or
(4) facilities with a source
regulated pursuant to New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), unless the
source is exempted pursuant to Paragraph (g) or (h) of this
Rule.
(f) The Director
may require the owner or operator of a facility to register such facility
pursuant to
15A NCAC
02D .0200 or obtain a permit pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0300, if necessary to obtain compliance
with any other applicable State or federal requirement.
(g) The following activities shall not
require a permit or permit modification pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0300:
(1) maintenance, upkeep, and replacement:
(A) maintenance, structural changes, or
repair activities that do not increase the capacity of such process and do not
cause any change in the quality or nature or an increase in quantity of an
emission of any regulated air pollutant;
(B) housekeeping activities or building
maintenance procedures, including painting buildings, paving parking lots,
resurfacing floors, repairing roofs, washing, using portable vacuum cleaners,
sweeping, using and associated storing of janitorial products, or removing
insulation;
(C) using office
supplies, supplies to maintain copying equipment, or blueprint
machines;
(D) using firefighting
equipment (excluding engines regulated pursuant to
40 CFR
63, Subpart ZZZZ); or
(E) replacing existing equipment with
equipment of the same size (or smaller), type, and function that does not
result in an increase to the actual or potential emission of regulated air
pollutants, does not affect the facility's compliance with any other applicable
State or federal requirements, and that fits the description of the existing
equipment in the permit, including the application, such that the replacement
equipment can be lawfully operated pursuant to that permit without modifying
the permit;
(2) air
conditioning or ventilation: comfort air conditioning or comfort ventilating
systems that do not transport, remove, or exhaust regulated air pollutants to
the atmosphere;
(3) laboratory or
classroom activities:
(A) bench-scale, on-site
equipment used for experimentation, chemical or physical analysis for quality
control purposes or for diagnosis of illness, training, or instructional
purposes;
(B) research and
development activities that produce no commercial product or feedstock
material; or
(C) educational
activities, including wood working, welding, and automotive repair;
(4) storage tanks with no
applicable requirements other than Stage I controls pursuant to
15A NCAC
02D .0928, Gasoline Service Stations Stage
I;
(5) combustion and heat transfer
equipment:
(A) heating units used for human
comfort, excluding space heaters burning used oil, that have a heat input of
less than 10 million Btu per hour and that do not provide heat for any
manufacturing or other industrial process;
(B) residential wood stoves, heaters, or
fireplaces; or
(C) water heaters
that are used for domestic purposes only and are not used to heat process
water;
(6) wastewater
treatment processes: industrial wastewater treatment processes or municipal
wastewater treatment processes for which there are no State or federal air
requirements;
(7) dispensing
equipment: equipment used solely to dispense gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene,
lubricants, or cooling oils;
(8)
electric motor burn-out ovens with secondary combustion chambers or
afterburners;
(9) electric motor
bake-on ovens;
(10) burn-off ovens
with afterburners for paint-line hangers;
(11) hosiery knitting machines and associated
lint screens, hosiery dryers and associated lint screens, and hosiery dyeing
processes that do not use bleach or solvent dyes;
(12) woodworking operations processing only
green wood;
(13) solid waste
landfills: This exemption does not apply to flares and other sources of
combustion at solid waste landfills. These flares and other combustion sources
shall obtain a permit pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0300 unless they qualify for another
exemption pursuant to this Paragraph; or
(14) miscellaneous:
(A) equipment that does not emit any
regulated air pollutants;
(B)
sources for which there are no applicable requirements;
(C) motor vehicles, aircraft, marine vessels,
locomotives, tractors, or other self-propelled vehicles with internal
combustion engines;
(D) engines
regulated pursuant to Title II of the Federal Clean Air Act (Emission Standards
for Moving Sources);
(E) equipment
used for preparing food for direct on-site human consumption;
(F) a source whose emissions are regulated
only pursuant to Section 112(r) or Title VI of the Federal Clean Air
Act;
(G) exit gases from in-line
process analyzers;
(H) stacks and
vents that prevent the escape of sewer gases from domestic waste through
plumbing traps;
(I) refrigeration
equipment that complies with the regulations set forth in Sections 601 through
618 of Title VI (Stratospheric Ozone Protection) of the Federal Clean Air Act,
40 CFR Part 82 , and any other regulations promulgated by EPA pursuant to Title
VI for stratospheric ozone protection, except refrigeration equipment used as
or in conjunction with air pollution control equipment. Refrigeration equipment
used as or in conjunction with air pollution control equipment shall obtain a
permit pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0300 unless it qualifies for another
exemption pursuant to this Paragraph;
(J) equipment not vented to the outdoor
atmosphere, with the exception of equipment that emits volatile organic
compounds. Equipment that emits volatile organic compounds shall obtain a
permit pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0300 unless it qualifies for another
exemption pursuant to this Paragraph;
(K) animal operations not required to have
control technology pursuant to
15A NCAC
02D .1800. If an animal operation is required
to have control technology, it shall obtain a permit pursuant to this
Subchapter;
(L) any incinerator
that meets the requirements set forth in
15A NCAC
02D .1201(c)(4);
or
(M) dry cleaning operations,
regardless of NSPS or NESHAP applicability.
(h) The following activities shall not
require a permit or permit modification pursuant to
15A NCAC
02Q .0300. These activities shall be included
in determining applicability of any rule or standard that requires
facility-wide aggregation of source emissions, including activities regulated
by 15A
NCAC 02D .0530,
15A NCAC
02D .0531,
15A NCAC
02Q .0500, and
15A NCAC
02Q .0700:
(1) combustion and heat transfer equipment
(including direct-fired equipment that only emit regulated pollutants from fuel
combustion):
(A) fuel combustion equipment
(excluding internal combustion engines) not regulated pursuant to 40 CFR Part
60 , NSPS, firing exclusively unadulterated liquid fossil fuel, wood, or an
approved equivalent unadulterated fuel as defined in
15A NCAC
02Q .0103;
(B) fuel combustion equipment (excluding
internal combustion engines) firing exclusively natural gas or liquefied
petroleum gas or a mixture of these fuels; or
(C) space heaters burning waste oil if:
(i) the heater burns only oil that the owner
or operator generates or used oil from do-it-yourself oil changers who generate
used oil as household wastes; and
(ii) the heater is designed to have a maximum
heat input of not more than 500,000 Btu per hour;
(2) gasoline distribution: bulk
gasoline plants, as defined in
15A NCAC
02D .0926(a)(3), with an
average daily throughput of less than 4,000 gallons;
(3) paint spray booths or graphic arts
operations, coating operations, and solvent cleaning operations, as defined in
15A NCAC
02Q .0803, located at a facility whose
facility-wide actual uncontrolled emissions of volatile organic compounds are
less than five tons per year, except that such emission sources whose actual
uncontrolled emissions of volatile organic compounds are less than 100 pounds
per year shall qualify for this exemption regardless of the facility-wide
emissions. For the purpose of this exemption, water wash and filters that are
an integral part of the paint spray booth shall not be considered air pollution
control devices;
(4) electrostatic
dry powder coating operations with filters or powder recovery
systems;
(5) miscellaneous: any
source whose potential uncontrolled emissions of particulate matter (PM10),
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and carbon
monoxide shall each be no more than five tons per year; or
(6) case-by-case exemption: activities that
the applicant demonstrates to the Director do not violate any applicable
emission control standard.
(i) Upon request of the Director, the owner
or operator of a facility or source claiming that an activity is exempt under
Paragraphs (d), (e), (g) or (h) of this Rule shall submit emissions data,
documentation of equipment type, or other supporting documents demonstrating
the facility or source is qualified for that exemption.
Authority
G.S.
143-215.3(a)(1);
143-215.107(a)(4);
143-215.108;
Temporary Adoption Eff. March 8, 1994 for a period of 180 days or until the
permanent rule becomes effective, whichever is sooner;
Eff. July 1,
1994;
Amended Eff. April 1, 1999; July 1, 1998; July 1, 1997;
November 1, 1996;
Temporary Amendment Eff. December 1,
1999;
Amended Eff. June 13, 2016; May 1, 2013; January 1, 2009;
July 1, 2007; June 29, 2006; July 18, 2002; July 1, 2000;
Readopted
Eff. April 1, 2018.
