All posts in “Permitting”

Gold Ore Processing and Production Facilities Permitting

In 2011, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for gold ore processing and production facilities. This rule is set forth in Volume 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 63 Subpart EEEEEEE (40 CFR 63 Subpart EEEEEEE). These  gold ore processing and production facilities are required to  obtain a federal permit under 40 CFR part 70 or 40 CFR part 71 (Title V operating permit), even if they are not associated with a major source. 

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Navigating Cleaner Air Oregon (CAO)

To track emissions at the national level, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires Oregon (and other states) to conduct statewide inventories from all sources of air pollution. These data collected from across the country are used for making new rules and modeling air pollution.

A few years in the making, Cleaner Air Oregon (CAO) addresses this need and is already affecting many companies in the state. As of November 2018, all permitted facilities should have already submitted emissions inventories for their sources to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

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AEREarth: Visualize AERMOD Files in Google Earth

Air Sciences’ staff recently developed a tool called AEREarth for users who would like to visualize AERMOD air dispersion model input data in Google Earth before running the actual model. The AEREarth tool takes AERMOD input data files (extension .inp, or .api if using Lakes) and translates them into Google Earth KML files. These files allow the user to see a three-dimensional (3D) rendering of all air pollutant emissions sources characterized in the input file. The tool also can accept AERMOD BPIP files (.ppp, .pip, or .bpi) into 3D buildings. This visualization tool allows users to evaluate whether a facility is correctly configured in AERMOD, and provides a useful QA/QC check of the model data prior to conducting a potentially time-consuming model run.

Click Here to Access the AEREarth Tool

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Air Toxics: Designing an Affordable Monitoring Network

The state of Oregon has proposed a new set of rules, currently in the draft state, for a risk-based air toxics permitting program; the program is named “Cleaner Air Oregon.” The stated goal of Cleaner Air Oregon is to reduce health risks from existing industrial facilities to below 100 in 1 million by 2030. To accomplish this goal, the state of Oregon will require emissions reductions from facilities for which the aggregate health risk, based on predicted health risk from 260 chemicals with known health-protective levels, is above the 100 in 1 million threshold.
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Cooling Tower PM Emissions Calculator

This tool calculates the particulate matter (PM) emissions including particulate size fractions (PM10 and PM2.5) from cooling tower water drift. The premise of this calculation is that when water droplets that escape from a cooling tower evaporate, they leave behind any solids that were dissolved in the water. Assuming those solids form a single round particle, the size of that particle can be determined by the size of the water droplet, the concentration of the total dissolved solids (TDS) in the droplet, and the density of TDS constituents.

Download the Cooling Tower Particulate Air Emissions Calculator

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