For the second time this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has formally objected to an air pollution permit issued by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, sending it back to the state for revisions and more detailed explanations on how the existing permit will ensure compliance with the Clean Air Act and other environmental regulations.

The EPA last week granted parts of a petition filed by Alabama environmental groups protesting the Title V air pollution permit for the Alabama Power’s James M. Barry Electric Generating Facility in Mobile County, ordering ADEM to add more detailed explanations about the permit and to add a fugitive dust plan to address coal dust from escaping the site.

The petition was filed by the Sierra Club, Birmingham-based environmental group GASP and the Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition (MEJAC).

The EPA denied the parts of the petition arguing that the air pollution permit for Plant Barry was insufficient to ensure compliance with National Ambient Air Quality Standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2), but granted the petitioner’s request for a formal objection on the grounds that the ADEM permit “is insufficient to explain” how the emissions limits in the permit would ensure that those limits aren’t exceeded.

ADEM Air Division Chief Ron Gore told AL.com the department will have 90 days to address the issued specified in the EPA order.

Gore said the only substantive change in Plant Barry’s permit will be the addition of a fugitive dust plan.

“We’re in the process of fixing [the permit] by providing the explanatory material that EPA requested,” Gore said. “We have the information that we have used historically to say, ‘we’re certain there’s not an air quality problem for SO2 around that plant.’”

Gore said the revised permit will be sent back to EPA for approval and the petitioners who objected the first time will also have a chance to review the revisions and can petition again if they feel the result is unsatisfactory.

“We’re going to do our best to satisfy the EPA and hopefully the petitioners as well in the first shot [at revising the permit],” Gore said.

Environmental groups hail EPA decision

The environmental groups that filed the petition issued a news release calling the EPA’s decision a win in the fight against air pollution.

Ramsey Sprague, president of MEJAC, said his group was “encouraged” by the EPA’s response to the petition.

“EPA’s leadership on the letter of the law when it comes to basic Clean Air Act reporting, monitoring, and record keeping standards is key to ending the cycle of abuse that far too many communities have suffered under for far too long,” Sprague said in a news release.

Michael Hansen, executive director of GASP, said the order shows that state regulatory agencies must be vigilant in ensuring that environmental laws are enforced.

“State and local agencies are far too often asleep at the wheel, and they are now on notice,” Hansen said in the release. “ADEM now has the opportunity to draft a stronger, more protective permit for Alabama Power’s Plant Barry.”

ADEM’s second permit objection this year

The permit for Plant Barry was the second ADEM-issued air pollution permit that the EPA has found fault with this year.

Last month, the EPA similarly objected to an air pollution permit issued by ADEM for the UOP Honeywell chemical manufacturing plant near Africatown in Mobile County. In that instance, the agency determined that ADEM had “failed to adequately respond to significant public comments” raising concerns about the facility, as it is required to do by law.

GASP and MEJAC also worked to file the petition challenging the UOP Honeywell permit.

Gore said this week that ADEM was working to address the issued cited by the EPA Administrator in that instance as well, and will provide additional information and explanation for the permit.

EPA decisions could change ADEM permitting

Gore said the added scrutiny from the federal regulators will mean more work for ADEM in issuing permits with lengthier and more detailed explanations.

“It represents a big change in what we’ve done for the last 30 years,” Gore said. “We never thought there was anything wrong with the amount of explanatory material we’ve put in these Title V permits and their bases. It was kind of a surprise to us that EPA granted the petition.”

Gore said ADEM administers approximately 300 major-source pollution permits that have to be renewed every five years.

“If you’ve got 300 permits, and in every five year period there’s 300 weeks, that’s a permit a week, you’ve got to get out,” Gore said. “And so if you’ve got something that’s 10s, or hundreds of pages already, that’s going to make it more more lengthy.

“So yes, it is going to be a burden.”

Gore said that prior to this year, the EPA had objected to “around five” ADEM air permits in the 30-year history of the Title V program, before the two most recent objections.

“A lot of that is the new EPA administration is insisting on more, I guess, public involvement than historically has been provided,” Gore said.

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Originally Appeared Here