RALEIGH -- The N.C. Environmental Management Commission today approved changes to the state air toxics rules aimed at easing regulatory burdens on industry while focusing efforts on plants that pose the most hazards to public health.

In doing so, the commission denied an industry-backed request to exempt plants from the state air toxics rules if they also had to comply with the federal rules -- a change that would have removed about 300 of the largest sources of air pollution from the state toxics program.

"We saved industry cost and time, without compromising public health protection," said Dan Besse, a commission member from Winston-Salem.

The commission initially adopted the state air toxics rules in 1990, setting guidelines for 105 toxic air pollutants that plants are not supposed to exceed at their property lines. The guidelines are based on concentrations that are considered unsafe or unhealthy for people to breathe.

The state rules differ from federal air toxics regulations, which require plants to install maximum achievable control technologies. The federal rules generally apply to larger plants, or those that emit more than 10 tons per year of any one pollutant or more than 25 tons per year of any combination of pollutants.

These differences between the state and federal rules had prompted some industries to ask the EMC to exempt plants from the state air toxics rules if they also had to comply with the federal rules. Industry representatives have maintained that the separate state and federal rules imposed unnecessary regulatory burdens on them, and that the federal rules were sufficient to protect public health.

The Environmental Management Commission (EMC) reached a compromise on that issue: Industries that are subject to the federal rules still will have to meet the state rules, but will be able to go five years between re-evaluations of their emissions permits. However, the state Division of Air Quality will be able to request an evaluation sooner, if it can show that a plant’s emissions may be harmful to public health.

The commission also denied an industry request that would have allowed new plants to seek exemptions based on economic hardships or technical infeasibility. Other changes approved by the commission will:

Date Posted: March 13