8/1/96 FACT SHEET DRAFT COMPLIANCE ASSURANCE MONITORING RULE TODAY'S ACTION...  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is today announcing the availability of and a public comment period for a draft of the Compliance Assurance Monitoring (CAM) rule. Today's draft rule is a revision of the September 1995 draft and is intended to address comments received on the earlier draft. The CAM approach replaced the enhanced monitoring rule that EPA proposed in September 1993.  Under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, EPA is required to issue regulations to require owners and operators of large industrial facilities to enhance air pollution monitoring and certify compliance with air pollution regulations.  EPA has worked in partnership with major stakeholders, including representatives from large and small businesses, environmental groups, and state and local agencies, in developing a compliance assurance monitoring rule that is more flexible and streamlined than the draft issued in September 1995. BACKGROUND  Before the Clean Air Act was re-authorized in 1990, EPA and state and local air pollution offices had concerns that some sources of air pollution were not in compliance with emission control regulations and, as a result, air quality was being adversely affected.  The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 authorized EPA to develop regulations requiring permitted facilities to monitor the adequacy of emission control equipment and operations. In September 1993, EPA proposed an enhanced monitoring rule that set general monitoring criteria to be followed in demonstrating continuous compliance. Many stakeholders strongly criticized the proposed rule on the basis of increasing rule stringency, excess burden on state and local agencies to evaluate monitoring plans, and the increased financial burden on states in implementing their Title V operating permit programs.  Since April 1995, EPA has held numerous meetings and conference calls with major stakeholders on developing a new, more flexible approach to enhanced monitoring. Through this stakeholder process, EPA redrafted the enhanced monitoring rule and released a draft of the newly named compliance assurance monitoring rule in September 1995. Extensive comments received on the draft CAM rule indicated the need for additional EPA analysis of the compliance assurance monitoring approach and associated issues. Based on these comments, EPA revised the rule and is today issuing a second draft for public comment. HOW DOES EPA'S COMPLIANCE ASSURANCE MONITORING RULE DIFFER FROM THE ENHANCED MONITORING RULE?  EPA's September 1993 proposed enhanced monitoring rule focussed on direct compliance monitoring which in many cases would have required affected facilities to install expensive continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) or the development of other monitoring directly correlated with emission values. In contrast, the compliance assurance monitoring approach builds on existing regulatory monitoring approaches. Its focus is on providing reasonable assurance of compliance with emission limitations through monitoring that ensures control measures are operated and maintained in a manner consistent with good air pollution control practices. The draft compliance assurance monitoring rule defines minimum applicable monitoring and operation and maintenance requirements that are intended to provide a reasonable assurance of compliance. By doing so, the Agency believes that the CAM rule will improve compliance with the Clean Air Act so that emission reductions will be achieved and the need for additional control regulations can be reduced. WHAT ARE THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF EPA'S DRAFT COMPLIANCE ASSURANCE MONITORING (CAM) RULE?  Establishes criteria that define what monitoring should be conducted by a source owner or operator to provide a reasonable assurance of compliance with emission limits and standards in order to certify compliance under the Title V operating permit program.  Proposes Title V compliance certification language to allow the source owner or operator to use compliance assurance monitoring data in establishing the compliance status with permit terms or conditions for the annual Title V compliance certification.  For situations where continuous compliance monitoring is already specified in an operating permit, the draft rule exempts the owner or operator from additional monitoring requirements and directs the owner or operator to use the continuous compliance monitoring in fulfilling all monitoring and certification requirements for Clean Air Act regulations.  For emission units with control equipment, the draft rule requires the owner or operator to develop a CAM plan and comply with that plan. The CAM plan will include operating indicator ranges for the control equipment which, if maintained, represent operation consistent with good air pollution control practices that will minimize emissions and provide a reasonable assurance of compliance with permit terms and conditions. Excursions beyond these indicator ranges trigger appropriate and prompt corrective actions; an excessive duration of excursions would require more intensive evaluation and improvement of control practices as well as notification to permitting authorities of potential compliance problems.  The draft CAM rules requires that owners of processes that use other forms of emissions controls such as work practices, fuel or raw materials usage rates or content limitations, or specific design criteria, improve record keeping and reporting practices to assure that these practices or design factors are sustained.  The draft CAM proposal specifies a lower size cut-off for process units based on potential emissions levels below which no additional monitoring would be required.  The emission units to be covered by the draft CAM rule amount to about 60 percent of those fitted with control equipment and about 20 percent of all other emission units. Altogether, the CAM requirements will require monitoring for over 97 percent of the total emissions from all units at sources receiving Title V operating permits. WHAT CHANGES HAS EPA MADE TO THE DRAFT COMPLIANCE ASSURANCE RULE?  EPA received extensive public comments from stakeholders on its initial draft of the compliance assurance monitoring rule issued in September 1995. There were three principal areas of concern revealed by the comments: rule applicability, content of a "CAM plan" and its relationship to the Title V permit, and compliance certification requirements including use of data from other than the specified test method.  EPA has addressed these concerns in today's action. Applicability is greatly simplified, applying to two categories of units: those with control devices (active controls) would be required to have CAM plans, while record keeping would be sufficient for many other units controlled by passive techniques such as combustion control, design criteria, work practices, etc. Size cutoffs focus requirements on significant units. Requirements of the CAM plan have been streamlined so that the CAM plan can be included in the Title V permit. The Title V permit would include the monitoring approach, data availability requirements, indicator ranges, corrective action obligations and quality improvement plan requirements. The content of compliance certifications will be more clearly specified to require inclusion of applicable requirements, the methods/monitoring used to determine compliance status, compliance status, and identification of deviations. WHAT IS THE SCHEDULE FOR ISSUING THE FINAL COMPLIANCE ASSURANCE MONITORING RULE?  EPA will accept public comment on the second draft of the compliance assurance monitoring rule for 60 days after publication of the notice of availability in the Federal Register. EPA will carefully consider all public comments before issuing the final rule in July 1997. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION...  Anyone with a computer and a modem can download the proposed rule from the Emission Measurement Technical Information Center bulletin (look under the Compliance Assurance Monitoring section) of EPA's electronic Technology Transfer Network (TTN) by calling (919) 541-5742. For further information about how to access the board, call (919) 541- 5384. For further information about the draft rule, contact Peter Westlin of EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards at (919) 541-1058.