The final revisions to GP-5, which were developed after considering public comment, impose emissions limits that are 75 to 90 percent stricter than current limits for Nitrogen Oxide (NOx), Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's) and affect the largest, most common types of engines used at compressor stations. Notably, the revised permit also affords operators the ability to install controls to achieve even lower emissions, allowing for the use of additional engines.  DEP has posted a table highlighting the changes in its revised plan compared to the previous GP-5 limits on its Web site.  

Click image to view table postings

 "Essentially, we are doing much more by setting these limits as a line the operator cannot cross. This is an improvement in air quality protection," said DEP Secretary, Krancer. "We are also determining compliance based on the facility's actual emissions, instead of equating the permit's limits with the facility's emissions, as was previously done."

DEP's Web site offers a fact sheet as well as a link to the Revised GP-5 plan.

What this means to you

DEP's lowered limits for natural gas fired engines at compressor stations affect all rich and lean burn NG fired engines located at a "non major" source facility.

MIRATECH can help

Contact MIRATECH to reduce NOx, CO, NMNEHC, HAP's and noise emissions at Pennsylvania non major-source compressor stations.  Rich burn engines use 3-way catalysts, while lean burn engines use oxidation catalysts to reduce CO, NMNEHC, and HAP's and SCR catalysts for NOx control.

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Snow cover is a factor in Uinta Basin ozone formation.

Seth Lyman, USU's Bingham Research Center executive director, said the report was significant because it is one of the first to examine wintertime ozone formation conditions and developed several significant findings. While summertime ozone formation in urban areas has been extensively examined, the same can't be said for rural areas' wintertime ozone formation, he indicated.

"Snow cover is a significant formation factor," the report said. "First, since it reflects sunlight, it limits daytime heating of the earth's surface, keeping air cool and promoting temperature inversions. Second, the total amount of solar radiation passing through the atmosphere and available to drive chemical reactions responsible for ozone formation is nearly doubled as the snow cover reflects the incoming sunlight."

Analysis of historical weather data indicates that ozone formation conditions can occur on at least some days during half of each winter season in the Uinta basin, the report stated. Most of these are from sources within the basin and not transported from elsewhere, it said.  Researchers found that Uinta basin oil and gas operations were responsible for 98-99% of the volatile organic compounds and 57-61% of the nitrogen oxides that were measured.

"The scientists were uncomfortable about making regulatory recommendations," Lyman said. "We need to be very careful about NOx regulatory proposals. There also is new tribal minor source permitting programming beginning in 2014, where the only one that has existed so far was in the state."

What this means to you

In the U.S. Mountain West snow covered valleys and basins are vulnerable to frequent winter temperature inversions that trap emissions of VOCs, NOx and PM close to ground level.  With findings like those of this study, drilling activity in these areas could become more closely monitored.

MIRATECH can help

Contact MIRATECH to discuss your best options for engine compliance options for applications such as diesel gensets used in wellhead drilling and gas engine driven compressors.

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Most states and tribes in the United States have the authority to implement and enforce many of the nation's air, water and waste laws. The dashboards and maps include state level data from the last five years and provide information including the number of completed inspections, types of violations found, enforcement actions taken, and penalties assessed by state. To ensure data quality, EPA made the maps and dashboards available to the states in advance of this public release, in order to provide an opportunity to make any necessary data corrections. 

Users can customize the dashboards to view state activity, EPA activity, or combined activity. Where available, the site also allows users to view national averages and display state enforcement trends over time. 

The interactive state performance dashboards are located on EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) website.ECHO is an EPA transparency tool that allows the user to map federal and state inspection, violation, and enforcement information for more than 800,000 regulated facilities.

What this means to you

EPA has created a tool to allow the public to access information and monitor activity and performance of both state and EPA enforcement and compliance across the country for air, water, and hazardous waste pollution.

MIRATECH can help

Contact MIRATECH to discuss how to best utilize EPA's tool for your operational needs.

McCarthy would likely become the face of President Obama's effort to fight climate change. Currently the assistant administrator for the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, she would replace Lisa Jackson, who stepped down as EPA chief this month.

Gina McCarthy

She later served as an environmental policy adviser to then Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and launched the state's first Climate Protection Action Plan.  

In 2004, McCarthy was appointed to head Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection and helped lead the state into a carbon cap-and-trade system for Northeastern states, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Ernest Moinz

Moniz, a former undersecretary of energy during the Clinton administration, is director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Energy Initiative, a research group that gets funding from industry including BP, Chevron, and Saudi Aramco for academic work on projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.  Moniz would replace Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, who is stepping down.

What this means to you

President Obama has said reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be a second term priority.  Nominating Gina McCarthy at EPA and Ernest Moinz at DOE indicate an Obama administration commitment to the issue.

MIRATECH can help

Contact MIRATECH to discuss your best options for engine emission compliance.