EPA has evaluated the risks remaining after fully implementing the 2003 National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Taconite Iron Ore Processing facilities and determined that risks from this source category are acceptable. In addition, the Agency identified no developments in practices, processes, or control technologies that would further reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAP). EPA is proposing no significant changes to the original NESHAP for this source category and has determined the standards continue to provide an ample margin of safety to public health and the environment.
EPA is proposing only minor amendments to the existing regulation. These proposed amendments clarify that the standards are applicable during periods of startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM); require electronic reporting of performance test results; reduce the duration of each compliance test run from two hours to one hour; and remove a quarterly internal baghouse inspection requirement because the baghouses are being continuously monitored with bag leak detection systems.
This action also addresses a pending petition for review filed in 2004 by the National Wildlife Federation by determining that a certain type of amphibole cleavage fragment, emitted by only one facility and known as elongated mineral particulate (EMP), does not fit the definition of any listed HAP. Therefore, it should not be directly regulated by the NESHAP. In fact, EMP are a component of particulate matter and are already minimized at a maximum achievable control technology level by the original rule.
Read a summary fact sheet below.
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