UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCYREGION III

1650 Arch Street

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  19103-2029

SUBJECT:	Technical Support Document-Commonwealth of Virginia-Norfolk
Southern Corporation RACT Permit

EPA-R03-OAR-2008-0333

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FROM:

	Ellen Wentworth  /s/

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TO:

	File



THRU:	Cristina Fernandez, Branch Chief    /s/

Air Quality Planning Branch



Date:		     April 30, 2008     

I.  Background

Prior to the final establishment of the 8-hour ozone nonattainment
areas, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed a program to
allow potential nonattainment areas to voluntarily adopt local emission
control programs to avoid air quality violations and mandated
nonattainment area controls.  Areas with air quality meeting the 1-hour
ozone standard were eligible to participate.  In order to participate,
state and local governments and EPA developed and signed a memorandum of
agreement that described the local control measures the state or local
communities intended to adopt and implement in order to reduce ozone
emissions in advance of air quality violations.  In this agreement, also
known as an Early Action Compact (EAC), the state or local community
agreed to prepare emission inventories and conduct air quality modeling
and monitoring to support is selection of emission controls.  Areas that
participated in the EAC program had the flexibility to institute their
own approach in maintaining clean air and protecting public health.

Several localities in the Winchester and Roanoke, VA areas elected to
participate in the EAC program.  The areas that signed an EAC are the
City of Winchester and Frederick County, which comprise the Northern
Shenandoah Valley EAC, and the Cities of Roanoke and Salem, and the
Counties of Roanoke and Botetourt, which comprise the Roanoke EAC. 
Virginia’s strategy for enabling these localities to participate in
the EAC program was to have them be subject to volatile organic compound
(VOC) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) control measures from which they had
previously been exempt.  In order to enable the affected localities to
implement these VOC and NOx controls, the Regulations for the Control
and Abatement of Air Pollution were revised to include these affected
localities.  As a result, the list of VOC and NOx emissions control
areas (9 VAC 5-20-206) was expanded to include the EAC areas as the
Western Virginia Emissions Control Area (70 FR 21625).  By doing so, the
VOC and NOx control regulations of Chapter 40 became applicable in these
areas.  In order to implement the NOx control measures, the Virginia
Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ) adopted a regulation (Rule
4-4)  which provides that VADEQ must, on a case-by-case basis, determine
whether there is Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) to
reduce NOx emissions from major sources for which EPA has not issued a
control technique guideline (CTG).  A major source in the Western
Virginia Emissions Control Area emits or has the potential to emit 100
tons per year of NOx.  CTGs are documents issued to define RACT for a
particular source category.  RACT is the lowest emission limit that a
particular source is capable of meeting by the application of control
technology that is reasonably available considering technological and
economic feasibility.  

The following sources in the Western Virginia Emissions Control Area
have been identified as sources subject to the RACT requirements:  (1)
Roanoke Electric Steel Corporation Steel Mill located in the City of
Roanoke, (2) Roanoke Cement Company Portland Manufacturing Plant,
located in Troutville, County of Botetourt, (3) Norfolk Southern Railway
Company-East End Shops, located in the City of Roanoke, and (4) Global
Stone Chemstone Corporation located in Frederick County.

On April 27, 2005 (70 FR 21621), EPA issued a direct final rulemaking
establishing and requiring NOx RACT via permits for the above four major
sources.

II.  Summary of SIP Revision

On February 11, 2008, the Commonwealth of Virginia submitted a revision
to its SIP stating that since the time of EPA’s approval of the NOx
RACT requirements for the Norfolk Southern Railway Company rail car and
locomotive maintenance facility, located in Roanoke, Virginia, many of
the units at the facility were permanently shut down, including those
that were previously subject to the NOx RACT requirements of permit No.
20468.  VADEQ is requesting that EPA remove permit no. 20468 from the
Commonwealth of Virginia SIP, since these sources are no longer in
operation and have permanently shut down.

The sources previously subject to NOx RACT according to permit no. 20468
include the following:  Unit ID # 8-01-B & W Stirling coal-fired
spreader stoker boiler; Unit ID # 8-02-B & W Stirling coal-fired
spreader stoker boiler; Unit ID # 8-03-B & W Stirling coal-fired
spreader stoker boiler; Unit ID #8-04-Zurn Energy coal-fired spreader
stoker boiler; Unit ID # 43-03-15 open-front oil-fired metal heating
furnances; and Unit ID # 51-13/14-one 13-ton capacity electric arc
furnace. 

The February 11, 2008 SIP revision consists of mutual agreements between
the VADEQ and Norfolk Southern Corporation for permanent shutdowns for
these RACT-subject sources in accordance with 9 VAC 5-20-220, Shutdown
of a Stationary Source:  Unit ID # 8-01 through 8-03 B&W coal-fired
boilers were permanently shutdown as per the permanent shutdown
agreement between VADEQ and the Northern Southern Corporation, dated
August 20, 2007 (see attached agreement); Unit ID # 8-04 B&W coal-fired
boiler, Unit ID # 43-03, 15 open-front oil-fired metal heating furnaces,
and Unit # 15-13/14-one 13-ton capacity electric arc furnace were
permanently shutdown as per the permanent shutdown agreement between
VADEQ and the Northern Southern Corporation, dated June 22, 2005. (see
attached agreement).  

III.  EPA’s Analysis of the Commonwealth Request

VADEQ’s regulation 9 VAC 5-20-220 gives the Commonwealth of Virginia
authority, upon determination that a stationary source or emissions unit
is shutdown permanently, to revoke any permits by written notification
to the owner and removing the stationary source or emissions unit from
the emission inventory or consider its emissions to be zero in any air
quality analysis conducted.  In addition, the stationary source or
emissions unit cannot commence operation without a permit being issued
under the applicable provisions of 9 VAC 5-80-10, et seq. (Permits for
Stationary Sources).  The mutual shutdown agreements of September 9,
2005 and August 20, 2007 comply with the requirements of 9 VAC 5-20-220
and 9 VAC 5-80-10.  The Commonwealth’s state operating permit
regulations also require, in accordance with subsection L of 9 VAC
5-80-1210 (Permit Invalidation, Suspension, Revocation and Enforcement),
that “nothing in the regulations of the board shall be construed to
prevent the board and the owner from making a mutual determination that
a permit is rescinded because all of the statutory or regulatory
requirements (i) upon which the permit is based or (ii) that
necessitated issuance of the permit are no longer applicable.” The
RACT permit No. 20468, provision 15 under General Conditions, grants the
Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board (“Board”) the authority
to modify, rewrite or amend the permit in accordance with the
regulations of the Board and the Administrative Process Act (§2.2-4000
et seq).  However, a repeal of the NOx RACT permit for Norfolk Southern
Railway Company would not be effective until the revision or repeal is
approved by EPA.

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)ion units have permanently shutdown as demonstrated by the attached
mutual shutdown agreements, EPA recommends that the RACT requirements
for the above named units be removed from the Virginia SIP.  

 The non-CTG RACT determination requirements have since been removed
from Rule 4-4 and relocated to a new Rule 4-51.

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