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NGF URGES RESTRAINT ON NDEQ CLEAN AIR ACTIONS The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) has notified the Nebraska Grain and Feed Association (NGF) that an increasing number of grain elevators in Nebraska are becoming subject to New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), Subpart DD of the Clean Air Act. Currently, the NSPS rules requiring stricter air permitting and emission standards apply to any commercial grain elevator built after 1978 with a permanent storage capacity exceeding 2.5 million bushels, or increased their permanent storage capacity beyond the 2.5 million bushels. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 2006 has attempted to include recently constructed temporary storage capacity as permanent storage, affecting potentially dozens of elevators that could now exceed the 2.5 million bushel permanent storage capacity threshold, subjecting them to new costly air permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act. Since 2006, the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) has asked EPA to clarify that temporary grain storage be defined consistently with a definition the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has used for approximately 30 years. The USDA definition would most likely exclude this temporary storage as permanent storage from NSPS regulations. The EPA has tentatively concluded that certain temporary storage facilities meet the Webster dictionary’s definition of “bin”. Furthermore, NGFA just announced that they will be working with several other grain industry groups in meeting with the EPA during upcoming rulemaking meetings in April intended to review the NSPS standards for grain elevators including collecting specific temporary storage information. EPA stated that it planned to resolve the matter through a comprehensive rulemaking review of the NSPS rules for grain elevators. Unfortunately, several grain elevators in Nebraska and in the EPA region VII office area have reported that regulators are making preliminary determinations on temporary and permanent storage based on the 2006 Webster’s dictionary definition of a bin, subjecting them to possible enforcement actions with NDEQ or EPA staff. NGF will be contacting the NDEQ next week requesting they suspend any enforcement action against any grain elevators until EPA acts on its planned April, 2009 rulemaking review of current NSPS standards including the definition of temporary storage.
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