NEWS FROM THE DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL

Sept. 18, 2009
Vol. 39, No. 379

For more information contact Jim Snead, Air Quality Management Section, Division of Air and Waste Management, 302-323-4542; or Melanie Rapp, Public Affairs, 302-739-9902.

Statewide public workshops scheduled on proposed air quality regulations
                   for facilities that surface coat parts and products

DNREC’s Air Quality Management Section will hold three public workshops – one in each county – on draft air quality regulations for facilities that surface coat parts and products. The planned regulation will reduce standards for the emissions of hazardous air pollutants and volatile organic compounds from facilities, including those that strip paint, apply coatings to large appliances or metal furniture and apply coatings to plastic or metal parts and products or combinations of plastic and metal products. The draft standards do not apply to facilities that apply surface coatings to motor vehicles (auto body shops) and mobile equipment.

The workshops are scheduled as follows:

• 6 – 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 22
DNREC Lukens Drive Office
391 Lukens Drive, New Castle

• 6 – 8:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 24
DNREC Richardson and Robbins Auditorium
89 Kings Highway, Dover

• 6 – 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 29
Delaware Technical and Community College, Owens Campus
Route 18, Georgetown

At each workshop, DNREC’s Air Quality Management Section will present information on the draft air toxics standards for Section 13 and 14 of Regulation 1138 (Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants) and the draft revision of four standards – Section 12, 19, 20, and 22 – of  Regulation 1124 (Control of Volatile Organic Compounds Emissions).

Information presented at these workshops, including the draft regulations can be viewed on DNREC’s website on the AQM regulatory page at http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/whs/awm/Info/Regs/Pages/AQMPlansRegs.aspx.

In the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act, Congress sought to reduce cancer and non-cancer health risks due to the exposure of hazardous air pollutants by mandating that EPA identify 30 or more hazardous air pollutants that pose the greatest threat to public health in urban areas, identify those small sources that emit any of those pollutants and promulgate standards to reduce the associated health risks. The draft air toxics standards are two of those area source standards.

Delaware is not in compliance with federal ground-level ozone standards. The air release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is a known cause of the formation of ozone, which also is proven to be a major risk factor to human health, particularly the elderly, children and others with an impaired ability to breathe. The draft revisions to Regulation 1124 are designed to incorporate recently suggested federal guidelines to reduce emissions of VOCs during various types of coating operations.

For more information on Regulation 1138, contact Jim Snead, 302-323-4542; or on Regulation 1124, contact Ron Amirikian, 302-323-4542 or David Fees, 302-739-9403.