Title IV of the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990 (the acid rain title) established goals to
reduce annual emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides
(NOx) and place a national cap on SO2 emissions beginning in the
year 2000. To ensure compliance and to provide the national
consistency, Title IV require the designated representative of each
affected acid rain source to obtain an operating permit for the
affected source and to certify that an approved emissions
monitoring system has been installed and is properly operated at
each affected unit's source of emissions. In addition, under a
Federal NOx Budget Trading Program, sources also must meet similar
requirements as part of an emissions trading program. In May 2005,
EPA promulgated the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), which may
broaden the trading program concept to additional sources.
Emissions monitoring and reporting is the foundation upon which
these allowance trading systems are based. Without accurate
monitoring and reporting of emissions there would be no assurance
that emissions had been reduced. Data handling or reporting is
required by the law, and under promulgated regulations EPA imposes
data handling, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements. The EPA
requires that all affected units required to monitor and report
emissions under these trading programs use a data acquisition and
handling system (DAHS) to record and submit hourly data in an
electronic data report (EDR) format. The Clean Air Markets Division
(CAMD) has undertaken the re-engineering of the process and data
systems into the new Emissions Collection and Monitoring Plan
System (ECMPS) reviewing how data and emissions are reported,
quality assured, maintained and submitted. Adding flexibility to
the process is one of the main reasons for changing how monitoring
and emissions data are quality assured and submitted.
The burden estimated in the
preceding ICR included a one-time burden associated with reviewing
the January 2008 Part 75 rule revisions, as well as the burden
associated with data acquisition and handling upgrades and
debugging. The one-time burden for reviewing the January 2008 Part
75 revisions in the rule no longer applies. As a result, the net
burden change is a reduction of 122,670 hours and an increase of
$788,280. The overall increase in dollars is attributed to
increased annual quality assurance and maintenance costs, while the
large reduction in hours is attributable to the removal of the
previous ICR's large rule reading burden.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Revisions to the Emissions Monitoring Rule under the Acid Rain Program, NOx Budget Trading Program, and Clean Air Interstate Programs