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