Title V Air Permit Renewal Application Checklist
The following are important considerations when preparing Title V renewal applications and negotiating Title V permits and amendments.
- Comprehensively Identify State-Only Vs. Federally Enforceable Requirements – Minimize potential EPA enforcement, citizen suits and future permitting burdens by ensuring that the Title V application/permit comprehensively identifies those requirements that are state-only enforceable and not federally enforceable. Carefully consider whether existing permit limits were necessary to avoid PSD/NSR.
- Permit Shield – Ensure that the requested permit shield in the Title V application/permit is as comprehensive as possible to minimize gray areas.
- Streamlining – Ensure that by accepting streamlining, the facility is not giving up exemptions that are otherwise available, or unnecessarily expanding the federal enforceability of any particular limits.
- Compliance Determinations – Ensure that the Title V application/permit identifies the methods for determining compliance with every standard. Do the test methods align with the basis for emissions estimates or limits? If a CEM is required, are the data used to determine compliance with performance or mass emission limits, or both? Is the facility required to conduct visible emissions observations?
- Existing Permits – Ensure that the status of previously issued, existing permit conditions is clear.
- Reporting – Ensure the Title V application/permit comprehensively identifies all of the reports that must be submitted and to whom they must be submitted (e.g., to EPA, state agency, or both).
- Certification of Compliance – Consider whether the Title V application/permit should describe the basis for certifying compliance with certain requirements.
- Limits vs. Descriptions – Ensure the Title V application/permit clearly identifies those terms that are requirements and those that are merely descriptions.
- Exemptions – Ensure that the permit incorporates all applicable exemptions.
- Excess Emissions/Violations – Ensure that the permit clearly identifies what constitutes a violation of the permit. For example, if a source is required to operate an emission control device (e.g., a baghouse), is the application/permit worded such that any failure of the control equipment is a violation?