Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule Summary

On September 22, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule for mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from large GHG emissions sources in the United States, including certain municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. According to the rule, sources that generate GHGs exceeding 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) must monitor and report these emissions to EPA. For comparison, a typical affected landfill may have:

• landfill gas (LFG) flow rates approx. 240 cubic feet per minute (cfm) at 50% methane, and
• waste acceptance of 50,000 tons per year or more of waste over a 15-year period.

Facilities with MSW landfills that accepted waste on or after January 1, 1980 and generate methane (CH4) in amounts equivalent to 25,000 tCO2e or more per year are subject to the rule. The 25,000 tCO2e threshold is based on the amount of CH4 generated from a facility’s landfill(s) (adjusted for soil oxidation, but not considering whether any gas is collected and destroyed) and not the amount of CH4 actually emitted. If a single facility contains multiple landfills, then the sum of each landfill’s generated CH4 emissions must be used to determine if the facility exceeds the 25,000 tCO2e per year threshold for reporting. Emissions monitoring requirements begin January 1, 2010, with the first reports due March 31, 2011.

A landfill subject to the rule must report its “actual” CH4 emissions. For landfills with no collection system, actual emissions equal generated emissions. For landfills that do collect and destroy LFG, methane destroyed in flares, engines, or other devices is deducted to determine actual emissions. As a result, these facilities must monitor the following:

1. Gas flow rate;
2. CH4 concentration;
3. Gas temperature; and
4. Gas pressure.

With the exception of gas flow rate, these parameters must be recorded at a minimum frequency of once per week. Flow rate must be monitored continuously.

Note: Per EPA’s response to our inquiry, passive vent flares do not constitute “collection and control”, and are therefore not required to be monitored for the above parameters. These flares are to be ignored for reporting purposes.
Landfills without collection and control systems are required to record incoming MSW and biosolids waste streams separately, at a minimum.

Deadlines:

January 1, 2010 – Begin recording data for reporting
January 28, 2010 – Submit requests for extension of use of best available monitoring methods beyond March 31, 2010
March 31, 2010 – Implement monitoring and meter calibration practices required by rule, and discontinue best available monitoring methods
December 31, 2010 – Complete 2010 data generation
January 30, 2011 – Submit certificate of representation to EPA, designating person(s) responsible for report submittal (NOTE: Outside consultants may be designated).
March 31, 2011 – Submit GHG report for 2010
ONGOING – Submit corrected report within 45 days of discovery of reporting error(s).

Further information on the rule can be found at the following link: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ghgrulemaking.html.

“Industrial” landfills are not required to report 2010 emissions, HOWEVER; EPA anticipates reporting will be required in 2011. Construction and demolition landfills may be included in this category.

In addition to this final rule, EPA has also proposed a rule for the mandatory control of GHG emissions from MSW landfills with the potential to emit 25,000 tCO2e or more per year. This rule is in the public comment period, which ends December 27, 2009.

Please feel free to contact RSG at (919) 828-0577 ext 121 or matt@rsgengineers.com with any questions related to either of these proposed or final rules.

Revised Groundwater Standards Effective January 1st 2010

North Carolina’s Division of Water Quality has been performing a triennial review of groundwater standards (15A NCAC 2L.0200). Based upon their review, the DWQ proposed several changes that included lowering 15 existing standards to make them more stringent, increasing 12 standards to make them less stringent and finally to remove 12 standards altogether. An initial summary of the proposed changes was presented at the NC SWANA conference in April 2009 and can be found on our website through this link.

The Environmental Management Commission (EMC) has reviewed the proposed revisions to the standards and ruled on them. In some cases, the EMC revised the limits proposed by the DWQ. The standards as revised and adopted by the EMC will become effective January 1st, 2010.

Several of the revisions are helpful to the solid waste industry, including the provision to keep the 12 standards that were proposed for removal. However, some of the reduced standards are included in the semi-annual monitoring for landfill facilities which could cause problems for some landfill facilities. Of the revised (lowered) standards, Arsenic, Barium, Chromium, 1,1 Dichloroethane and Toluene are likely to cause issues for landfills in North Carolina with additional detections of these constituents above the new groundwater standards. If you have any questions as to how these new standards will affect your facility, please call Joan Smyth of RSG at 919-828-0577 x 122.

The existing standards, the DWQ proposed standard and the final (EMC Adopted) standard that will take effect January 1st are summarized below.

New Edge-of-Waste Marker Requirements in NC

The Solid Waste Section (SWS) of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources has recently issued a memorandum (http://www.wastenotnc.org/swhome/
NewsPostings/Property_Line_Waste_Markers_Memo_052909.pdf) stating that landfill owners are required to install and maintain permanent edge-of-waste markers for all landfill units by January 1, 2010.
For newer lined landfill units that do not already have markers in place (typically for edge-of-liner) this is a relatively straight-forward requirement since an as-built survey of the edge of the landfill liner is typically available. However, for some older unlined landfill units, the edge of waste can be difficult to determine without the performance of some investigation. The SWS has found sites where waste is not within permitted areas, within buffers, and in a few case not within the property line. Thus, they are placing a priority on knowing where these waste limits exist.
It is our opinion, that the SWS’s ultimate goal of this effort is to both have visual field markers and an accurate public record that waste exists within the property. We have seen several cases where these older landfills were purchased unknowingly by landowners that in some cases proceeded to locate residential developments over these areas. Therefore, the reaction of the DENR has been to supplement this information to help further safegaurd the public at-large.
We are aware that this effort results in unexpected costs for the owner. For sites where the edge of waste is not clearly known, investigative techniques to determine this limit can include a review of available drawings; performance of test pits or borings; and/or performance of a non-intrusive geophysical survey. Additionally, in the case of older sites, a survey of the determined limits of waste would accompany a deed recording for future reference.

The section has also published a follow up memo to provide more insight into the background of there decision to require these markers. A copy can be found at http://www.wastenotnc.org/swhome/NewsPostings/EOWMarkerMemo.pdf

RSG would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss how we can help you meet this new compliance requirement. Please contact Mrs. Joan Smyth, P.G. for any questions at joan@rsgengineers.com.

Proposed Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Permitting and Control

On September 30, 2009, EPA proposed to regulate large facilities, including municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, emitting over 25,000 metric tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) of greenhouse gases (GHG) a year. For comparison, using EPA’s LandGEM emission calculation tool, this equates to:

· Landfill gas (LFG) emission rate of 240 cubic feet per minute (cfm) at 50% methane
· MSW landfills accepting 50,000 tons per year or more over a 15-year period

According to the EPA, the majority of sources newly affected by this proposed rule are expected to be municipal solid waste landfills. As shown above, small to medium sized landfills would be affected, relative to current NSPS rules.

Facilities emitting 25,000 tCO2e would be considered major stationary sources required to be permitted under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) air program. Additionally, existing major sources making modifications that result in an increase of emissions above the significance level of 10,000 tCO2e would be required to obtain a PSD permit. EPA will evaluate this rule after five years, and determine if these thresholds should be adjusted, presumably downward.

These operating permits would likely require best available control technologies and energy efficiency measures to minimize GHG emissions. These controls are determined on a case-by-case basis during the PSD process, and may include open or enclosed flares, reciprocating engines, or boilers.

This proposed rule could mandate the installation of active LFG collection and control systems at facilities well under the current NSPS thresholds of 50 Megagrams (Mg) per year, and possibly make these facilities ineligible to claim carbon credits for the voluntary destruction of methane.

EPA will accept comment on this proposal for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.

For information on submitting comments, or to download the proposed rule, please go to: http://www.epa.gov/nsr/actions.html#2009. Alternately, you may contact me at (919) 828-0577 ext. 121 or matt@rsgengineers.com with any questions.

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