NSR Background Information

 

The New Source Review (NSR) program was established by Congress as part of the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments.It was then slightly modified in the 1990 Amendments. NSR was designed to serve two important purposes:

  • It ensures air quality is not significantly degraded from the addition of new and modified factories, industrial boilers and power plants. In areas with unhealthy air, NSR assures that new emissions do not slow progress toward cleaner air. In areas with clean air, NSR assures that new emissions do not significantly worsen air quality.
  • The NSR program assures people that any large new or modified industrial source in their neighborhoods will be as clean as possible, and that advances in pollution control occur concurrently with industrial expansion.

The NSR program covers (1) the construction of new major emitting industrial facilities and (2) existing major facilities that make major modifications that significantly increase pollution emissions. The program requires that new plants and major modifications of existing plants obtain a permit before construction, which will be issued only if the new plant or major modification includes pollution control measures that reflect best achievable control technologies (BACT).

Over time, the NSR program has become continually more complex and complicated, due to the evolving nature of industrial practices and changes in regulations and EPA’s interpretation of them. In response, EPA finalized several NSR rule changes on December 31, 2002.

The NSR Reform focused on five main areas all dealing with modifications at existing facilities. The five areas are described as follows:

  • Baseline Emissions: Method for determining a source’s emissions before a change is made (the baseline against which emissions are measured);
  • Applicability Test: Method for estimating the emissions after the change and whether NSR permitting is required.
  • Clean Unit Exclusion: New provision that allows changes to emissions units that have installed BACT/Lowest achievable emission rate (LAER) controls within the last 10 years without triggering NSR.
  • Pollution Control Project Exclusion: New provision that exempts certain projects that will cause a significant increase in one pollutant, but reduce emissions of another pollutant. It allows projects, regardless of their primary purpose, that are environmentally beneficial to be exempt from NSR.
  • Plantwide Applicability Limits: New provision that allows facilities to operate under a site-wide cap on emissions and modify their operations without undergoing NSR so long as the modifications do not result in a violation of their plantwide cap. This is a pollutant specific cap.

Most state and localities currently implement the NSR program through state-adopted rules approved by EPA as equivalent to the federal program as it existed prior to December 31, 2002. Because EPA has revised the federal NSR program, these states (including Georgia) must resubmit their programs for EPA approval, demonstrating that they will meet the revised federal program requirements. As EPA has acknowledged, state and local agencies are not required to adopt the new rules published by EPA; rather they may design their own programs to best meet the needs of their representative jurisdiction, provided these programs are at least as stringent as the federal program.

For more information of the background and development of NSR,
visit EPA’s web site at: www.epa.gov/nsr