Provincial News
Draft Guide for Alternative Air Standard Requests
The Ministry of the Environment has a regulatory process to adopt alternative (less stringent) and temporary air standards where companies have technical and/or economic difficulties in meeting existing or new standards using the new air dispersion models stipulated in Reg 419. ? The Ministry has issued a draft Guide for this process and is presently accepting comments until January 19, 2007.
The Guide requires that applicants for alternative standards produce a control technology benchmarking report, rank technologies that produce the lowest impacts, develop an implementation plan, present those plans to the local community and (optionally) provide economic data. ? Time windows of opportunity are defined within which applicants can apply; for example, Schedule 4? companies must apply between February 1 2007 and October 31 2008.
Proposed Action: All companies requiring Certificates of Approval (Air) should re-evaluate their compliance status using the newly defined dispersion models against the new standards. ? Sufficient time can then be allowed to refine impact assessments, acquire additional/new control technologies or apply for the alternative standards process
Update on Opacity
The Ministry of the Environment is proposing to clarify the notification requirements and technical issues related to opacity limits by issuing a technical bulletin on the subject. ? The amount of light blocked (opacity) by emissions (excluding water vapour) from industrial stacks is governed by section 34 of Reg 419.
Section 34 refers specifically to sources of combustion employing solid fuel which includes fuels with high ash content and thus exhaust tubes need to be air-blast-cleaned periodically. ? The regulation accounts for these short-duration, high burst, levels of ash emission. ? The draft technical bulletin also includes a description of opacity monitoring methods.
Federal News
Bill C-30: Canada s Clean Air Act
On October 19, 2006 the first reading of Bill C-30 was received. ? Part 1 deals with amendments to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and proposes to specifically include smog and acid-rain related substances in the definition of air pollutants.
Perhaps most significantly (but missed by most media outlets) air? now includes indoor air and requires manufacturers or users of substances or products that may release contaminants to the air? to provide information on the products or substances which may include emission tests.
Proposed Action: If the Bill passes in its present form manufacturers of consumer products that emit contaminants will be subject to a much greater level of scrutiny, including furniture, plastics, consumer items etc. ? We suggest that products be tested for their air emissions to avoid future obligatory (and costly) changes to product formulations.
2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE) Regulations
This regulation sets limits on the concentration of 2-BE in products designed for indoor use that may emit this substance into the air. ? 2-BE is commonly used in cleaning, painting and coating products in consumer, institutional and industrial uses. ? 2-BE, a glycol ether, is steadily being replaced with lower volatility substances.
The regulation sets concentration limits for indoor-use products of between 0.1-10% depending upon product type and use. ? These limits were based upon studies quantifying exposures to persons close to where the product was being used. ? Airzone One Ltd. Worked with Health Canada to produce these studies and this work was published in the scientific journal Environmental Science and Technology (vol 39, pages 8214-). ? These considerations are similar to those proposed in the Canadian Clean Air Act (see previous article).
On-Road Vehicle and Engine Emission Regulations
On December 1, 2006, new emission standards were introduced for on-road motorcycles and these regulations are now extended to small scooters and mopeds. ? The standards align Canada with US requirements and apply to new 2006 and later model year motorcycles sold in Canada.
Proposed Chromium Electroplating, Chromium Anodizing and Reverse Etching Regulations
This proposed regulation is aimed at reducing air emissions of hexavalent chromium compounds (HVC) by standardizing release limits across Canada.
The proposed regulations apply to companies using more than 10 kg of chromium trioxide per year and will require users to control emissions to below 0.2 mg/m3 (within-stack concentration) within 6 months of the regulation coming into force, and 0.03 mg/m3 within 30 months of the regulation coming into force. ? As such, stack (emission) tests will be required to demonstrate compliance.
Users will also be required to maintain surface tension of solutions containing and measure the surface tension at least once every day for each tank. ? Measurement records will need to be provided to the Federal Ministry of the Environment twice a year.
The laboratory is accredited by CALA to ISO/IEC 17025 for specific tests on the scope of accreditation.