View Rule

Statement of Need: Section 112 of the Clean Air Act requires that the EPA promulgate regulations requiring the control of hazardous air pollutants from major and certain area sources. The control of hazardous air pollutants is achieved through promulgation of emission standards under sections 112(d) and (f) and, in appropriate circumstances, work practice standards under section 112(h). On September 30, 1999 EPA promulgated standards to control emissions of hazardous air pollutants from incinerators, cement kilns, and lightweight aggregate kilns that burn hazardous waste (referred to as the phase I rule). A number of parties, representing interests of both industry and the environmental community, sought judicial review of the rule. The Court ruled against EPA and vacated the phase I rule.

Summary of the Legal Basis: On October 19, 2001, EPA, together with all petitioners, filed a joint motion asking the Court to stay the issuance of its mandate to allow time to develop interim standards. These stop-gap interim standards were promulgated on February 13 and 14, 2002. They replace the vacated standards temporarily, until revised replacement standards are promulgated by June 14, 2005. EPA is working towards promulgation by this date. EPA is also developing emission standards for hazardous waste burning industrial, institutional, commercial boilers, process heaters, and hydrochloric acid production furnaces. These sources are referred to as phase II sources because the standards were originally scheduled to be promulgated after phase I source standards were finalized; however, a separate consent decree now requires us to finish developing emission standards for the phase II sources by the same date as those for phase I (June 14, 2005).

Alternatives: EPA is developing options for calculating the emission standards that are considered to be consistent with both the statutory requirements and the opinion of the Court.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits: Potential costs and benefits are not yet available, because emission standards must be selected before the cost/benefit analyses can be completed. EPA plans to propose emission standards and compliance provisions for both the phase I and phase II sources in March 2004.

Risks: For the 1999 rule, we estimated the avoided incidence of mortality and morbidity associated with reductions in particulate matter (PM) emissions. Estimates of cases of mortality and morbidity avoided were made for children and the elderly, as well as the general population, using concentration-response functions derived from human epidemiological studies. Morbidity effects included respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses requiring hospitalization, as well as other illnesses not requiring hospitalization, such as acute and chronic bronchitis and acute upper and lower respiratory symptoms. For this rule, we are comparing characteristics of the sources covered by the 1999 rule to the sources covered by the replacement rule that are related to risk. These characteristics include emissions, stack characteristics, meteorology, and population. Based on the results of the statistical comparisons, we will infer whether the risks will be about the same, less than, or greater than the 1999 rule. Risk inferences for boilers and HCl production furnaces will be based on comparisons with incinerators for the 1999 rule.