NAPA monitors shifting air quality standards
NAPA is tracking air quality standards and regulations that could have impacts for asphalt mix plants.
A federal court in June upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) stricter fine dust (PM2.5) standard, which requires state air districts to assess and better control certain industrial sources. Implementation across states will determine whether and how asphalt mix plants are impacted, and NAPA will monitor the process.
At the state level, NAPA is following a new California health risk assessment for acrolein, which could lead to stricter regulation of even very low chemical emissions.
The California assessment reflects a broader trend in which revisions to health-risk standards can trigger new state regulatory requirements at increasingly low emissions levels. This type of regulatory pressure appears likely to continue in the coming years and was used as the authoritative source to ban chlorinated solvents and to regulate PFAS. NAPA continues to stay engaged as additional and more stringent stormwater discharge requirements continue to be proposed.
Against that broader regulatory backdrop, NAPA is also engaging with EPA on air permitting regulations. Last month NAPA submitted comments in support of an EPA proposal that would give state and local agencies greater flexibility in implementing minor source air permitting requirements, while urging the agency to clarify that the same flexibility applies to synthetic minor sources, including asphalt mix plants.
