On August 31, 2023, EPA Region 3 issued an Administrative Compliance Order on Consent (Order) to Lake Erie Biofuels LLC doing business as HeroBX (Lake Erie Biofuels), the owner and operator of biodiesel production facility located at 1670 East Lake Road in Erie, Pennsylvania (Facility).
Lake Erie Biofuels Facility is subject to both the ?Standards of Performance for Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturing Industry Distillation Operations,? found at 40 C.F.R. Part 60, Subpart NNN (?NSPS Subpart NNN?) and the ?Standards of Performance for Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Emissions from Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturing Industry (SOCMI) Reactor Processes, found at 40 C.F.R. Part 60, Subpart RRR (?NSPS Subpart RRR?). The applicable provisions of the NSPS Subpart NNN and NSPS Subpart RRR requiring a reduction of emissions of TOC (less methane and ethane) by 98% by weight are incorporated into a state operating permit issued to Respondent by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. EPA obtained information as part of its investigation showing that Respondent has not been meeting the 98% destruction efficiency requirement at the Erie Facility, and therefore is operating in violation of Section 111 of the CAA, 42 U.S.C. ? 7411, NSPS Subpart NNN and NSPS Subpart RRR regulations, and Pennsylvania?s state implementation plan, 25 Pa. Code ? 127.444, 40 C.F.R. ? 52.23.
The Order, issued under the authority of Secti