Amendments to Project XL Site-Specific Rulemaking for Georgia-Pacific Corporation's Facility in Big Island, VA

EPA is publishing this site-specific rule to implement a project under the Project eXcellence and Leadership (Project XL) program, an EPA initiative which encourages regulated entities to achieve better environmental results at decreased costs at their facilities. As part of the Project XL program, EPA is supporting a project for Georgia-Pacific Corporation's pulp and paper mill located in Big Island, Virginia. Under the project, Georgia-Pacific will attempt the first United States commercial scale demonstration of black liquor gasification, a new technology for the treatment of black liquor wastes that promises significantly lower air emissions and greater energy efficiency compared to conventional treatment methods. The technology, including its environmental and energy benefits, potentially is transferable to the rest of the pulp and paper industry. As part of its support for the project, EPA issued a site-specific rule on March 26, 2001 (66 FR 16400) that amended a Clean Air Act hazardous air pollutant standard applicable to the Big Island facility. Those amendments, in part, provided Georgia-Pacific's facility up to an additional three years (from March 13, 2004, to March 1, 2007) to comply with the standard in the event the black liquor gasification system fails and the company must revert to installation of conventional means of controlling emissions from black liquor treatment. Without the amendments, Georgia-Pacific would not have undertaken the project. At this time, construction is well underway on the new gasification system. However, Georgia-Pacific has experienced certain, largely unavoidable, delays in construction. The delays have been significant enough that the company now projects starting-up the system about one year later than originally anticipated. As a result, Georgia-Pacific has requested that EPA extend the compliance date flexibility up to one year longer than provided in the original Project XL site-specific rule. After reviewing all info