Site-Specific Rulemaking for Packaging Corporation of America's Pulp and Paper Mill Located in Tomahawk, WI, Pursuant to the Joint State/EPA Agreement To Pursue Regulatory Innovation

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants from the Pulp and Paper Industry (Pulp and Paper Industry NESHAP). Collectively, these revisions comprise a site-specific rule to control Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) applicable only to the semi-chemical pulp and paper mill currently owned and operated by Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) in Tomahawk, Wisconsin (the Tomahawk Mill). EPA is adopting these revisions pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Joint State/EPA Agreement to Pursue Regulatory Innovation (Innovations Agreement). The Pulp and Paper Industry NESHAP currently requires semi-chemical pulp and paper mills to control the HAP emissions from the air stack for the collection of equipment comprising the Low Volume High Concentration (LVHC) system. Neither the Pulp and Paper Industry NESHAP, nor any other Federal or State regulation, requires such mills to control HAPs that may be contained in the liquid condensates from the LVHC system. This site-specific rule allows PCA's Tomahawk Mill to control the HAPs generated in the LVHC system by condensing them into a liquid and treating them via anaerobic biodegradation in the facility's wastewater treatment system. In other words, the site-specific rule allows PCA's Tomahawk Mill to control the HAPs generated in the LVHC system from an emission point and with a technology not addressed by the Pulp and Paper Industry NESHAP. As a result, PCA will maintain compliance with the CAA and achieve a reduction in HAPs emitted to the environment significantly superior to that which would have been achieved through compliance with the control methodology currently prescribed by the Pulp and Paper Industry NESHAP. Additionally, the revisions are consistent with the Innovations Agreement by allowing PCA's Tomahawk Mill to achieve superior environmental performance through regulatory flexi