Air Plan Approval; Washington: General Regulations for Air Pollution Sources, Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving updates to the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) air quality regulations in the Washington State Implementation Plan (SIP). The EFSEC regulations primarily adopt by reference the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) general air quality regulations, which the EPA approved in the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015. Consistent with our approval of the Ecology general air quality regulations, we are also approving revisions to EFSEC's air quality regulations to implement the preconstruction permitting regulations for large industrial (major source) energy facilities in attainment and unclassifiable areas, called the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program. The PSD program for major energy facilities under EFSEC's jurisdiction has historically been operated under a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP), in cooperation with the EPA and Ecology. This final approval of the EFSEC PSD program transfers the authority for issuing PSD permits from EPA to EFSEC for all of the categories of energy facilities for which EFSEC has jurisdiction. This narrows the current FIP to cover only those energy facilities for which EFSEC does not have jurisdiction or authority. The EPA is also approving EFSEC's visibility protection permitting program which overlaps significantly with the PSD program in most cases.