O. Reg. 109/18: AIR POLLUTION - LOCAL AIR QUALITY

 

ontario regulation 109/18

made under the

Environmental Protection Act

Made: March 12, 2018
Filed: March 20, 2018
Published on e-Laws: March 20, 2018
Printed in The Ontario Gazette: April 7, 2018

Amending O. Reg. 419/05

(AIR POLLUTION - LOCAL AIR QUALITY)

1. Section 1 of Ontario Regulation 419/05 is amended by adding the following subsection:

(2.5) In this Regulation, a reference to the Director means,

(a) the Director appointed under section 5 of the Act in respect of the section of this Regulation in which the reference appears; or

(b) if no Director described in clause (a) has been appointed, any Director appointed under section 5 of the Act in respect of section 18 of the Act. 

2. Section 7 of the Regulation is amended by adding the following subsection:

(1.1) A notice given by the Director under subsection (1) may provide that it only applies in respect of the use of an approved dispersion model with one or more types of scenarios required to be considered under section 10, as specified in the notice.

3. (1) Subsection 10 (1) of the Regulation is amended by striking out “under section 19 or 20, whichever is applicable” in the portion before paragraph 1.

(2) Section 10 of the Regulation is amended by adding the following subsections:

(1.1) If a facility is part of a class identified by NAICS code 324190 or 324110, in addition to being used in accordance with one of the scenarios mentioned in subsection (1), an approved dispersion model that is used for the purposes of this Part shall be used with respect to the discharge of sulphur dioxide from the facility in accordance with the scenario that, for a one-hour averaging period, assumes operating conditions for the facility that would result in the highest concentration of sulphur dioxide at a point of impingement that the facility is capable of when acid gas is flaring at the facility.

(1.2) In order to determine, for the purposes of subsection (1.1), which scenario will result in the highest concentration of sulphur dioxide at a point of impingement, only scenarios composed of one or more of the following types of scenarios shall be considered:

1. A scenario that assumes operating conditions that can occur when no sulphur recovery unit at the facility is operating and the flare system is receiving the mass flow rate of sulphur that would otherwise have been processed by all of the sulphur recovery units at the facility.

2. Any other scenario that can occur at the facility when acid gas is flaring at the facility.

(1.3) For the purposes of paragraph 1 of subsection (1.2), the mass flow rate of sulphur corresponds to the lower of,

(a) the maximum combined processing capacity of all sulphur recovery units at the facility; and

(b) the maximum combined processing capacity imposed by law, if any, of all of the sulphur recovery units at the facility.

(1.4) The Director may, by written notice, require a person making a determination for the purposes of subsection (1.1) to consider a scenario specified in the notice if the scenario is a type of scenario mentioned in subsection (1.2) and the Director is of the opinion that the specified scenario may result in the highest concentration of sulphur dioxide at a point of impingement that a facility is capable of when acid gas is flaring at the facility.

(1.5) In order to determine, for the purposes of paragraph 1 of subsection (1), which scenario would result in the highest concentration of the relevant contaminant at a point of impingement that a facility is capable of, only scenarios composed of one or more of the following types of scenarios shall be considered:

1. Scenarios that assume operating conditions that can occur when the operation of the facility or part of the facility is being increased from an inoperative state to normal operating conditions.

2. Scenarios that assume operating conditions that can occur when the operation of the facility or part of the facility is being decreased from normal operating conditions to an inoperative state.

3. Scenarios that assume operating conditions that can occur when the facility or part of the facility is operating at its maximum design capacity.

4. Subject to subsection (1.6), any other scenario that assumes operating conditions that can occur at the facility.

(1.6) The reference in paragraph 4 of subsection (1.5) to “any other scenario” does not include a scenario that assumes operating conditions that would occur if the facility or part of the facility were to fail to operate in a normal manner.

(1.7) For greater certainty, an operating condition mentioned in subsection (1.6) may be designed to occur or not designed to occur.

(1.8) The Director may, by written notice, require a person making a determination for the purposes of paragraph 1 of subsection (1) to consider a scenario specified in the notice if the scenario is a type of scenario mentioned in subsection (1.5) and the Director is of the opinion that the specified scenario may result in the highest concentration of the contaminant at a point of impingement that a facility is capable of.

(1.9) Despite subsection (1.5), the Director may, by written notice, require a person making a determination for the purposes of paragraph 1 of subsection (1) to consider a scenario specified in the notice that is not of a type mentioned in subsection (1.5) for an averaging period specified in the notice, if the Director is of the opinion that at least one of the following criteria is met:

1. There may be an acute effect associated with a contaminant discharged during the scenario.

2. The scenario may occur too frequently and permit discharges of a contaminant that may,

i. result in a contravention of section 19 or 20 if the scenario were considered in making a determination for the purposes of paragraph 1 of subsection (1), or

ii. in the case of a contaminant in respect of which neither section 19 nor 20 applies, cause an adverse effect.

(1.10) If, in preparing or updating a report in accordance with section 26, a person considered a scenario of a type not mentioned in subsection (1.5) and included a description of that scenario in the report in accordance with paragraph 6 of subsection 26 (1), the Director is deemed to have given written notice requiring the person to consider that scenario for the purpose of making a determination under paragraph 1 of subsection (1).

(1.11) A person who receives notice from the Director under subsection (1.4), (1.8) or (1.9) shall, if required to do so in the notice, provide the Director with the following information:

1. A description of how the person carried out the consideration required by the notice. The description may refer to the use of assumptions, estimates, calculations and models.

2. If the notice specified that the consideration was to be carried out using an approved dispersion model, the approved dispersion model that was used.

3. A determination by the person as to whether the scenario specified in the notice will result in the highest concentration of a contaminant at a point of impingement that the facility is capable of.

4. If the person determines that the scenario specified in the notice will not result in the highest concentration of a contaminant at a point of impingement that the facility is capable of, an explanation of which other scenario was determined to result in such a concentration of the contaminant and a justification of the determination.

(3) Subsection 10 (2) of the Regulation is amended by striking out the portion before clause (a) and substituting the following:

(2) Despite subsection (1), the Director may give written notice to a person who discharges or causes or permits discharges of a contaminant requiring that an approved dispersion model that is used for the purposes of this Part be used with the scenario described in paragraph 2 of subsection (1) and in accordance with the notice, if,

. . . . .

(4) Subsection 10 (3) of the Regulation is amended by striking out “subsection (2)” and substituting “subsection (1.4), (1.8), (1.9) or (2)”.

4. Subsection 11 (1) of the Regulation is amended by striking out “under section 19 or 20, whichever is applicable” in the portion before paragraph 1.

5. (1) Paragraph 2 of subsection 13 (1) of the Regulation is amended by striking out “that has been refined to reflect” and substituting “that, in the opinion of the Director, has been refined to accurately reflect”.

(2) Paragraph 3 of subsection 13 (1) of the Regulation is amended by striking out “meteorological conditions” at the end and substituting “meteorological and local land use conditions”.

6. The Regulation is amended by adding the following section:

Incident-specific ESDM report

24.1 (1) The Director may order a person to prepare a report in accordance with section 26 and to submit the report to the Director not later than a date specified in the order, if the Director has reasonable grounds to believe that a contaminant was discharged from the facility and, as a result of the discharge, the person may have,

(a) contravened section 19 or 20; or

(b) if sections 19 and 20 do not apply to discharges of the contaminant, caused an adverse effect.

(2) An order made under subsection (1) may,

(a) require that the report only be prepared with respect to contaminants and, despite subsection 17 (4), averaging periods specified in the order and need not list all contaminants that are discharged from the property, despite anything to the contrary in section 26;

(b) despite sections 6 and 7, require that a dispersion model that, in the opinion of the Director, would predict concentrations of the contaminant at least as accurately as an approved dispersion model, be used as the approved dispersion model for the purposes of preparing the report;

(c) despite section 10, require that an approved dispersion model be used in accordance with a scenario that uses actual operating data for the facility during the time at which the discharge referred to in subsection (1) occurred;

(d) despite section 11, require that an approved dispersion model be used with an emission rate that is an accurate reflection of the emission rate at the time the discharge referred to in subsection (1) occurred; and

(e) require that the approved dispersion model be used with meteorological data approved under paragraph 4 of subsection 13 (1) as an accurate reflection of meteorological and local land use conditions at the time the discharge referred to in subsection (1) occurred.

(3) An order made under subsection (1) may require the person to include the following information in the report:

1. The cause of the discharge referred to in subsection (1), if known, and the circumstances surrounding the discharge.

2. If the cause of the discharge is not known, an assessment of the most likely cause based on the best information available and an explanation of steps that have been taken or will be taken to determine the cause.

7. (1) Subsection 26 (1.1) of the Regulation is revoked and the following substituted:

(1.1) If a person is required to use an approved dispersion model in accordance with more than one scenario described in section 10 and the information required to be included in the report under subsection (1) differs among those scenarios, the requirement under subsection (1) is deemed to require that information for each of the scenarios.

(2) Section 26 of the Regulation is amended by adding the following subsection:

(3) For the purposes of this Regulation, the amount of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, other than benzo(a)pyrene and naphthalene, discharged from a property may be deemed to be negligible if benzo(a)pyrene is discharged to the air from the property.

8. (1) Subsection 30 (1) of the Regulation is amended by adding “the concentration of the contaminant exceeding” at the end of the portion before clause (a).

(2) Clause 30 (1) (a) of the Regulation is amended by striking out “the concentration of the contaminant exceeding” at the beginning.

9. (1) Subsection 32 (1) of the Regulation is amended by adding the following paragraph:

10. The person discharges or causes or permits the discharge of the contaminant from a facility and, according to an approved dispersion model, discharges of the contaminant from the facility would result in the concentration of the contaminant at a point of impingement exceeding the standard set out in Schedule 3 for the contaminant and the specified averaging period during a scenario specified in a notice given by the Director under subsection 10 (1.9).

(2) Subsection 32 (10) of the Regulation is revoked and the following substituted:

(10) A person who makes a request under subsection (1) that relies on paragraph 6, 7 or 10 of subsection (1) may not make the request after the third anniversary of the day the Director gave the relevant notice under subsection 7 (1) or 10 (1.9), as the case may be.

10. (1) Subsection 42 (1) of the Regulation is amended by adding “24.1” after “24” in the portion before clause (a).

(2) Subsection 42 (2) of the Regulation is revoked and the following substituted:

(2) This Part applies for the purposes of,

(a) the determination of whether the Director may give a person a notice under section 24 or 27.1 or an order under section 24.1; and

(b) the preparation of a report required by a notice under section 24 or 27.1 or an order under section 24.1.

11. (1) Subsection 43 (1) of the Regulation is amended by adding “24.1” after “24” in the portion before clause (a).

(2) Subsection 43 (2) of the Regulation is revoked and the following substituted:

(2) This Part applies for the purposes of,

(a) the determination of whether the Director may give a person a notice under section 24 or 27.1 or an order under section 24.1; and

(b) the preparation of a report required by a notice under section 24 or 27.1 or an order under section 24.1.

12. (1) Subsection 44 (1) of the Regulation is amended by adding “24.1” after “24” in the portion before clause (a).

(2) Subsection 44 (2) of the Regulation is revoked and the following substituted:

(2) This Part applies for the purposes of,

(a) the determination of whether the Director may give a person a notice under section 24 or 27.1 or an order under section 24.1; and

(b) the preparation of a report required by a notice under section 24 or 27.1 or an order under section 24.1.

13. (1) The heading to Schedule 2 to the Regulation is amended by striking out “Updated”.

(2) Item 12 of Schedule 2 to the Regulation is amended by adding “Beryllium” before “compounds” in the column entitled “Contaminant”.

(3) Item 27.1 of Schedule 2 to the Regulation is amended by striking out “7440-47-3” in the column entitled “CAS No.” and substituting “18540-29-9”.

14. (1)  Item 3 of Schedule 3 to the Regulation is amended by adding “none” in the column entitled “Other Time Period Standard (µg/m³, unless otherwise indicated)”.

(2) Item 10 of Schedule 3 to the Regulation is amended by adding “Beryllium” before “compounds” in the column entitled “Contaminant”.

(3) Item 25.1 of Schedule 3 to the Regulation is amended by striking out “7440-47-3” in the column entitled “CAS No.” and substituting “18540-29-9”.

(4) Item 52 of Schedule 3 to the Regulation is amended by striking out “15438-31-0” in the column entitled “CAS No.” and substituting “7439-89-6”.

(5) Item 88 of Schedule 3 to the Regulation is revoked and the following substituted:

 

88.

7446-09-5

Sulphur Dioxide

100

none

10; annual

 

15. (1) Item 9.1 of Schedule 6 to the Regulation is amended by striking out “7440-47-3” in the column entitled “CAS No.” and substituting “18540-29-9”.

(2) Schedule 6 to the Regulation is amended by adding the following item:

 

33.2

7446-09-5

Sulphur Dioxide

830

690 (1 hour)

 

16. (1) Item 7.1 of Schedule 7 to the Regulation is amended by striking out “7440-47-3” in the column entitled “CAS No.” and substituting “18540-29-9”.

(2) Schedule 7 to the Regulation is amended by adding the following item:

 

28.2

7446-09-5

Sulphur Dioxide

 

17. Item 17 of Schedule 8 to the Regulation is amended by striking out “0.003” in the column entitled “Toxic Equivalency Factor” and substituting “0.0003”.

Commencement

18. (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), this Regulation comes into force on the later of July 1, 2018 and the day it is filed.

(2) Subsection 14 (5) comes into force on July 1, 2023.

(3) Subsection 15 (2) comes into force on January 1, 2019.