DHEC Bureau of Air Quality Regulatory Stakeholders,

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: 2019 End of Year Revisions – On August 28, 2020, the Department published a Notice of Proposed Regulation in the State Register, amending Regulation 61-62, Air Pollution Control Regulations and Standards.

The Department proposes amending R.61-62.60, South Carolina Designated Facility Plan and New Source Performance Standards; R.61-62.63, National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Source Categories; and R.61-62.68, Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions, to incorporate federal amendments promulgated from January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019.

The Department also proposes amending R.61-62.60 to add Subpart UUUUa, which will include provisions for facilitating implementation of the EPA’s “Performance Standards and Compliance Times for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Electric Utility Generating Units,” also known as the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, as published in the Federal Register on July 8, 2019 (84 FR 32520). This proposed amendment is to ensure compliance with federal law.

The Department also proposes amending R.61-62.60 to delete Subpart B – “Adoption and Submittal of State Plans for Designated Facilities.” This subpart incorporates by reference EPA implementing regulations found at 40 CFR Part 60, Subpart B, which is directly applicable to EPA and states. These implementing regulations have been updated through EPA’s promulgation of 40 CFR Part 60, Subpart Ba, which is also directly applicable to EPA and states and need not be incorporated by reference by the Department. The Department therefore proposes to delete R.61-62.60, Subpart B for simplicity and to maintain compliance with federal law.

The Department also proposes other changes to Regulation 61-62 that include corrections for internal consistency, clarification, reference, punctuation, codification, formatting, and spelling to improve the overall text of Regulation 61-62 as necessary. In accordance with S.C. Code Section 1-23-120(H), legislative review is not required because the Department proposes promulgating the amendments to maintain compliance with federal law.

Please contact R. Scott Bigleman at biglemrs@dhec.sc.gov if you have any questions. This notice can be found at: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/state_register.php and at the Department’s Public Notices webpage at: https://apps.dhec.sc.gov/Environment/PublicNotices.

You can follow DHEC Bureau of Air Quality Regulation Development at the following page: http://www.scdhec.gov/Agency/RegulationsAndUpdates/RegulationDevelopmentUpdate/