I AM SWANA Blog

Mandated Monitoring of Greenhouse Gases to Begin January 1st
Shannon Crawford, Manager of Legislative and Regulatory Programs

Beginning January 1, 2010, facilities covered by EPA’s Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule are required to begin monitoring their emissions. In their ruling, signed in late September, EPA finalized reporting requirements for 31 different sectors, including both landfills and waste-to-energy plants. EPA was directed to develop the mandatory reporting rule, by Congress, as part of a 2008 Appropriations Bill. EPA plans on using the information they receive to better understand the sources of emissions and to develop future policies to reduce greenhouse gases. They have estimated that their ruling will cover 85% of all emissions in the US. SWANA commented on this ruling during the spring comment period and has consulted with EPA throughout the process in order to be able to provide better information to our members. If covered facilities would like to petition for a judicial review they have until December 29, 2009 to file.

Both landfills and waste-to-energy facilities will be required to report their direct GHG emissions if above 25,000 tons of CO2e annually. These facilities are mandated to report all six of the greenhouse gas emissions listed in the rule. Importantly, municipalities and waste management companies will not be required to report indirect emissions resulting from electricity use or direct fleet generated emissions. However, because the rule focuses only on reporting emissions, they will not be able to lower their emission number by accounting for offsets or carbon sequestration.

EPA is currently developing an electronic reporting to system to help ease the burden on regulators as well as reporters. It will be web-based and designed to guide reporters through data entry and submission. This system will include built-in calculations and completeness checks and will allow self-verification with EPA verification of reporting.

One of SWANA’s primary concerns with the proposal was the early start date to begin reporting and the lack of lead time to prepare for GHG emissions data collection. In our comments we requested a one year grace period similar to what was done in California when the Air Resource Board implemented reporting of GHGs. Instead of a one-year grace period, EPA offered a transition period during the first quarter of 2010. During this period, reporters may use “best available monitoring methods” to estimate their GHG emissions. This could include using emissions estimates in the rule itself or information obtained from current monitoring methods or calculations. If facilities would like to extend their use of best available data, they must request an extension by January 28, 2010. No extensions will be granted past December 31, 2010.

Failure to comply with this rulemaking could result in enforcement action under the Clean Air Act. These penalties are severe ranging up to $37,500 per day per violation. Potential violations include:

• Failure to report GHGs
• Failure to collect data needed to calculate GHGs
• Failure to monitor continuously as required by the ruling
• Falsification of reports

EPA has indicated they intend to evaluate each violation individually. The final rule allows them the flexibility to exhaust less punitive actions before taking a more severe step. This, they believe, is consistent with other programs under the Clean Air Act.

Another concern SWANA raised regarding the proposed rule was the lack of a mechanism to exit the program should emissions fall below the reporting threshold. This is especially important in the landfill industry where emissions for closed sites dissipate over time. To address this issue EPA added a provision for facilities to cease reporting if they meet one of the following criteria:

• Five consecutive years below 25,000 tons of CO2e
• Three consecutive years below 15,000 tons of CO2e
• If GHG-emitting processes or operations shut down

The first emissions report is due March 31, 2011and will cover 2010 emissions.

Landfills and waste-to-energy plants are both specifically addressed in the ruling.

Waste-to-Energy Operations

WTE operations are covered under the provisions in Subpart C- Stationary Fuel Combustion Sources and essentially all facilities in the country will be reporting. Subpart C breaks its reporting provisions into four tiers each with different monitoring methods and requirements. WTE facilities will be reporting under either the Tier 2 method or Tier 4 depending on the size of the facility. EPA has designated the threshold for WTE plants to be 250 tons per day. If a unit processes less than 250 tpd they use the Tier 2 monitoring method, if they process over 250 tpd they must use the Tier 4 protocols, which require part 75 continuous emissions monitors (CEMS). In our comments, SWANA had requested that all WTE facilities be allowed to use the Tier 2 method, but this comment was not incorporated in the final rule.

All facilities must report their annual mass emissions of CO2, nitrous oxide and methane. Tier 2 facilities must calculate their emissions based on the total mass of steam generated by MSW, the ratio of the boiler’s maximum rated heat input to its design rated steam ouput capacity (mmBtu/lb steam) and an emission factor. Tier 4 facilities must measure their emissions using continuous emissions monitoring. This would require stack gas volumetric flow rate and CO2 concentration instruments installed on each unit. Tier 4 facilities only need to continuously monitor their CO2 emissions; they may use emissions factors for the other GHGs. Smaller facilities that already have CEMS installed would most likely have to use this information for their reporting, even if they are below the 250 tpd threshold.

Biogenic emissions of CO2 must also be reported, but they are not included in the 25,000 tons threshold. The biogenic emissions would be determined by doing quarterly sampling which is sent to a lab for radiocarbon testing using method ASTM D6866.

Tier 4 facilities that do not have CEMS installed may use Tier 2 reporting requirements during 2010, but beginning on January 1, 2011, they must have CEMS installed.

Landfills

Subpart HH specifies the reporting requirements for MSW landfills, which would include the emissions from the landfill itself, LFG collection systems and LFG destruction devices. Not included in this provision are hazardous waste landfills, C&D landfills and industrial landfills. MSW Landfills that generate more than 25,000 tons of CO2e of methane would be required to report their GHG emissions, regardless of whether or not the methane is destroyed. This is a very low threshold for landfills and according to estimates could include landfills with as little as 350,000 metric tons of waste in place or landfill gas recovery of about 900 metric tons per year of methane. To help landfills determine if they will need to report EPA has developed an online applicability tool.

Landfills without gas collection systems must model their generation rate and subtract the default soil oxidation rate of 10% to must calculate their total emissions. Landfills that control their methane emissions must calculate their methane emissions in two ways and report both results. The first method is to subtract the amount of methane recovered from the modeled generation rate (with adjustments for soil oxidation and the destruction efficiency of the control device); the second method is to apply a gas collection efficiency to the measured amount of CH4 recovered to calculate CH4 generation, then subtracting the measured amount of CH4 recovered (with adjustments for soil oxidation using the default value and destruction efficiency of the destruction device) using the equations provided.

In order to complete these calculations landfills must monitor the following either continuously or weekly:
• Amount of waste coming in
• Concentration of methane in collected LFG using a gas composition monitor
• LFG flow rate with gas flow meter (for landfills with collection systems)

The rule specifies six different methods for monitoring methane concentration: five using gas chromatography and one using total organic carbon. EPA has also confirmed that landfills may use portable methane composition analyzers such as Landtec GEM and Envision as well as gas composition meters using nondispersive infrared technology (NDIR). The rule specifies eight different methods for determining gas flow rate. EPA has indicated that in addition to these methods landfills may use thermal mass flow meters to calculate this figure. Talks with EPA clarifying acceptable techniques for monitoring methane concentrations and measuring flow rates, are likely to continue.

Landfills that currently continuously monitor flow rate, CH4 concentration, temperature, pressure and moisture content using a meter specifically for CH4 must use this system for emissions reporting. Landfill gas to energy projects would also report their emissions of CO2, methane and nitrous oxide using stationary combustion source provisions if the landfill is subject to Subpart HH.

Please contact me directly with any questions.

Shannon Crawford
Manager of Legislative and Regulatory Programs
240-494-2241 - direct