Quick Steps for Permit Applicants
The FLM's permit review process consists of three main analyses:
- a best available control technology (BACT) analysis to ensure that the emission increases from the proposed facility are minimized;
- an air quality analysis to ensure that the pollutant levels do not exceed national ambient air quality standards and PSD increments; and
- an AQRV analysis to ensure that the Class I area values are not adversely affected by the proposed emissions.
If you're a permit applicant interested in knowing what you need to do and how to analyze Class I Area impacts, this page provides a short answer and quick links to key documents.
NPS and FWS basically want to know how much of the Class I Area prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) increments are going to be consumed and what the impacts will be on air quality related values (AQRVs) in their Class I areas from a proposed source. Definitions and details for PSD increment and AQRVs analyses can be found on the following web pages.
Federal Land Managers' Air Quality Related Values Work Group (FLAG) Guidance - This explains what analyses you should do and how to do them.
Park/Refuge Air Resource Information (ARIS) - This site identifies AQRVs for Class I areas managed by NPS and FWS and provides guidance for evaluating impacts on AQRVs.
IWAQM Modeling Guidance - This will explain long-range transport modeling for analyzing Class I Area impacts.
The CALPUFF model - This will explain the CALPUFF long-range transport model that should be used for Class I area impact analyses.