To Teach Clean Air Advocates How to Make Sure That a Power Plant, Incinerator, or Other Large Polluter Is Covered by an Effective Title V Air Pollution Permit.

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What: Make Plans to Attend Training on How to Review a Title V air pollution permit

Why: Because no matter where you live, there is a power plant, incinerator, or other large polluter in your community that will get a Title V permit. If a Title V permit is not well-written, it may excuse the polluter from compliance with certain air quality requirements. A well-written permit allows the public to hold the polluter accountable for air quality violations.

When is training? Many conferences are in June. Please see the bottom of this message for more details.

How much will it cost? The conference is FREE. The materials are FREE. You are probably eligible for a travel scholarship.

Details: As many of you know, EPA is planning on sponsoring six conferences this year to teach clean air advocates how to make sure that a power plant, incinerator, or other large polluter is covered by an effective Title V air pollution permit. A well- written Title V permit makes it so that a member of the public can know whether a polluter is operating in compliance with the Clean Air Act on an ongoing basis. Unfortunately, a poorly-written permit may have the effect of excusing a polluter from certain pollution control obligations. For example, in North Carolina we are seeing old, dirty power plants being exempted from many opacity requirements. Despite the extensive public participation opportunities offered by the Title V program, most permits being issued across the country are issued without any public comment. These Title V training sessions provide us with an opportunity to get involved in the process and make sure that the program serves the needs of the public.

Make Plans to Attend One of These Conferences. These are the first EPA-sponsored training conferences to be offered to the public since Congress adopted the Title V program in 1990. While EPA hopes to offer more in the future, we don't know if that will happen, particularly if attendance is low at the first round.

Industry Is Working Hard to Weaken the Title V Program. Industry representatives know what a powerful tool the Title V program can be for holding polluters accountable for violations of air quality laws. In fact, there is no problem getting industry involved in these Title V conferences: industry representatives are lined up to attend. Fortunately, clean air advocates get first dibs on the available slots. We must make sure that we fill these slots or EPA will be training industry rather than clean air advocates.

Region 3 (Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia) will host training in College Park MD on June 24 and 25. Contact Dave Campbell at campbell.dave@epa.gov or (215) 814-2196 to register.

The second Region 4 training conference is being organized by Kim Pierce at (404)562-9124 or pierce.kim@epa.gov. It is unclear where or when this training conference will be held. To my knowledge, there have been no planning committee meetings. If you are in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, or Tennessee, I encourage you to contact Kim.

Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) is offering Title V training in Indianapolis on June 22-23. The person in charge of Region 5 training is Genevieve Damico. She can be contacted at (312) 353-4761 or Damico.Genevieve@epa.gov.

Region 9 (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam, American Samoa) Contact Martha Larson at (415) 744-1170 or larson.martha@epa.gov. Tentatively scheduled for either September 16-17th or September 23-24 in the L.A. area.

Region 10 (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington) Contact Denise Baker at (206) 553-8087 or baker.denise@epa.gov. I don’t know when this conference will be held, but I’m guessing that it will be held in September.