Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and Emission Guidelines for Existing Sources for Large Municipal Waste Combustors

Section 129 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) directs us to develop new source performance standards (NSPS) and emission guidelines (EG) for municipal waste combustors (MWC). The final NSPS and EG limit periods of startup, shutdown, or malfunction to 3 hours per occurrence. Recently, it has come to our attention that there are a few types of malfunction which require shutdown, but, because of the nature of the malfunction and ensuing safety concerns, require longer than 3 hours for shutdown of the MWC. This notice announces our intent to amend the NSPS and EG for large MWC to provide regulatory relief from this 3-hour limitation for shutdowns due to these types of malfunction.