NJDEP has recently released a compliance advisory enforcement alert relating to an increase in inspections of laboratories to comply with the Air Pollution Control Act. If your laboratory uses listed Toxic Substances at a rate greater than 0.1 pounds per hour, you may be affected by this advisory.
To begin assessing if these NJDEP rules apply to your laboratories, the first step would be to see if any of the listed Toxic Substances are used at your facility (such as Methylene Chloride, Chloroform, or Tetrachloroethylene). If not, then these rules do not apply, and an air permit is not needed. If so, calculations should be performed and the applicability of an air permit should be determined.
Once the emission threshold of 0.1 pounds per hour is met, NJDEP requires that the facility obtain an air permit for those operations. If you believe that you may be close to this threshold, Baron Environmental would advise that calculations be performed to determine that a laboratory is, in fact, below the threshold and the data to prove so will be available upon an inspection. NJDEP will be issuing enforcement actions for all instances of noncompliance – including penalty assessments.
If you believe that your facility may be subject to regulations pertaining to laboratory Toxic Substance usage, give Baron Environmental a call and we will help assess your needs.
To view the related July 20th NJDEP advisory please click here.