Title_V_Pilot_Bonus_Program_Quality_Control_Report

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Quality Control Measures – Title V Air Permit Bonus Pilot Program
Session Law 2023-134, Section 12.17(a) through (u), establishes a Title V Air Permit Bonus Pilot Program for qualifying employees who process applications for Title V Air Permits. Qualifying employees within the Division of Air Quality (DAQ) are to receive those bonuses after a Title V Air Permit is reviewed and completed. The pilot program runs from January 1,
2024, through June 30, 2025.
Sections 12.17(p) requires the Environmental Management Commission develop quality control measures to measure the consistency and quality of Title V Air Permit processing that ensures each application is adequately reviewed and, if denied, that there is good cause to deny the Title V Air Permit. It further requires the Commission to consult with the Department and provide
this information to be included in the annual report submitted by the Department to the chairs of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources pursuant to Section 12.17(r). This report shall be submitted by December 1, 2024.
The Division of Air Quality Title V Permitting Section employs quality control measures aimed
at promoting quality and consistency in the Title V permitting process and ensures each application is adequately reviewed, and if denied, there is a good cause to deny the Title V Air Permit. Permit denials are very rare and applicants for Title V permits are unlikely to submit an application that cannot demonstrate compliance with all applicable laws and rules. Rule 15A NCAC 02Q .0518(a) addresses this infrequent occurrence already by giving the Division of Air
Quality authority to deny a permit application when necessary to carry out the purposes of G.S. 143, Article 21B, and the federal Clean Air Act. In instances where permit applications are incomplete, the Division does not deny the permit, but instead works with the applicant to obtain the missing application information.

The remainder of this document outlines the quality control measures ensuring each application is adequately reviewed. The following sections focus on application statistics and measurements; resources for staff to ensure consistency; management methods; and United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Review. Application Statistics and Measurements Key Performance Indicators: The number of facilities and 3rd parties that file contested cases challenging the terms of a Title V permit is very low. The number of draft permits that receive
no comments is a very high percentage of the total draft permits that go through the public
process. Discussion: The bonus program reporting requirements for the Department include providing a list of contested cases where the Office of Administrative Hearings rendered a final decision or order with findings of fact and conclusions of law, or a judgement on the pleadings or summary
judgement in favor of a person aggrieved by the Department, and an estimate of the resulting costs to the State for the previous year pursuant to Section 12.17(r). Each Title V permit includes an attachment to the cover letter highlighting the rights of a permit applicant, Permittee, or other persons aggrieved to file a contested case on a permit containing the Division’s decision
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on an air permit application. The attachment includes general filing instructions conforming to NCGS 150B-23 to be filed with the Office of Administrative Hearings. As will be discussed
below, this process seldom happens because of the standard operating procedures in place to reduce their occurrence. The table below shows only four of 2,045 (or 0.2%) final Title V permitting actions have been challenged since 2015.
The Division of Air Quality’s Title V Permitting Section, when fully staffed, has 28 positions: Section Chief, three branch supervisors, four engineer III, 13 engineer II, three engineer I, one environmental specialist II, and three meteorologists. As of July 9, 2024, the Permitting Section has six vacancies (one engineer I, four engineer II, and one engineer III). This Section is
responsible for the state-wide permitting of all Title V permit class facilities. The current
population of facilities is 307 and can vary from month to month. The following table indicates historical application receipt and closeout trends. The nine-year annual average of incoming and outgoing applications is 206 and 210, respectively.
As of June 25, 2024, the number of open applications is 189, equating to approximately 14
projects per engineer. Open applications are sorted and tracked in DAQ’s data system (IBEAM)
under multiple schedules and types. There are currently 12 categories of applications. Of those 12, only seven are bonus eligible application types. Currently 93 of the 189 applications are bonus eligible. Of those 12 categories, five are required to go through a public notice process and EPA review prior to taking final action. 79 of the 189 applications must go through that process. The public process itself is counted towards the number of overall processing days an
application is in house and consists of parallel 30-day public, and 45-day EPA, comment periods. If public comments are received, or if a public hearing is required, the EPA will modify its parallel comment period to sequential. Their review period will follow the completion of the Division’s requirements to summarize and respond to those public comments and make any
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Apps Received Apps Closed Out
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modifications to the draft permit and technical review because of those comments. The following table is a historical summary of the number of Title V permit applications that have
gone through the public comment/public hearing process.
Year Total Title V Applications going through the public Process Only (Required by rule) Hearing Process (Director’s )
Public Hearing following Public Notice Period
2015 82 0 0
2016 101 0 0
2017 80 0 1
2018 72 1 1
2019 73 2 0
2020 74 0 0
2021 61 7 0
2022 66 1 1
2023 76 1 1
685 12 4 Of the 697 permit applications that went through the public process, only four were determined to need public hearings after the public comment periods concluded, or just 0.57%. Twelve applications were noticed for public hearings based on Director’s discretion which weighs, in
part, known public interest in the applications/facilities; not because a public hearing was required by rule. During this 9-year period, approximately 10% of those 697 applications that went through the public process received comments from either the public or EPA during public comment period.
Resources for Staff to Ensure Quality and Consistency The Title V Permitting Section management in recent years has been making permit consistency a top priority. It is recognized that certain work products can be made to read similarly if not the same. As a result, each engineer has available to them the following tools that can be used in the
drafting of a permit and its associated technical review, both of which are produced for each permit application processed. 1. Title V Permit Shell – a current version of the blank permit with cover letter, table of contents, list of acronyms. The shell includes all formatting conventions, table locations,
and section headers. Use of the shell is required for each iteration of the permit. With
each permit modification, the review engineer can begin with the current version of the permit and modify it with any changes associated with the shell promoting consistency. 2. General Conditions Shell – each permit includes a set of general conditions applicable to every Title V facility. When needed, these are updated and placed into service for incorporation into a modified permit at its next touch.
3. Title V Permit Condition Shell – many specific permit conditions for commonly used regulations have been developed and collected. The use of shell language for similar applicable equipment promotes consistency among all Title V permits.
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4. Title V Permit Renewal Review Shell – a technical review, or statement of basis, is required to be created with each permitting action. Each Title V permit is also required
to go through the renewal process every five years. The associated technical review completed at renewal is a more detailed review (similar to the one done when a Title V facility first gets its initial permit). Therefore, a uniform shell review document has been created for these activities to promote consistency among the review engineers. The shell
creates a consistent format to ensure that each permit review follows a similar pattern and
includes the same discussion points. In addition to these template documents, the Division of Air Quality’s document storage repositories (IBEAM/Laserfiche) store a wide variety of historical documents for each facility. Those documents are also available to the review engineer as resources into past permit
applicability determinations, modeling reviews, inspection reports, and prior versions of permits. Management Methods
The Title V Permitting Section has created a consistent and common procedure for application
processing that includes multiple levels of review with the expectation that most discussion points/areas of disagreement/errors can be eliminated prior to permit issuance. The outcome of which is a reduced need to reopen a permit for errors or applicant fillings of contested cases with the Office of Administrative Hearings.
Each permit application is processed the same way according to the following: 1. Incoming applications are reviewed for acceptance and assigned a review engineer for processing. 2. If an application contains a modeling demonstration, that demonstration is routed to the
Air Quality Analysis Branch for assignment and processing.
3. Once an application is deemed administratively complete, draft permits and technical reviews are prepared and shared with: a. The engineer’s immediate supervisor for review and comment, b. The regional office inspector/permitting coordinator where the facility operates for review and comment,
c. The Stationary Source Compliance Branch for review and comment, and finally d. The applicant for review and comment. Typically, the involvement of the applicant in the review of drafts is done once all DAQ internal persons have had the chance to review and comment. In the event of a
restricted timeline for issuance, this step can be sped up by sharing drafts with all
parties at the same time. It is also important to know that the applicant is involved throughout the drafting phase to respond to questions of the review engineer or provide additional information as necessary to technically review the proposed project. 4. If necessary, the draft permit is sent through the public and EPA comment periods, with
an opportunity for a public hearing.
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Throughout this process, all comments are collected, reviewed, and modifications to the draft documents are made, if necessary. The quality of the permit and supporting documentation
benefit from this consistent approach. In addition to these processes and tools and as discussed above, vacancies within the Section are present. Filling those positions has been a primary focus of management. In some cases, due to
the difficulty in hiring engineers at the EEII level (ones designated with at least 3 years of
experience), the Division and Section have converted some of those to an EEI level that does not require the same amount of initial experience. This has been met with some success as new hires have come in. To promote quality and consistency and to aid in the training of those new engineers, it is common for them to be matched up with one or more seasoned staff to review work and to provide an initial point of contact for issues related to review of applications and
writing those draft materials. United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Review
Federal oversight of Title V programs across the U.S. is in response to the recommendations of a
2002 Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit submitted to USEPA. At that time, USEPA developed an action plan for performing reviews of Title V programs for each State/Local air pollution control agency beginning in fiscal year 2003. These follow-up evaluations may target specific areas of the program, follow-up on items from previous evaluations, or overall implementation. DAQ’s Title V program has been evaluated four times since the OIG audit
(2005, 2010, 2014, and 2021). The 2021 evaluation consisted of a review of staffing resources, internal management support, Title V revenue and expenses, public participation, environmental justice in permitting, permit issuance rates and a detailed review of previously issued permits. The results of the 2021 USEPA evaluation speak to the effectiveness of the quality control
measures in place, the quality of the staff, and the quality work products as follows:
1. DAQ has qualified, experienced staff and management resources and those were found to be very knowledgeable, professional, and dedicated to their mission. 2. DAQ was commended for its enhanced public notice permitting process, including tools and processes for meaningful engagement with the public and communities. 3. DAQ has an excellent record of timely issuance of initial permits and significant and
minor permit modifications. 4. DAQ has an excellent grasp of the requirement of Title V and is continually working to find impactful ways to increase their staff’s ability to meet all the varied program elements of Title V.
5. DAQ permits are generally complete and well written.
Additional USEPA oversight of NC’s Title V program takes the form of the following activities designed to monitor the work of the Division. Permitting Program Oversight Strategy meetings. This program is designed to guide USEPA
Region 4’s oversight of Clean Air Act (CAA) permitting programs (Title V and New Source Review) to create an effective partnership, provide permitting assistance, and to demonstrate implementation consistent with the requirements of the CAA and applicable regulations. The strategy assesses the current status of the permitting program, addresses best practices and areas
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for improvement in program implementation and builds on past successes to strengthen permit program implementation. The most recent review was in fall of 2023.
USEPA/DAQ Quarterly calls. The purpose of these calls is to maintain regular communication with the State regarding Title V permit actions and implementation questions. At this time, USEPA would communicate relevant information related to permitting, and to discuss
concerns/issues, current and upcoming workload, permit application backlog (as applicable),
permits with potential public interest and the most recent permit reviews, as applicable. Semi-annual Title V Permit Data Report (TOPs). Each January and June, DAQ reports to USEPA Region 4 on the number of Title V facilities, those with active permits, the number of initial (TV 1st time applications), expired permits, outstanding TV permit renewal permits, and
number of significant modifications. The purpose of these reports is to monitor the processing of applications in order to react to those that may be approaching statutory limits for processing clocks or to document those that may have exceeded those time limits.