The Environmental Protection Agency has issued regulations equalizing offshore air pollution rules with onshore standards except in the Gulf of Mexico.
The rules hold platforms and drilling rigs within 25 miles of states' seaward boundaries to the same state, local, and federal requirements as if they were located in the corresponding onshore areas.
If EPA finds state regulations are adequate, it will delegate to the coastal state the implementation and enforcement authority for the OCS rules.
Air emissions sources more than 25 miles offshore will be subject only to federal requirements.
EPA said within 2 years the rules will result in significant benefits to certain onshore areas currently violating smog standards.
It said the rules will result in a 750 ton/year reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions and a 620 ton/year cut in volatile organic compound emissions by 1994 in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties in southern California.
WHAT'S REQUIRED
New OCS sources must comply with the final rules immediately. Existing sources have 2 years to comply. The regulations are virtually unchanged from the proposed version (OGJ, Dec. 9, 1991, p. 32)
The rules were issued under the 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments, which exempted OCS facilities off Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Minerals Management Service air quality rules will remain in effect for those areas.
The law requires MMS to complete a study by Nov. 15, 1993, to determine the effect of emissions from OCS operations on areas violating smog and nitrogen dioxide standards in those four states. Based on that study, the Interior Department and EPA will decide whether further action is required.
EPA's latest rules apply to any source of offshore air pollution in any industry authorized or regulated under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Currently, it will apply only to oil and gas operations off California and Alaska.
There are 23 platforms operating off California, and two more are under construction or development. There is exploratory drilling off Alaska.
CAA amendments allow EPA to exempt offshore sources from rules if compliance is technologically infeasible or will cause an unreasonable threat to health and safety.
However, EPA must impose a substitute control, and any emission increase resulting from an exception must be offset by emission reductions from the same source or other sources in the offshore area or in an adjacent onshore area.
Emissions from any vessel servicing or associated with an OCS source, when the vessel is docked at or within 25 miles en route to or from the source, will be treated as if they were from the stationary OCS source.
EPA estimated the rule will cost industry $5 million/year in 1994.
LEGAL ACTION
The Environmental Defense Fund, South Coast Air Quality Management District, and Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District had sued EPA for failing to meet a Nov. 15, 1991, statutory deadline for issuing the final rules.
On Aug. 10 a federal court granted EPA a continuance in the case until Aug. 24 after EPA said the rules would be signed by Aug. 21. The final rules are to appear soon in the Federal Register.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
