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url=(0056)https://www9.state.nj.us/DEP_eNJEMS/jsp/PollutionFAQ.jsp -->Frequently Asked Questions
Concerning
the
Release
and Pollution Prevention Report
&
Pollution Prevention Program
Q: Who is required to prepare a Pollution
Prevention (P2) Plan and submit a Release and Pollution Prevention Report
(RPPR) and a Plan Summary?
A: Any “employer” (N.J.A.C. 7:1G-1.2) or any
“priority industrial facility” (N.J.A.C. 7:1K-1.5) that is subject to the
reporting requirements of the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to
Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA), Section 313, the Toxic Chemical Release Inventory
(TRI), is subject to the preparation of a Pollution Prevention Plan and
submission of a Release and Pollution Prevention Report (RPPR) and a Pollution
Prevention Plan Summary.
[N.J.A.C 7:1K-3.1 and 7:1G-4.1(a)]
The
facility must report on the RPPR and include in their P2 Plans and Plan
Summaries any TRI substances that reach the NJ threshold, which is 10,000
pounds. (Note: the NJ threshold only
applies once the federal threshold has been reached.)
[N.J.A.C 7:1K-3.4(a) and 3.5(a) and 7:1G-4.1(b)]
Q: If I submit a TRI Form A to USEPA, do I have
to prepare a P2 Plan and submit an RPPR and a Plan Summary?
NOTE: USEPA's Form
A alternate threshold does not apply to PBTs.
A: Facilities that submit annual Form As with
the USEPA for substances that meet the 500 pound NPO threshold and are
manufactured, processed, or otherwise used below one million pounds annually,
are still subject to New Jersey pollution prevention planning and reporting
requirements for all hazardous substances manufactured/processed/otherwise used
over threshold, with the following exception.
Hazardous substances are exempt from pollution prevention
planning if the sum of the amount of
the hazardous substance generated as NPO and shipped in product is 500 pounds
or lower, as indicated on Section B of the most recent Release and Pollution
Prevention Report (RPPR). These
substances are still required to be included in Sections A and B of the RPPR
but are exempt from P2 Planning (i.e., P2 Plan, Plan Summary and Progress
Report Sections C & D or P2-115.)
[N.J.A.C 7:1K-3.1(h)]
Q: If USEPA adds new hazardous substances or
lowers the threshold of existing substances on the TRI list or if I start to manufacture, process or otherwise
use above threshold quantities any additional hazardous substance already on
the list, must I modify my RPPR, P2 Plan and Plan Summary?
A: Facilities
are required to include substances in Sections A and B of their RPPRs by July 1
of the year after they went above threshold (i.e., the reporting year). The Plan and Plan Summary may have to be
modified if the substance is still above threshold the second reporting year, following the guidelines listed here:
If a hazardous
substance is involved in a targeted process:
(Note: processes with PBTs must be
targeted.)
Facilities are required to modify their P2 Plans and
submit Plan Summary revisions by July 1 of the second reporting year.
Progress Reports (P2-115 or Sections C and D) are to include these substances
by July 1 of the third year.
EXAMPLE:
A facility begins manufacturing or using a
new hazardous substance above threshold in 2005.
By July 1, 2006, Sections A and B of the RPPR
must include the new substance.
By July 1, 2007, the P2 Plan and Plan Summary
must be revised to include the new substance and the Plan Summary must be
resubmitted (and the substance must be
reported in Sections A and B only of the RPPR).
By July 1, 2008, the new substance must be in
all sections of the RPPR (A, B and P2-115 or C and D).
If a hazardous
substance is involved in a non-targeted process:
Facilities may modify their P2 Plan and Plan
Summary, according to the above schedule, but are not required to do so. A facility may retarget its processes but is
not required to do so. (Except for
processes containing PBTs.)
[N.J.A.C. 7:1K-3.9(a-c), (g)]
Q: If I add any hazardous substances to my P2
Plan after I did my original Plan, do I use my original base year? Should I establish a new five-year goal or
stay within the planning cycle?
A: For hazardous substances added to the P2 Plan
after the original Plan was done, the base year should be the year after the facility went above the
manufacture/process/otherwise use threshold for that substance. Do not use the
original base year from when the Plan was done for these added substances. For
example, if a facility prepared a base year 2003 Pollution Prevention Plan, it
would be for those substances present in 2003 at the facility above the
threshold. If that facility then went above threshold in 2005 for either a
newly listed substance or one that was already on the list, revisions should be
done to the P2 Plan and Plan Summary for that substance using 2006 as a base
year.
For
consistency purposes, your facility must stay within the five year planning
cycle established during the preparation of your original P2 Plan. Do not set
up different five-year planning cycles for different hazardous substances, or
create a new Plan; instead, use a shorter cycle for the newly added substance.
Q: If my facility goes below the threshold for
manufacture, process or otherwise use of a hazardous substance, or the
substance is deleted from TRI or Appendix A of the P2 Rules, do we still need
to keep that substance in the P2 Plan and Plan Summary?
A: In this situation, a company must notify the Department
in writing of such change and the reason for the change before July 1 of the
year following the change in status. If
the substance is expected to come back above threshold, the substance should
stay in the P2 Plan and Plan Summary, maintaining the same base year. If, however, the substance is below threshold
due to its elimination or phasing out, it should be removed from the P2 Plan
and Plan Summary. If a facility falls
below threshold for all hazardous substances regulated under the P2 Rules, it
is no longer subject to pollution prevention planning; however, the facility
still must notify the Department in writing prior to July 1 of the year
following the change in status.
[N.J.A.C.
7:1K-3.9(d-f)]
Q: If my facility adds a new process line after
already preparing a P2 Plan do we have to do planning for that new process?
A:
Owners/operators of facilities have to add Part IA information to its P2
Plan and to submit Plan Summary revisions to the Department the second reporting year. For example, if a facility brings on a new
process line in March 2005, it has until July 1, 2007 to modify its P2 Plan.
Facilities have until the five-year revision to add Part II information to the
P2 Plan, submit a revised Plan Summary to the Department and begin reporting
Part IB information about pollution prevention progress on the annual Release
and Pollution Prevention Report.
EXAMPLE:
A facility adds a new process line in 2005.
By
July 1, 2006, Sections A and B of the RPPR must include any new substances from
that process that are above threshold.
By July 1, 2007, the P2 Plan and Plan Summary
must be revised to include the new process and the Plan Summary must be
resubmitted.
Q: Are there any other situations that would trigger
modifications to my facility's Pollution Prevention Plan?
A: If one or
more of the following actions occur, a facility is required to modify its P2
Plan and Plan Summary by July 1 of the calendar year following the year in
which the changes occurred:
·
Ceases operation of a targeted production process or significantly
expands the operation of a targeted production process;
·
Significantly modifies a targeted production process, unless due to
implementation of pollution prevention techniques at the industrial facility;
·
Reclassifies an existing nonproduct output as a product, intermediate,
or co-product;
·
Modifies a grouping decision that affects a targeted process; or
·
Modifies a targeting decision.
[N.J.A.C.
7:1K-3.9(a)]
If any of these changes occur, the facility is
required to review the following information as it applies to targeted
processes and amend the Plan and Summary:
·
Facility-level inventory data required in Part IA of a Pollution
Prevention Plan;
·
Process-level inventory data required in Part IA of a Pollution
Prevention Plan;
·
Facility-level and process-level pollution prevention reductions
required to be recorded in Part IB of a Pollution Prevention Plan or reported
in a Release and Pollution Prevention Report;
·
Process-level pollution prevention reductions required to be recorded
in Part IB of a Pollution Prevention Plan or reported in a Release and
Pollution Prevention Report;
·
Five-year pollution prevention goals required in Part II of a Pollution
Prevention Plan and in a Pollution Prevention Plan Summary;
·
Description of targeted production processes required in Part II of a
Pollution Prevention Plan and in a Pollution Prevention Plan Summary;
·
Planned pollution prevention options required in Part II of a Pollution
Prevention Plan;
·
Implementation schedules for pollution prevention options required in
Part II of a Pollution Prevention Plan.
[N.J.A.C.
7:1K-3.9 (b)]
Q: Should the previous year production ratio
reported in Section C be identical to the ratio reported on the Form R under
TRI?
[NOTE: the RPPR
now requires two different production ratios: from the base year and from the
previous year. The TRI only requires the
production ratio from the previous year.]
A:
These numbers may be the same. Under federal EPCRA, facilities are required to
account for the use, manufacture and processing of all listed substances for
the entire facility, including pilot plants. Under the NJ Pollution Prevention
Act, research and development laboratory activities and pilot plant activities
are exempt from planning and reporting. As such, a facility may report a
different production ratio on the federal Form R and on the state Release and
Pollution Prevention Progress Report (Section C of the RPPR). Also, the production ratio on the RPPR uses
weighting factors to account for substances in more than one process, unlike
the federal production ratio. Note: The facility
also has the option of submitting P2-115s in lieu of Sections C and D of the
RPPR. If the P2-115 option is chosen, the online program will calculate
production ratios.
[N.J.A.C.
7:1G-3.4(b)]
Q: How will adding a new production process or
discontinuing one affect my facility's production ratio?
A: It should not affect your production
ratio. The instruction booklet for the
Release and Pollution Prevention Report presents formulas for calculating
production ratios. If you use these formulas and accurately calculate your
weighting factors, the production ratio should not change. Remember to use the
weighting factors from your base year measurement to calculate the production
ratio. If you use weighting factors from a year other than the base year, you
will get an inaccurate calculation of pollution prevention progress. Note: If the
facility chooses the option of submitting P2-115s in lieu of Sections C and D
of the RPPR, the online program will calculate production ratios using these
weighting factors in the formula.
Q: What are the procedures and reporting
requirements when a previously regulated facility splits into two or more new
facilities?
A: The
two or more new facilities become separate reporting entities, and each new
entity must evaluate the criteria for program coverage. The following scenarios
may occur:
1. If one of the new entities
meets the criteria, and is essentially the same as the original entity, any
updates in facility name, certifications, etc., must be made, but the five-year
process of the P2 Plan is not disrupted.
2. If a new entity meets the
criteria, and is different from the original entity, it must submit Sections A
and B of the Release and Pollution Prevention Report by July 1 of the year
following the first reporting year that it exceeds thresholds. It must then
prepare a P2 Plan and submit a Plan
Summary by the following July 1, and submit all sections of the RPPR by July 1,
in subsequent years of the five-year P2 planning cycle. Any parts of the P2
Plan from the original entity that are still applicable may be incorporated
into the P2 Plans of the new entities.
Q: What are the procedures and reporting
requirements when two previously regulated facilities merge into one?
A: The
new facility becomes a separate reporting entity, and the new entity must
evaluate the criteria for program coverage. The following scenarios may occur:
1. If the new entity meets the
criteria, and is essentially the same as either of the original entities, any
updates in facility name, certifications, etc., must be made, but the five-year
process of the P2 Plan is not disrupted.
2. If the new entity meets the
criteria, and is different from either of the original entities, it must submit
Sections A and B of the Release and Pollution Prevention Report by July 1 of
the year following the first reporting year that it exceeds thresholds. It must
then prepare a P2 Plan and submit a Plan
Summary by the following July 1, and submit all sections of the RPPR by July 1
in subsequent years of the five-year P2 planning cycle. Any parts of the P2
Plans from the previous entities that are still applicable may be incorporated
into the P2 Plan of the new entity. The base year for the P2 Plan is the second
year of TRI and RPPR reporting.
Q: What is new about the 2005 P2 Rule
readoption?
A: In addition to alternate planning threshold
issues mentioned above (page 1, question 2), the following changes have been made:
Electronic reporting of the P2 Plan
Summary is mandatory beginning with reporting year 2005, except if a facility
is making a confidentiality or hardship claim.
In the case of a confidentiality claim, the public version is still
required to be submitted electronically.
(The CRTK rule readoption of 2005 requires mandatory electronic
reporting of the RPPR as well.)
All processes or sources at covered
facilities that use or generate persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic (PBT)
substances above reporting thresholds are required to be targeted for P2
planning by the next planning cycle.
Treatment systems that use
hazardous substances or generate NPO not generated elsewhere at the facility
are required to be included as separate sources or
production processes in a P2 Plan by the next planning cycle. Previously, it was recommended that a
facility include them but it was not a requirement.
The new calculation method for
determining use is to sum the amount of hazardous substances consumed, shipped off-site
as or in a product and generated as nonproduct output (NPO).
A process flow diagram is now
required to be included in the P2 Plan by the next planning cycle.
It was clarified that hazardous
waste data are required to be included in the P2 Plan annually.
Annual facility-level input and
output quantities contained in a P2 Plan are required to be balanced within 5%. (With the exception of ammonia, due to
federal reporting requirements.)
Q: How can I get more information about the New
Jersey Release and Pollution Prevention Report and the Pollution Prevention
Program?
A: You may contact the Office of Pollution
Prevention and Right to Know at (609) 777-0518, visit our Web site at www.state.nj.us/dep/opppc, or stop by our offices at 4
Revised 3/7/06