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Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Indiana Decisions - OEA Rules Whiskey Warehouse Emissions are Fugitive
In re: Objection to the issuance of Part 70 operating permit for Joseph E. Seagram & Sons (8/4/04 Ind OEA) [Administrative Law; Environmental]
This is the first decision the Indiana Law Blog has posted from the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication. The problem has been availability.
According to counsel for Seagram, in this case:
The Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication ("OEA") ruled on August 4, 2004, that uncontrolled ethanol emissions from a whiskey warehouse in Milan, Indiana, are fugitive emissions that do not count toward the 100 ton-per-year applicability threshold for the Clean Air Act Part 70 operating permit program.OEA's order overturned the contrary ruling of U.S. EPA Region V and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management ("IDEM"). Pernod-Ricard USA, which operates the warehouse, challenged IDEM's issuance of a Part 70 operating permit for the facility, believing it needed no permit.
Fugitive emissions do not count toward the 100-tons-per-year threshold for the Part 70 program. Under state and federal rules, fugitive emissions are those that "could not reasonably pass through a stack, chimney, vent or functionally equivalent opening." Pernod-Ricard argued that the definition was intended to cover emissions that cannot reasonably be collected and directed to a control device. It urged that collection and control of VOC emissions from whiskey aging warehouses would be unreasonable, because it would alter the natural airflow that is critical to production of saleable product.
IDEM argued that any emission that enters the environment through a building opening reasonably passes through a vent and therefore is not fugitive.
OEA's environmental law judge, agreeing with Pernod-Ricard, based on expert testimony, and several EPA publications and guidance documents, ordered IDEM to rescind the permit.
Pernod-Ricard was represented by Anthony C. Sullivan and Bryan G. Tabler of the Indianapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 10, 2004 11:39 AM
Posted to Administrative Law & Decisions | Indiana Decisions