Show All State Implementation Plan for Lead
On November 12, 2008, EPA published in the Federal Register a revised National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for lead. The Federal Register Notice of the final rule is available.
The new standard is a rolling three-month average of 0.15 µg/m3. This represents a dramatic decrease from the prior standard, which was 1.5 µg/m3, measured as a quarterly average.
EPA’s Fact Sheet on the new Lead Standard.
The Designation and Implementation Process
Effectiveness
The new standard became effective on January 12, 2009.
Monitoring and Designation
When a new standard is promulgated, states must determine if they attain the standard. The state usually does this through reviewing monitoring data. The state must then make a recommendation to EPA on whether all or part of the state should be designated as meeting the standard (attainment), not meeting the standard (nonattainment) or if insufficient data exists to make a recommendation (unclassifiable).
MPCA submitted a designation recommendation to EPA in October 2009, based on existing monitoring data. The MPCA recommended a nonattainment designation for an area surrounding Gopher Resource Corporation in Eagan, Dakota County. Gopher Resource is a lead smelter and battery recycler.
The area was previously a maintenance area for the prior lead standard. The designation recommendation was based on data from 2007 through 2009. You can view the official state designation recommendations, and EPA responses, for Minnesota and other states in Region 5.
In November 2010, EPA officially designated the MPCA’s recommended area of Dakota County as a nonattainment area. The official geographic designation of the nonattainment area is: A portion of the city of Eagan bounded by Lone Oak Road (County Road 26) to the north, County Road 63 to the east, Westcott Road to the south, and Lexington Avenue (County Road 43) to the west. The nonattainment area designation becomes effective on December 31, 2010.
EPA has published a full list of the 16 areas nationally that were designated as being in nonattainment with the new standard. EPA’s Lead Designation Table.
In addition, EPA is requiring additional ambient air quality monitoring near sources that emit above a certain amount of lead per year. Initially, EPA set this threshold at one ton per year. However, EPA reconsidered this threshold, and on December 14, 2010 determined that additional monitors should be sited near sources that emit more than 0.5 tons per year of lead. The MPCA initially chose to site additional monitors at sources that emit over 0.75 tons of lead per year, and does not anticipate that the reduced monitoring threshold will require monitoring at any additional sources.
More information on lead monitoring can be found by reviewing the 2011 Source-Oriented Lead Monitoring Plan and Annual Air Monitoring Network Plan.
In the future, the MPCA will have to make designation recommendations based on the ambient levels shown at those monitors. At this time, all new monitors are showing compliance with the standard.
Implementation
The MPCA has developed a draft State Implmentation Plan (SIP) for the nonattainment area in Eagan. The SIP is due to the EPA no later than June 2012, showing the area will meet the standard by December 2015.
- Background Information for Lead Infrastructure SIP and Lead Nonattainment SIP for Eagan, Minnesota (aq-sip1-13) Public comment accepted from April 23 to May 25, 2012 (4:30 p.m.).
The MPCA has been working with Gopher Resource to ensure controls are in place that will allow the area to attain the new lead standard. The SIP requires some new controls and provides a demonstration that the standard can be attained. Monitoring during the past year has generally shown ambient lead levels that are below the revised standard. Three years of data meeting the standard is necessary before an area can be redesignated to attainment.
For More Information
State Implementation Plan: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , 651-757-2607.
