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Small Business Clean Air Assistance Program

Air Toxics or Hazardous Air Pollutants

Both US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have regulations affecting emissions of air toxics, which are also called hazardous air pollutants.  The regulations created by each agency are very different in the way they apply to businesses.  There is a provision in the DNR regulation that where a business has to reduce emissions of certain hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) under EPA's rules, then that business does not have to apply DNR's regulations to those same hazardous air pollutants.  Because the DNR and EPA do not regulate the exact same hazardous air pollutants, you should review both sets of rules to see whether they affect your business. 


  State Regulations

Chapter NR 445, the State Hazardous Air Pollutant Rule

NR 445 (Hazardous Air Pollutant Rule) revisions became final July 2004. As of July 1, 2004, new sources (including modified sources) were to be in compliance with the new rule upon startup of the new or modified processes. Existing sources had until July 1, 2007 to comply with the rule. Information on the  rule and how it might apply to a company can be found on the Air Toxics web page *.

Under the revised rule, there is an option to use a simple computer model to show a facility can meet the rule and avoid submitting a lot of paperwork to DNR. SCREEN3 is the name of the simple computer program that can be used as a tool to see if you may already be in compliance with the hazardous air pollutant rule. There are detailed instructions you will need to use this program, but the program itself is a very small and self-contained program that you install on your own hard drive. The modeling program can be found on EPA's website at www.epa.gov/ttn/scram/ *, and you'll want to download the SCREEN3 model at the bottom of the list, which is in a Windows based zip file.

For further information about this requirement, you may also contact:

Federal Regulations

The EPA is required under s. 112, Clean Air Act, to write rules called MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology) standards as part of their National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants program.  The MACT standards are generally applied to major sources.  

In the next couple years Area Source rules for National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants will also be developed.  These rules may use MACT standards or GACT (Generally Achieveable Control Technology) depending on factors related to the ability of the smaller sources to install controls or whether best management practices are used. 

  Status of MACT Rules

All MACT rules are final and many sources should be in compliance at this time.  Check EPA's Air Toxics website for detailed information about all the MACT rules issued by EPA.


  Status of Area Source Rules

EPA started issuing rules for area source categories in December 2006.  As of March 2008 there have been 20 area source rules issued and there are 30 rules remaining to be issued.  They will be issued in 3 bins that include 10 categories every six months through June 2009.  

Copies of proposed and final rules are found in the Rules/Notices Table on EPA's Area Source Rule Page.  If no links are included below for a rule, you may find implementation tools and example forms provided for these rules as they are developed on EPA's Area Source Rule Page in the Tables titled Implementation Tools and Initial Notification Examples.

All Notifications for these rules should be sent to both of the following addresses.  It's recommended you use certified mail or similar service to ensure the form was received.

1.    Wisconsin DNR at:

HAP Team Leader
WDNR Air Program  - AM/7
PO Box 7921
Madison, WI 53707-7921
2.    EPA Region 5 at:

George Czerniak, Branch Chief
US EPA -  Region 5
Air Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Branch - AE-17J
77 West Jackson Blvd
Chicago, IL  60604

The following categories have final rules in place (sorted by most recent effective date):

7/1/08
  • Plating and Polishing Operations (US EPA rule, more coming soon...)
1/10/08
1/9/08
1/2/08
12/28/07
  • Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking Facilities (US EPA rule
12/26/07
  • Clay Ceramics Manufacturing
  • Glass Manufacturing
  • Secondary Nonferrous Metals Processing
  • US EPA Rule for all 3 categories
7/16/07
  • Acrylic and Modacrylic Fibers Production
  • Carbon Black Production
  • Chemical Manufacturing: Chromium Compounds
  • Flexible Polyurethane Foam Production and Fabrication
  • Lead Acid Battery Manufacturing
  • Wood Preserving
  • US EPA Rule for all categories
1/23/07
  • Polyvinyl Chloride and Copolymers Production
  • Primary Copper Smelting
  • Secondary Copper Smelting
  • Primary Nonferrous Metals-- Zinc, Cadmium, and Beryllium
  • US EPA Rule for all categories

There are also tools and example forms available from other states at the Small Biz EnviroWeb - New Rule Page.  


Send an email to COMCleanAir@Wisconsin.gov with questions or comments about the SBCAAP web pages.