Title 40

SECTION 70.9

70.9 Fee determination and certification.

§ 70.9 Fee determination and certification.

(a) Fee requirement. The State program shall require that the owners or operators of part 70 sources pay annual fees, or the equivalent over some other period, that are sufficient to cover the permit program costs and shall ensure that any fee required by this section will be used solely for permit program costs.

(b) Fee schedule adequacy. (1) The State program shall establish a fee schedule that results in the collection and retention of revenues sufficient to cover the permit program costs. These costs include, but are not limited to, the costs of the following activities as they relate to the operating permit program for stationary sources:

(i) Preparing generally applicable regulations or guidance regarding the permit program or its implementation or enforcement;

(ii) Reviewing and acting on any application for a permit, permit revision, or permit renewal, including the development of an applicable requirement as part of the processing of a permit, or permit revision or renewal;

(iii) General administrative costs of running the permit program, including the supporting and tracking of permit applications, compliance certification, and related data entry;

(iv) Implementing and enforcing the terms of any part 70 permit (not including any court costs or other costs associated with an enforcement action), including adequate resources to determine which sources are subject to the program;

(v) Emissions and ambient monitoring;

(vi) Modeling, analyses, or demonstrations;

(vii) Preparing inventories and tracking emissions; and

(viii) Providing direct and indirect support to sources under the Small Business Stationary Source Technical and Environmental Compliance Assistance Program contained in section 507 of the Act in determining and meeting their obligations under this part.

(2)(i) The Administrator will presume that the fee schedule meets the requirements of paragraph (b)(1) of this section if it would result in the collection and retention of an amount not less than $25 per year [as adjusted pursuant to the criteria set forth in paragraph (b)(2)(iv) of this section] times the total tons of the actual emissions of each regulated pollutant (for presumptive fee calculation) emitted from part 70 sources and any GHG cost adjustment required under paragraph (b)(2)(v) of this section.

(ii) The State may exclude from such calculation:

(A) The actual emissions of sources for which no fee is required under paragraph (b)(4) of this section;

(B) The amount of a part 70 source's actual emissions of each regulated pollutant (for presumptive fee calculation) that the source emits in excess of four thousand (4,000) tpy;

(C) A part 70 source's actual emissions of any regulated pollutant (for presumptive fee calculation), the emissions of which are already included in the minimum fees calculation; or

(D) The insignificant quantities of actual emissions not required in a permit application pursuant to § 70.5(c).

(iii) “Actual emissions” means the actual rate of emissions in tons per year of any regulated pollutant (for presumptive fee calculation) emitted from a part 70 source over the preceding calendar year or any other period determined by the permitting authority to be representative of normal source operation and consistent with the fee schedule approved pursuant to this section. Actual emissions shall be calculated using the unit's actual operating hours, production rates, and in-place control equipment, types of materials processed, stored, or combusted during the preceding calendar year or such other time period established by the permitting authority pursuant to the preceding sentence.

(iv) The program shall provide that the $25 per ton per year used to calculate the presumptive minimum amount to be collected by the fee schedule, as described in paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section, shall be increased each year by the percentage, if any, by which the Consumer Price Index for the most recent calendar year ending before the beginning of such year exceeds the Consumer Price Index for the calendar year 1989.

(A) The Consumer Price Index for any calendar year is the average of the Consumer Price Index for all-urban consumers published by the Department of Labor, as of the close of the 12-month period ending on August 31 of each calendar year.

(B) The revision of the Consumer Price Index which is most consistent with the Consumer Price Index for the calendar year 1989 shall be used.

(v) GHG cost adjustment. The amount calculated in paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section shall be increased by the GHG cost adjustment determined as follows: For each activity identified in the following table, multiply the number of activities performed by the permitting authority by the burden hours per activity, and then calculate a total number of burden hours for all activities. Next, multiply the burden hours by the average cost of staff time, including wages, employee benefits and overhead.

(3) The State program's fee schedule may include emissions fees, application fees, service-based fees or other types of fees, or any combination thereof, to meet the requirements of paragraph (b)(1) or (b)(2) of this section. Nothing in the provisions of this section shall require a permitting authority to calculate fees on any particular basis or in the same manner for all part 70 sources, all classes or categories of part 70 sources, or all regulated air pollutants, provided that the permitting authority collects a total amount of fees sufficient to meet the program support requirements of paragraph (b)(1) of this section.

(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, during the years 1995 through 1999 inclusive, no fee for purposes of title V shall be required to be paid with respect to emissions from any affected unit under section 404 of the Act.

(5) The State shall provide a detailed accounting that its fee schedule meets the requirements of paragraph (b)(1) of this section if:

(i) The State sets a fee schedule that would result in the collection and retention of an amount less than that presumed to be adequate under paragraph (b)(2) of this section; or

(ii) The Administrator determines, based on comments rebutting the presumption in paragraph (b)(2) of this section or on his own initiative, that there are serious questions regarding whether the fee schedule is sufficient to cover the permit program costs.

(c) Fee demonstration. The permitting authority shall provide a demonstration that the fee schedule selected will result in the collection and retention of fees in an amount sufficient to meet the requirements of this section.

(d) Use of Required Fee Revenue. The Administrator will not approve a demonstration as meeting the requirements of this section, unless it contains an initial accounting (and periodic updates as required by the Administrator) of how required fee revenues are used solely to cover the costs of meeting the various functions of the permitting program.

[57 FR 32295, July 21, 1992, as amended at 80 FR 64659, Oct. 23, 2015]

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