The proposed changes impacts Air District Rules
600 and 601. Rule 600 which relates to the Filing Fee states that, “Every applicant for an Authority
to Construct or Permit to Operate shall pay a filing fee of $202.80 per permit
unit. If an application is canceled, or
is denied, as such denial becomes final; the filing fee required herein shall
not be refunded nor applied to any subsequent application.” The filing
fee was formerly 156. Rule
601 applies to the Permit Fee for the equipment and states that every permit
holder must pay an annual fee for issuance of each permit fee for a price also
of $202.80. In addition to the annual filing fee the permit holder must furthermore
pay a fee based on the annual emissions from their facility. The rule now states,
that “each ton of emissions or part thereof for described air contaminants
shall be assessed.” The Fees per ton are as follows: For Total organic gases, except those compounds
containing sulfur, Gaseous sulfur compounds, expressed as sulfur dioxide,
Particulate matter, Oxides of nitrogen, expressed as nitrogen dioxide are all
proposed to be $30.42 a ton; Carbon monoxide $8.45; Toxic air contaminants $42.25;
and finally excess emissions during variance period are proposed to be $42.25
at ton as well. Prior to the proposed fees the Air District charged
$23.40 per ton for emissions with the exception of Carbon Monoxide for which
they charged $6.50. There
are also supplemental fees imposed on vapor recovery nozzles at $47.32 per
nozzle. Harris states, “The
reason that we are increasing the fee is for the operation budget of the
district to perform the work that is mandated for us to perform and we need to
be able to pay for our staff.” Harris added, “At some point in the future,
we have to hire more staff and hopefully this will be a step in that
direction.” Harris went on to explain that with the approved and impending development
there are a lot of concerns that the Air District must address. “We need to an engineer to be
able to address some of those concerns for development, for growth and to
mitigate any potential emissions that will result from that growth.” He concluded by saying that even with the fee
rate, “Our fees are very
inexpensive compared to other air district throughout the state.” The
Air District meeting will be held Tuesday June 26th at 1:30pm at the
Administration Center at 810 Court Street.
