New York’s failure to review permits for the state’s worst air polluters in a timely manner has meant some businesses have gone years without conducting tests to determine how much pollution they are spewing into the air, according to documents obtained by The Buffalo News.
It’s a lapse in oversight by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation that has left communities − including the Town of Tonawanda and Buffalo − burdened with unchecked levels of toxins in the air.
“DEC often says there’s nothing illegal about them doing this, and that may be the case, but it doesn’t mean that it’s protective of public health and the environment,” said Judith Enck, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator and president of Beyond Plastics.
Locally, the DuPont Yerkes Plant in the Town of Tonawanda has not conducted stack testing in eight years, according to the DEC and documents obtained by The News. Dupont’s Title V permit expired four years ago.
Because many major air polluters in New York operate on Title V permits that have surpassed their expiration dates, emissions testing that was required “once during the term of the permit” may have not happened since the permits expired, the DEC told The News.
Title V permits are administered by the DEC and issued for a period of five years in accordance with the federal Clean Air Act.
When the DEC includes language in a business’ Title V permit requiring emissions testing, the testing frequency is set at a minimum of once per permit term, the agency told The News. But a facility’s permit term may extend years beyond the five years it was originally issued for when the DEC fails to renew permits in a timely manner and allows companies extensions on their Title V permits.
Emissions, or stack, testing is essentially a checkup for a facility that pollutes toxins into the air: A company hires someone to look at its equipment and ensure…
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