Project Details
- Air Quality & Noise
Client
CanAm Minerals, Inc.
Date
2018-2020
Location
Tacoma, WA
Team Members
Mark Brunner
Tacoma Taylor Way Facility Air Permitting
CanAm Minerals, Inc. (CanAm) operates a manufacturing facility that produces grit materials for roof application, abrasive blasting media, and as an additive for asphalt seal coating. Landau assisted CanAm with the environmental permitting needed to relocate its manufacturing operation to a new location on Taylor Way in Tacoma, WA. Air pollutant emissions generated at this facility are regulated by Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA). To gain approval for the relocation from PSCAA, it was necessary to demonstrate that the facility would comply with all local, state, and federal air quality standards. Monitoring, testing, and compliance requirements in PSCAA’s jurisdiction are often considered more stringent than they are in other areas of the US. The consultant must work closely with the facility operations team and regulators throughout the permitting process to ensure that monitoring and compliance requirements are feasible and not overly burdensome.
A regulatory limit of 0% opacity is not the same as a requirement for no visible emissions. It is important to negotiate with regulatory agencies to obtain requirements for which compliance can be realistically demonstrated.
The Challenge
Air permitting in this jurisdiction requires a good understanding of industrial processes, regulations, and what constitutes reasonable monitoring, testing, and reporting requirements once a facility is operational. Landau applied our deep understanding, paired with effective agency negotiations, to ensure the facility was left with requirements that were feasible for compliance.
Our Approach
Landau leveraged its good working relationships with regulators, and the wide-ranging expertise of its Washington-based air quality services team, to provide strategic permitting and compliance support to CanAm. Collaboration with CanAm’s operations team along with Landau’s understanding of the regulator’s expectations for similar facilities, allowed for the development and implementation of compliance requirements that the company can comply with under a reasonable budget.
The Solution
Landau worked with regulators to successfully implement the negotiated requirements in the air permit and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) manual in lieu of more rigorous permit requirements that would likely have posed compliance challenges.
Landau worked with CanAm’s operations team to develop an O&M manual that assigned compliance activities to specific individuals and provided compliance tracking forms to make compliance tracking easier.
Landau also followed up with CanAm’s design and operations team to ensure that equipment specifications initially planned for during the design phase were no different than those ultimately installed based on product availability. Landau assisted CanAm with a follow-up application to PSCAA to ensure alignment between permitted specifications and as-builts.
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