Construction Permits

You should determine whether you will need a construction permit before you begin to build any new source of air emissions, or to modify any existing source. It is a good idea to gather permit information while you are still in the design stage.

There are two types of construction permit, depending on where you are located. Facilities in areas where air quality is already poor are often given stricter restrictions than facilities located in cleaner areas. (You can get information on how your area is classified by consulting the list or the map of national air quality maintained by EPA. More detailed information can be found in the EPA Green Book.)

• If you are in an attainment (relatively good air quality) area, you will need a Pevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit if either
• your new facility has the potential to emit 250 tons per year of any regulated pollutant, OR
• your existing facility is being modified to emit more of any substance appearing on a certain list of pollutants than it is emitting now
• If you are in a nonattainment (relatively poor air quality) area, you will need a Nonattainment New Source Review permit if either
• your new facility has the potential to more than a specific amount (the major stationary source threshold) per year of any regulated pollutant, OR
• your existing facility is being modified to emit more of any substance appearing on a certain list of pollutants than it is emitting now

New facilities in non-attainment areas are held to a stricter standard than those in attainment areas. In brief, new sources in attainment areas are held to the Best Available Control Technology (BACT) standard, which is based on an analysis which can take economic factors into consideration. In contrast, new sources in non-attainment areas must satisfy the Lowest Achievable Emission Rate (LAER) criteria, which is based on the lowest technically feasible emission for a given type of source, regardless of cost.