Emergency power generators can be critical pieces of equipment for any facility, especially in the stormy seasons of spring or winter or in disasters such as floods and the hurricanes of summer and early fall. If you have one in your facility now, or are thinking about getting one, you need to be aware of the environmental regulations which are triggered by having one onsite.

EPA defines emergency generators as “…stationary combustion devices, such as reciprocating internal combustion engine or turbines that serve solely as a secondary source of mechanical or electrical power whenever the primary energy supply is disrupted or discontinued during power outages or natural disasters that are beyond the control or operator of a facility.” There are no time limits to using emergency generators during an emergency, but there are limits to the number of hours a generator can be used in non-emergency situations such as maintenance, testing, and other occasions such as offsetting electrical demand or to reduce electrical costs.

The bigger the generator, and the older the generator, the more likely environmental regulations will be triggered. The type of fuel used to power the generator also affects compliance. Generators can run on diesel fuel, gasoline, propane or natural gas.

The following environmental regulations may be triggered by your emergency generator:

Air Emissions

Emergency generators can have the potential to emit various air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, xylene, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and others.

Depending on your state or local environmental regulations and the type of generator you have, you may need to prepare and file for an air permit whether it be a general permit, an operating permit, or a construction permit.

There are specific rules which govern the various types of generator engines. 40 CFR 60, Subpart IIII is for stationary compression ignition generators, 40 CFR 60, Subpart JJJJ is for stationary spark generators, and 40 CFR 63, Subpart ZZZZ applies to reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE). Each regulation has strict operating guidance and compliance obligations.

Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasures (SPCC)

If the fuel which you store onsite is in a tank with aboveground storage above 1,320 gallons, you will need to prepare an SPCC plan. SPCC Plans identify discharge prevention potential, discharge prevention measures and tasks, training, and the procedures to be followed if a spill does occur.

Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA)

If your fuel storage is above certain amounts, you will be required to conduct EPCRA annual reporting, chemical inventorying, and notifications. (For more information about EPCRA read our EPCRA blog article.)

Tank Certifications and Registrations

Aboveground and underground fuel storage tanks may need to be registered, permitted, inspected, and certified per state and local regulations.

PCBs

A potential for the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can be found in any transformers, capacitors, electrical equipment, thermal insulation and motor/hydraulic oils. Cleanups, exposures and removals would need to be handled according to EPA’s PCB regulations.

Employee Exposure Issues

Though technically a safety issue, any backup generator which is brought into a facility could cause additional employee exposure issues. Before the use of generators, noise monitoring would need to be conducted to determine the potential noise exposures to employees in the area. Exhausts emitted from indoor generators may cause additional issues with employee exposure to chemicals, causing the need for engineering controls or additional employee personal protective equipment use.

Which Environmental Regulations Apply to Your Emergency Power Generator?

The regulations which apply to emergency power generators can vary greatly depending on style, type, model, your location, facility setup and other factors. What are your specific permitting requirements? Let iSi figure this out for you. Contact us for more information about environmental obligations, or ask us for a pricing quote to take a look at your situation.

​Environmental regulations are enforced by federal, state and local governments. How do you make sure you have your bases covered? An environmental audit can determine your current status and what your vulnerabilities are.

iSi’s environmental audits cover air, wastewater, stormwater, waste, spill prevention, tanks, DOT and emergency planning (EPCRA) requirements. They are a mock regulatory audit, looking at all aspects of your program through data gathering, walkthroughs and records reviews.

The following are our top 8 areas of compliance we see issues with when we do our audits.

Inaccurate Permits, Registrations & Notifications

What your facility does will determine which of these you need.  For example, have you notified the proper agencies regarding your spraying, blasting, emitting, generating, collecting, storing, disposing, dumping and discharging operations?

When do your permits expire?  Do your permits reflect the operations you’re conducting now?

Notifications may need to be made to EPA, your state authority, and in some cases, municipal authorities.  Many times there will need to be notifications made BEFORE you do these operations in addition to during and after.

Have you made determinations on what category of air emissions source you are or what classification of hazardous waste generator you are?  Who do your storage tanks need to be registered with?

Inaccurate/Incomplete Facility Plans

Specific written plans are required depending on what you do or have onsite. Which apply to you? Are they updated on the frequency required?  Some examples include:

• Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Plans
• Work Practice Implementation Plans (WPIP)
• Storm Water Pollutions Prevention Plans (SWP3)
• Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plans
• Facility Response Plans (FRP)
• Emergency Response Action Plans (ERAP)
• DOT Security Plans
• Hazardous Waste Contingency Plans

Missing/Incomplete Facility Inspections

Are you conducting the inspections which apply to you, on the frequency required?  What documentation is required?  Some typical issues we see missing inspections include:

• Air
• SWP3
• SPCC
• FRP
• DOT
• Hazardous Waste

Missing/Incomplete Facility Tracking

Are you tracking your air emissions correctly? What about waste generation? Tier II or Form R chemicals?  In many cases what you purchase and how much you use need to be tracked.  What do your permits require?  Are you past the usage allowed?  Have you changed a process which was not accounted for in the permit?

These are the areas many companies do not track their usage:

• Air Emissions
  • Volatile Organic Compounds
  • Hazardous Air Pollutants
  • Particulate Matter
• Waste Generation
• Tier II
• Form R

Inaccurate/Incomplete Reporting

We see a lot of issues with inaccurate and incomplete reporting.  This affects all areas of environmental issues. Reports can be required to monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually?  What does your state/city/county require vs. what’s required federally?

When you have a spill, who are you reporting that to?  There are federal and state regulations which require you to make phone calls to certain authorities based upon the quantity and location.  Besides 9-1-1 or your spill contractor, you may need to report a spill to local emergency planning, the National Response Center, your state authorities.  Do you have a plan for this?  Have you done this and is it documented?

Inaccurate/Undocumented Training

Have you conducted the training you are required to?  Are the right people trained?  In addition to environmental training, please keep in mind that some regulatory agencies cross over in their requirements.  Don’t assume that because you’ve had hazardous waste training, that will suffice for shipping hazardous materials, or if you’ve had OSHA HAZWOPER training that will work for hazardous waste.  There are differences between EPA, OSHA and Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations and the training required for each.

Annual training is required for hazardous waste and per many environmental plans.  Do you have a mechanism to track this?  Are you doing this and has your training been documented?

Do you have job descriptions on file for your people?

Incomplete/Inaccurate Records

Are you keeping required records? Where are they kept and for how long?  Documentation is critical and will save you from many hassles in an inspection.  Are you keeping records for onsite inspections, training, and notifications?  Are they easily accessible?

Poor Day-to-Day Facility Management

Is there a disconnect in the proper way to do something vs. how it’s actually being done?  Spot checks and walkthroughs are just as important for environmental issues as they are for safety.  Many times we see worksites where the same issues keep cropping up on a regular basis.  Are issues you’ve been cited for in the past still popping up at your facility?

For example, are your hazardous materials going into the proper containers?  Are the containers closed and sealed?  Are they properly labeled?  Have your hazardous waste containers been sitting onsite for past the allotted time frame?  What are you doing with your spent fluorescent bulbs?

Do you have proper containment around your tanks?  Are containments cracked or able to leak?

Where is your stormwater being directed?  Do you have vehicles or equipment which leak oils that could come into contact with rainwater where the oils could be transported offsite?

Some of the most common areas we see issues include:

• Air Emissions
• Stormwater
• SPCC
• Waste
• DOT

Where Do You Go From Here?

iSi can help you get a baseline on your environmental compliance responsibilities and help you prioritize the ones which are most critical to be taken care of.  Request a quote for an environmental audit today!  Need more information about these issues?  Contact us at (888) 264-7050 or email us!

If your company plans to purchase, manage, lease, or sell a piece of commercial property, the phrase “Phase I Environmental Site Assessment” is bound to come up, and if it doesn’t, it should, because it’s key to limiting your risk with the transaction.

What’s a Phase I ESA?

Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (Phase I ESAs) are studies that research the current and historical uses of a property. The intent of the study is to assess current or historical property uses impacting the property that could pose a threat to the environment and/or human health.  This research will help give insight if there’s a potential that you’ll be responsible for environmental issues found onsite.

Who Needs to Conduct a Phase I ESA?

• Property Owners
• Property Sellers
• Banks/Lenders
• Property Buyers

What Federal Regulations Impact a Phase I ESA?

EPA’s CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act), aka Superfund, gives the federal government the ability to respond to releases, or threated releases of hazardous substances.  It also gives them the ability to pursue polluters (responsible parties) or potential polluters (potentially responsible parties) for the cleanup of contaminated sites.  As a property buyer or seller, it’s up to you to do some due diligence and make an “all appropriate inquiry” into the environmental conditions of the site.

When you make that all appropriate inquiry, there are certain defenses allowed to protect yourself from CERCLA liability.

The Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser Defense allows a purchaser to first evaluate the property’s environmental conditions and assess potential liability for any contamination, then purchase the property with knowledge of hazardous substance contamination without incurring liability as an owner or operator.

The Innocent Landowner Defense is allowed if a purchaser “did not know and had no reason to know” that contamination existed on the property at the time the purchaser acquired the property, if a government entity acquires a property by escheat, involuntary acquisition, or eminent domain, or if a person acquired the facility by inheritance or bequest.

For the Contiguous Property Owner Defense, the property must be contiguous to a property that is or may be contaminated by hazardous substances from other property that is not owned by that person.

Another defense, the Brownfield Defense, can be used when a property is already assumed to have contamination, and it becomes a part of EPA’s Brownfields Program for economic redevelopment.

What’s Included in a Phase I ESA?

All appropriate inquiries must be conducted by an environmental professional and they include:

Site Visit

The professional will conduct a reconnaissance of the site to determine if there is a likely presence of hazardous substances or petroleum products, and if there is an indication a release or threatened release could have occurred.  The property’s exterior and interior structures are observed at this time.

Historical Research

Research of property records back to the property’s first development, or 1940, whichever is earlier is conducted.  This research includes inspecting historical aerial photographs, topographical maps, Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, street/city directory searches, building permits, planning records, title searches, and government records review.

Geology and Hydrogeology Studies – The environmental professional will look:

• Soil types to determine the composition, texture, hydrologic group, and its drainage class.
• Physical setting/topography of the property.
• Groundwater depth and flow direction studies identify hydrologically upgradient source areas and risk of vapor intrusion and vapor encroachment.

Vapor intrusion occurs when volatile chemicals migrate from contamination in the soil or groundwater up into a building’s interior space. Vapor intrusion can be caused by contamination on-site or off-site from a property. A contamination plume can originate from an off-site source and migrate onto the property and underneath buildings. Vapor encroachment is a broader concern when compared to vapor instruction. Vapor encroachment is focused on the potential for vapors to exist within a building.

Interviews and Other Documents

The environmental professional will interview tenants, the current owner(s), and previous tenants/owners, and state and local regulators.  Any additional provided documentation such as previous Phase I ESAs, spill reports, state or local contamination reports, etc. will be reviewed.

Other Reviews

While an environmental professional is already conducting this research, the entity requesting a Phase I ESA may also want them to look at other sources for potential environmental issues.  The following items can also be included in a Phase I ESA, but are not a part of the EPA CERCLA regulation for sources of liability.

• Asbestos-Containing Building Materials
• Biological Agents
• Cultural and Historic Resources
• Ecological Resources
• Health and Safety Issues
• Indoor Air Quality (unrelated to vapor intrusion)
• Industrial Hygiene
• Lead-Based Paint
• Lead in Drinking Water
• Mold
• Radon
• EPA/OSHA/DOT Hazardous Materials Regulatory Compliance Items
• Wetlands

Limitations of a Phase I ESA

Phase I ESAs are valid for 180 days.  Between 180 days and a year, the interviews, title search, government records research and visual inspection will need to be updated.  Any Phase I ESA over one year old is consider invalid and outdated and will need to be redone.

Phase I ESAs can reveal the likelihood of existing and/or past evidence of contamination, but they

• Cannot prove that hazards are present;
• Cannot ensure hazards or pollutants will not be discovered at a later date; and,
• Cannot ensure landowners can avoid all responsibility.

Phase II Environmental Assessments (Phase II ESAs) involve further environmental sampling, including sampling of soil, water, groundwater and/or soil vapor to help better determine if contaminants are present.  If a recognized environmental condition is found from the Phase I ESA study, a recommendation for Phase II ESAs will often be suggested.

If you have questions about Phase I ESAs, or would like pricing to conduct one for your next property transaction, please contact us!