Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering, Volume I and II

992

PLANNING FOR NEW PROCESSES: ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS

INTRODUCTION

Planning for a major new facility must address the envi-

ronmental impact of both the construction and operational

phases of the project. It is essential to optimize alternatives,

while evaluating performance relative to regulated emis-

sions and ambient standards and to develop a cost effective

permitting strategy.

For large scale projects, Quig (1980) recommends a

highly integrated project approach for environmental com-

pliance early in the planning stage based upon historical

siting, licensing, engineering and construction experience

with similar sized plants.

Strong emphasis on early process work is necessary to

understand environmental impacts. This and other front-end

engineering and planning should be executed in very close

coordination with the staff charged with documenting the

licensing effort. Extensive use of specialists is generally

required.

The major federal acts to be addressed are:

1) National Environmental Policy Act, (NEPA), 1969.

2) Clear Air Act Amendments, revised 1990.

3) Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments,

1972 (FWPCA).

4) Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA),

1976.

5) National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.

6) Historical and Archaeological Preservation Act of

1974.

7) Endangered Species Act, 1973.

These federal and selected state environmental acts

essentially address the following: Land Use Aspects (fuel

storage, exclusion or buffer zones, waste disposal, zoning,

and demography); Water Resources (availability and com-

petitive uses, wastewater complexities and water quality,

hazardous wastes, and waste heat); Air Quality/Meteorology

(attainment/nonattainment areas, in terms of offset policy

and lowest achievable emission rate; newsource perfor-

mance standard for particulates; NO x and SO 2 ; prevention

of significant deterioration in Class I, II, III; stack height

credit; hazardous wastes; minor meteorologic changes);

and Regulatory (multiple lead agency involvement, licens-

ing strategy, feasibility of concept, permit requirements, and

federal/state implementation).

The environmental, health safety, and socio-economic

impacts discussed above highlight the areas of concern

which must be considered in the site characterization studies

and subsequent reporting of the project compatibility with

the proposed location. Baseline conditions must be identi-

fied in the areas of potential impact. The characterization of

the environment, the definition of the process operations and

the identification of the potential impacts are the elements

required for input to a comprehensive program of facility

design for impact mitigation. As such, the development of

an environmental statement of the project serves as feedback

to the design effort with the result being a facility licensable

from the environmental viewpoint.

To illustrate the procedure we shall present a typical

example, namely planning a new coal gasification plant.

Technical details of gasification are discussed elsewhere in

this Encyclopedia under Coal Gasification Processes. The

example will focus on regulatory requirements and siting

considerations.

REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

The first step in any program of this nature is to define the

regulatory requirements associated with the construction and

operation of the proposed facility. This will define specific

limitations and establish generally the study requirements

for the program as they relate to the environmental, safety,

health, and socioeconomic aspects of the development.

AIR QUALITY RELATED REGULATORY

REQUIREMENTS

Federal Requirements

At the Federal level, this project will be required to comply

with the following air quality regulations and requirements.

Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality

Standards (NAAQS) A demonstration showing compliance

with NAAQS must be made to EPA for approval to com-

mence construction. This would involve modeling the

anticipated plant emissions and imposing the resultant con-

centration increases on representative ambient air quality

conditions and comparing these with NAAQS. Information

necessary for this demonstration would include the facility

emissions as discussed earlier and the ambient air quality

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