For compliance managers and other environmental professionals, the start of the year welcomes speedy preparation to meet reporting deadlines. The Air Emissions Inventory (AEI) is just one of those reports, detailing the actual air emissions from the previous calendar year for criteria pollutants and hazardous air pollutants.
The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires all states to compile an inventory of air emissions each year. This responsibility is carried out by the state or local air permitting authority. State or local jurisdictions may also have their own regulations that require tracking and reporting air emissions.
When is the deadline?
Each state has its own reporting deadline, sometimes occurring from February to July, but generally falling in March or early April. Depending on the state and size of your facility, you may be able to report less frequently than annually. In either case, compiling and reviewing the data and other records to complete the emissions inventory can require a lot of time. If you are required to report, we encourage you to begin preparation as soon as possible to meet your applicable regulatory submittal deadline.
If your facility is in Minnesota, you can follow this link for more information specific to your operations. For those in Texas, click here for tools and helpful information for completing your AEI. The emissions inventory deadline is April 1st for Minnesota and March 31st for Texas.
Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program Requirements
In addition to emission inventory requirements of the CAA, some facilities may also be subject to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), contained in 40 CFR Part 98. The GHGRP requires reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) data and other information from large GHG emission sources. Facilities are generally required to submit annual GHG emission inventories if emissions from covered sources exceed 25,000 metric tons of CO2e per year and the deadline for reporting emissions from the prior calendar year is March 31st of each year.
Reminders for Accurate Reporting
Please keep in mind the following recommendations as you work on your emission inventories:
• Include any new equipment that came online during the reporting year.
• If your facility uses stack test data, use the latest emission data available for your equipment.
• Double check emission factors to make sure that they are still accurate.
• Avoid unit conversion errors. This is a common pitfall in developing emission inventories.
• Perform a third-party audit review of applicable permit and regulatory requirements to avoid possible compliance issues.
• Compare calculated emissions to current permit authorizations. This will help identify possible errors or compliance items that need to be addressed.
Contact Us
Braun Intertec has experienced environmental staff that can assist your facility with environmental compliance and permitting. For questions on emission inventories or assistance completing forms and calculations, contact us using the form to the right.