Future Regulations

Under the Clean Air Act, EPA must promulgate standards to control the emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) for plating and polishing operations. As part of its effort to develop the new rule, EPA last year sent out an information request questionnaire to hundreds of metal finishing facilities and collected information about air emissions and finishing operations to identify generally available control technology (GACT) that may be needed to control emissions for the plating and polishing source category. The surface finishing industry (www.nasf.org) has been working closely with EPA to clarify the information collected in the surveys and provide additional information on finishing processes and operations.

Based on the Agency’s statutory authority and a series of technical and policy discussions with industry, EPA is focused primarily on emissions of:

• cadmium,
• chromium,
• cyanide,
• lead,
• manganese, and
• nickel.

EPA is also considering possible control options that could include wetting agents to lower surface tension, management and housekeeping practices, covers for inactive tanks, filters for polishing and thermal spray operations, as well as possible ventilation, mist eliminators and scrubbers.

EPA is expected to propose the new air emissions rule in October 2007 and issue the final rule by June 2008.