Regulation of polluting gases eyed

Paint, furniture polish, even hairspray can harm Maine’s air quality, and new rules to regulate the polluting gases in these and dozens of other household products could soon be approved in Maine.

The proposed rules regulate the amount of volatile organic compounds – gases that easily evaporate and can contribute to smog – that will be permitted in a long list of products including paints, waxes, deodorants, pesticides and cleaners.

But if the state Board of Environmental Protection approves the rules later this summer, consumers may not even notice the difference, Jeff Crawford of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Air Quality Bureau said Thursday.

“Products aren’t going to start coming off the shelves,” he said. “[They] aren’t going to look any different, aren’t going to smell any different,” he said.

Massachusetts and New York have similar rules in place, so most companies already distribute products low in volatile organic compounds throughout New England, Crawford explained.

But Maine still needs to implement the proposed rules and several others to improve air quality in order to meet a consent decree that the state signed in response to a recent lawsuit.

Environmental groups, led by Earthjustice and the Sierra Club, had sued the federal government over its decision to implement new, more lax air quality standards and its plan to simultaneously abandon the old standards and any pending enforcement actions related to them.

At the time of the suit, the Portland area was one of several regions that had failed to meet the old standard for ozone pollution.

A federal judge decided in favor of the environmental groups, and required that federal officials continue their enforcement of the old standards.

But the environmentalists agreed that Maine, where much of the air pollution responsible for the excess pollution comes from out of state, was a special case.

“There was some recognition that most of our problem is not of our own doing,” Crawford said.

Rather than push for the federal remedy, which would have resulted in a higher pollution rating for the Portland area and accompanying penalties, the groups signed the consent decree with the DEP, agreeing that a few new pollution-control rules would satisfy it.

The other regions named in the lawsuit – Pittsburgh, Louisville, and the Idaho communities of Fort Hall and Portneuf Valley – were not offered an opportunity for a consent decree, but Maine’s negotiation went relatively smoothly, Crawford said.

The parties essentially agreed that Maine should not have to suffer the stigma of a higher pollution designation just because of unfortunate geography, he said.

“EPA pretty much said, ‘If the enviros are happy and you’re happy, then we’re happy,'” Crawford said.

Several of the rules prescribed by the decree, such as those involving Maine’s low-emission vehicles program, were already in place, lacking only their official addition to the state’s air quality plan so that they would be federally enforceable.

Others, including a requirement that gasoline containers be spillproof and strong rules to increase the efficiency of paint sprayers in auto body shops, have been approved by the Board of Environmental Protection in recent months.

The rule concerning volatile organic compounds, another that requires improved pollution controls on diesel generators of 50 kilowatt capacity or higher, and a stricter regulation on the handling of chemicals used as solvents are being considered by the BEP.

While the board has the authority to turn down any of the proposed rules, failure to implement those called for under the consent decree by mid-2005 will result in the Portland area being “bumped up” the EPA scale from moderate pollution to serious pollution.

And if the area is declared in serious nonattainment, these same rules will then be required by Washington anyway, Crawford said.

“We’ve told [the BEP], ‘You’re certainly not required to adopt any of these, but if you don’t there are ramifications,'” he said.

A public hearing for the solvent rule is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, May 20. Both the volatile-organic-compounds rule and the diesel generator rule will have hearings on June 17. All hearings will be held at the Holiday Inn in Augusta. Written comments also may be sent to the Department of Environmental Protection at 17 State House Station, Augusta 04333-0017. The deadlines for comments are as follows: solvent rule by June 1, diesel generators by June 29 and volatile organic compounds by July 1.