Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC
FNREL Mineral and Energy Law Newsletter
Pennsylvania – Mining
(Joseph K. Reinhart, Sean M. McGovern, Gina F. Buchman and Christina M. Puhnaty)
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) has issued a revised version of the General Plan Approval and/or General Operating Permit BAQ-GPA/GP-21, Coal-Mine Methane Enclosed Flare (Revised GP-21). As reported in Vol. 41, No. 2 (2024) of this Newsletter, on March 16, 2024, PADEP announced an opportunity to submit public comments on the proposed revised permit. See 54 Pa. Bull. 1429 (Mar. 16, 2024). Industry groups appealed the previous version of the permit issued on September 23, 2023, and PADEP decided to revise the permit because it “was presented additional source and site-specific information . . . and upon review, decided certain changes were warranted to address the new information and intended use of GP-21.” Technical Support Document for the Revised GP-21, at 2.
PADEP published the final version of the revised GP-21 permit on June 15, 2024. See 54 Pa. Bull. 3493 (June 15, 2024). The Revised GP-21 incorporates the proposed changes, including an increase in the best available technology (BAT) compliance requirement to limit NOx emissions to less than or equal to 0.15 lb/MMBtu, allowing operators to install and operate methane gas monitors to continuously measure and record the coal-mine gas methane concentration, and removed the requirement to conduct quarterly gas analysis at the inlet gas stream to the enclosed flare if a methane gas monitor is used. PADEP also published a comment and response document that summarizes the comments received on the draft published in March.
The GP-21 permit, permit application, application instructions, technical support documents, and comment and response documents are available here.
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