Used Oil Management in Wisconsin

Background

Starting January 1, 2011, oil absorbents and used oil filters are banned from landfills.

Authority

2009 Wisconsin Act 86 was signed by Governor Doyle on December 1, 2009, and it took effect January 1, 2011. 

The Act is codified in s. 287.07(4m) Wis. Stats. The penalty for violating the law is in s. 287.95(1) Wis. Stats.

Proposed Standards

Act 86 prohibits the disposal of a used oil filter in a solid waste disposal facility and the disposal of oil-absorbent materials that contain waste oil in a solid waste disposal facility. The prohibition on the disposal of oil-absorbent materials that contain waste oil does not apply to the disposal of less than one gallon of oil-absorbent materials that contain waste oil resulting from a non-routine spill.

Act 86 provides that any person who violates either of these prohibitions may be required to forfeit $50 for a first violation, $200 for a second violation, and no more than $2,000 for a third or subsequent violation.

The DNR has provided guidance on the definition of “gallon” and “non-routine spill.”

The DNR also provided guidance on the use and disposal of oil-absorbing material during and after its useful life, and clarified the meaning of “oil-absorbent material,” a term defined by statute.

Related Documents

DNR Publication on Used Oil and Absorbents, 2010

DNR Publican on Used Oil Management, 2010

DNR webpage on Used Oil Filters and Absorbents

DNR webpage on Motor Oil, Oil Filters and Other Automotive Products

Materials banned from Wisconsin landfills

PowerPoint Presentation on the Act

Fact Sheet

EPA webpage on Used Oil Management

EPA webpage - Managing Used Oil: Advice for Small Businesses

Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)

Most Recent Action

The EPA is extending the deadline for area designations for the 2010 primary SO2 standard until June 3, 2013 due to insufficient information.

Background

The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires the EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for "criteria pollutants." Currently, sulfur oxides, lead, ozone, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter are listed as criteria pollutants. The law also requires the EPA to periodically review the standards to ensure that they adequately protect public health and welfare. Primary standards address public health concerns while secondary standards impact the public welfare.

The primary standard is a 1-hour SO2 standard set at 75 parts per billion (ppb). The EPA revoked the old 140 ppb evaluated over 24-hours, and 30 ppb evaluated over an entire year standards because, according to the EPA, those standards do “not provide additional health benefits.”

The secondary SO2 standards are being reviewed jointly with the secondary NO2 standards. The EPA estimates new standards will be adopted by 2012. This is the first time EPA has reviewed the environmental impacts separately from the health impacts of these pollutants.

Wisconsin, like all other states, must create, and submit to EPA for approval, a state implementation plan (SIP) that addresses each NAAQS. The state must also help the EPA designate attainment and nonattainment areas.

This rule is part of a group of rules known as the EPA's Regulatory Train Wreck.

Authority

Two sections of the Clean Air Act govern the establishment and revision of the NAAQS.

Section 108 (42 U.S.C. 7408) directs the Administrator to identify and list each air pollutant that ‘‘in his [or her] judgment, cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and welfare’’ and whose ‘‘presence…in the ambient air results from numerous or diverse mobile or stationary sources’’ and to issue air quality criteria for those that are listed.

\Section 109 (42 U.S.C. 7409) directs the Administrator to propose and promulgate ‘‘primary’’ NAAQS for pollutants listed under section 108. Section 109(b)(1) defines a primary standard as one ‘‘the attainment and maintenance of which in the judgment of the Administrator, based on [air quality] criteria and allowing an adequate margin of safety, are requisite to protect the public health.’’ 

Standards

Primary Standard:

The primary standard is a 1-hour SO2 standard set at 75 parts per billion (ppb). The EPA revoked the old 140 ppb evaluated over 24-hours, and 30 ppb evaluated over an entire year standards because, according to the EPA, those standards do “not provide additional health benefits.”

The EPA also changed the monitoring requirements for SO2. The EPA set specific minimum requirements for where states must place the 163 SO2 monitoring sites nationwide. The monitoring regulations require monitors to be placed in Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) based on a population weighted emissions index for the area. The final rule requires: 3 monitors in CBSAs with index values of 1,000,000 or more; 2 monitors in CBSAs with index values less than 1,000,000 but greater than 100,000; and 1 monitor in CBSAs with index values greater than 5,000. Wisconsin has three CBSAs which each require one monitor. Any new monitors required by the revised rule must begin operating no later than January 1, 2013.

The EPA expects to use refined dispersion modeling as well as monitoring to determine compliance with the new standard. Dispersion modeling simulates how air pollutants spread throughout the atmosphere and is used to estimate the concentration of air pollutants from sources such as industrial plants or highways.

State and local agencies are required to report to the EPA two data values for every hour of monitoring conducted: the 1-hour average SO2 concentration; and the maximum 5-minute block average SO2 concentration for each hour.

The EPA expects to identify or designate areas not meeting the new standard by June 2012 based on data from existing monitors and modeling. The EPA’s planned designation approach is:

• Any area that has monitoring data (or refined modeling results) showing a violation would be designated “nonattainment.”
• Any area that has monitoring and refined modeling results showing no violations would be designated “attainment.”
• All other areas would initially be designated “unclassifiable.”

States with monitored or modeled air quality violations are required to submit “nonattainment” state implementation plans (SIPs) by February 2014 that demonstrate that the area will attain the standard by August 2017.

For all other areas, maintenance SIPs required by the CAA are due in June 2013. These plans must demonstrate, through refined air quality modeling, that all sources contributing to monitored and modeled violations of the new standard, or that have the potential to cause or contribute to a violation, will be sufficiently controlled to ensure timely attainment and maintenance of the new SO2 standard; and include enforceable emissions limitations, timetables for compliance, and appropriate testing and reporting to assure compliance.

The final rule also changes the Air Quality Index to reflect the revised SO2 standard.

The Wisconsin DNR is developing a program and plan to address expected SO2 modeled nonattainment areas.

Secondary Standard:

Secondary NAAQS are required to mitigate the environmental, social, and economic impacts of air pollution.

On March 20, 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took final action to retain the current secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and oxides of sulfur (SOx). This was a change from the proposed rule.

The existing secondary standards are:

• For NO2: 0.053 ppm (parts per million) averaged over a year; and
• For SO2: 0.5 ppm averaged over three hours, not to be exceeded more than once per year

Designations

The EPA is extending the deadline for area designations for the 2010 primary SO2 standard until June 3, 2013 due to insufficient information.

By taking the additional time, the EPA is now required under CAA section 107 to promulgate designations by June 3, 2013. The EPA expects to take additional time, as necessary, to appropriately assess designations. For some areas, EPA anticipates it will not be necessary to take the full additional year, and in those cases EPA will proceed sooner than June 2013. For example, the EPA intends to make its best effort to promulgate final designations for areas with monitored violations of the SO2 NAAQS by the end of calendar year 2012, subject to being able to resolve issues related to nonattainment boundary determinations and contributions from nearby areas, rather than take until June 2013 for those areas.

Additional Information

Primary Standard:

• Guidance on Implementing the Final Rule (PDF)
• Final Rule (PDF)
• Fact Sheet (PDF)
• Power Point Presentation on the new rule (PDF)
• Regulatory Impact Analysis
• Counties with Monitors Currently Violating Revised Primary Sulfur Dioxide Standard Map (PDF) Table (PDF)
• Counties with Monitors Projected to Violate Revised Primary Sulfur Dioxide Standard in 2020 Map (PDF) Table (PDF)
• Monitoring Requirements for New 1-hour Sulfur Dioxide Primary Standard Map (PDF) Table (PDF)
• The EPA’s Sulfur Dioxide Regulatory Actions webpage  

Secondary Standard:

• Final Rule, April 3, 2012
• Fact Sheet, April 2012
• Proposed Rule, July 12, 2011
• Fact Sheet, July 2011
• Overview in Power Point, July 2011
• Policy Assessment for the Review of the Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Oxides of Nitrogen and Sulfur, January 14, 2011
• Draft Scope and Methods Plan for Risk/Exposure Assessment: Secondary NAAQS Review for Oxides of Nitrogen and Oxides of Sulfur, March 2008
• Integrated Review Plan for the Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Nitrogen Dioxide and Sulfur Dioxide, December 2007

 Designations: 

• The DNR's SO2 Implementation Webpage
• Extending the deadline until June 3, 2013
• Fact Sheet, July 2012
• DNR’s Draft Technical Support Document
• DNR's Comments on EPA’s Draft White Paper, June 29, 2012
• LADCO Comments on EPA’s Draft White Paper, June 29, 2012
• LADCO Final Report, Jan. 24, 2012
• LADCO Comments on SO2 Guidance, Dec. 1, 2011
• EPA SO2 Draft Guidance, Sept. 22, 2011
• EPA SO2 Implementation Fact Sheet, Sept. 21, 2011
• LADCO Transmittal Letter, July 25, 2011
• LADCO SO2 modeling protocol, July 25, 2011
• Governor Walker's Final Designation Recommendation Letter, May 26, 2011
• EPA letter on SO2 NAAQS implementation, April 12, 2012
• EPA SO2 Designation Guidance, March 24, 2011
• Comments from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Wisconsin Power & Light, Sierra Club John Muir Chapter, Wausau Paper Co. and Wisconsin Paper Council

The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board yesterday adopted a proposed rule that imposes phosphorus limits for Wisconsin rivers, streams and lakes. The rule provides a two-pronged approach, by setting water quality standards and placing new limits on municipal wastewater treatment plants and factories that have their own treatment systems.

Regulatory Calendar

Administrative agencies continuously promulgate new rules and often do so quickly. Tracking the various proposed rules can be time-intensive and complicated. The Foundation's regulatory tracking calendar includes the dates of important steps in the rulemaking process for various rules we are following at the state and federal level.

If you would like to suggest an event, receive additional information about an event, or report an error, please email GLLF staff attorney Emily Kelchen.

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