New air quality fee rules approved

A state panel on Thursday gave initial approval to new rules establishing fees for air quality applications and notification.

The fees, if given final approval by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' Environmental Protection Commission at its December meeting, would take effect Jan. 1.

The authority to collect the proposed fees was approved by the Legislature in May in response to a long-term decline in air pollution emission fees.

Since the 1990s, approximately 75 percent of the funding for Iowa's air quality program has come from the largest facilities in the state that are considered major sources of air pollution. The Title V emission fee was assessed per ton on actual emissions of specific regulated air pollutants.

Jim McGraw, environmental program supervisor with the IDNR's air quality bureau, said revenues from Title V emission fees have declined 22 percent over the past five years due to companies adopting more effective pollution controls.

'Over the next five years, the level of fee support is projected to decline even further, resulting in a 62 percent loss of capacity by the department to provide the same level of construction and operating permitting services,” McGraw told the nine-member commission.

He said the proposed fees were developed with input from those potentially affected at meetings in June and July. Large and small Iowa industries, local governments and environmental interests were represented at the meetings.

The proposed rules and fees would apply to industries when they add new equipment or modify existing equipment that emits regulated air pollutants, and to industries required to obtain a Title V operating permit.

McGraw said the asbestos notification fee is needed to maintain sufficient staffing to provide oversight of asbestos removal and disposal. The asbestos notification program has seen higher use in recent years as community revitalization efforts involved more building demolitions and renovations.

Three public input hearings will be held in Bettendorf, Council Bluffs and Des Moines before the December Environmental Protection Commission meeting.