There can come a time when a non-Title V air permit may be deemed by a facility to have exceeded its usefulness. When this occurs, it may not be necessary to officially retire the permit. However, there are benefits to officially cancelling a permit in the eyes of the DEP.
For one thing, the facility would save on the costs of keeping the permit operational. This can prove to be a large savings depending upon the size of the permit, especially after the DEP raised the permit fees. Termination would also achieve the lowering of the facility’s Potential-to-Emit (PTE) which might be helpful in avoiding Emission Statement reporting thresholds or Title V determination thresholds. Finally, if the process outlined in the permit is correctly identified as eliminated, then the removal of the permit would most accurately reflect the state of operations at a site. Having a completely accurate and up-to-date record of operations is something that all inspectors look for. While it is not required that a permit be retired if the process is shut down, it is certainly more reassuring to an inspector to see that there are no unduly permitted processes.
There are two steps required to complete the termination of an air permit. First the facility must correctly and satisfactorily conclude that the process outlined in the permit has been “rendered inoperable”. This can be done in a few ways including, removal of equipment from the site, or severing key sources or pieces of equipment from the process that would shut down its ability to operate.
Once this has been completed and confirmed the facility must notify its regional compliance office and request that the permit be terminated. NOTE: letting a permit expire and not paying renewal fees does NOT terminate a permit. All this will do is annoy the DEP Air Permitting Department and leave the facility with outstanding bills owed to the DEP.
To correctly terminate a permit, the facility facility fill out the Air Permit Termination Form for Non-Title V Permits and submit it to the facility's regional compliance office, notifying them that the process has been rendered inoperable. The form will require the Facility PID, the number of the permit(s) being cancelled (PCP…), , the reason the permit(s) is being cancelled, and a signature from the facility's Responsible Official.
This form can either be mailed or emailed to the facility's compliance office. The street addresses and email addresses of all three enforcement offices are located on the top of the form.