BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY BOARD IN RE: PROPOSED RULEMAKING ADHESIVES, SEALANTS, PRIMERS AND SOLVENTS PUBLIC HEARING

Transcription

1 V> BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY BOARD * * * * * * * * * IN RE: PROPOSED RULEMAKING ADHESIVES, SEALANTS, PRIMERS AND SOLVENTS PUBLIC HEARING * * * * * * * * * BEFORE: DANIEL L. LAPATO, Executive Policy Specialist HEARING: Thursday, May 7, 09 1:07 p.m. LOCATION: Southeast Regional Office Delaware River Conference Room 2 East Main Street Norristown, PA 401 WITNESSES: Michael Palombo =cs I! 3 " J3 o nr C Reporter: Brian D. O'Hare Any reproduction of this transcript is prohibited without authorization by the certifying agency Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc

2 1 2 INDEX OPENING REMARKS By Mr. Lapato STATEMENT By Michael Palombo CERTIFICATE

3 1 2 E X H I B I T S 3 3 Page 4 Number Description Offered 5 NONE OFFERED 6 1

4 P R O C E E D I N G S MR. LAPATO: I'd like to welcome you to the Environmental Quality Board's public hearing on proposed Adhesives, Sealants, Primers and Solvents rulemaking. My name is Dan Lapato. I'm an executive policy specialist with the Department of Environmental Protection in Harrisburg. I am representing the Environmental Quality Board at today's hearing. I call this hearing to order at 1:07 p.m. The purpose of this hearing is to formally accept testimony on the proposed Adhesives, Sealants, Primers and Solvents rulemaking. In addition to this hearing, the Environmental Quality Board held a hearing on the proposed rulemaking in Pittsburgh on Monday, May 4th. In addition, the EQB will also hold an additional hearing tomorrow, May 8th, 09, in Harrisburg. The Adhesives, Sealants, Primers and Solvents rulemaking proposes to add VOC emissions limits for the use and application of 37 categories of products that are currently unregulated in this Commonwealth, including adhesives, sealants, adhesive primers, sealant primers and adhesives or sealant

5 products applied to particular substrates. The rulemaking also includes requirements for the use of surface preparation solvents and cleanup solvents. The emission limits proposed in the rulemaking will apply to the industrial and commercial use of the products as well as their use by facility owners and operators as part of the manufacturing process. As such, owners and operators of facilities that use or apply these products will be subject to the regulations as well as any person who sells, supplies, offers for sale or manufactures for sale for use in the Commonwealth an adhesive sealant, adhesive primer, sealant primer, surface preparation solvent or cleanup solvents. A person who uses these products or applies for compensation in this Commonwealth to use these products will also be required to comply with the provisions of this rulemaking. This would include, for example, plumbers, roofers, window and automotive glass installers, home builders and remodelers, construction companies, landscapers, boat builders, ceramic tile installers and vinyl flooring installers. The rulemaking, once implemented, is expected to reduce VOC emissions in Pennsylvania by approximately 7,957 tons per year. The additional VOC

6 1 emissions reductions that will occur as a result of the rulemaking are reasonably necessary as a part of the Commonwealth's strategy to achieve and maintain the eight-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard throughout the Commonwealth. The provisions contained in the rulemaking are modeled after the controlled measures recommended by the Ozone Transport Commission in its 06 Model Rule for adhesives, sealants and primers and would be applicable starting April th, with certain exceptions. To provide flexibility the rulemaking allows owners and operators that use noncompliant product to use add-on air pollution controls as a compliance alternative in lieu of the use of compliant products. Upon finalization of the rulemaking, the regulations will be submitted to the EPA as a revision to the Commonwealth's state implementation plan. In order to give everyone an equal opportunity to comment on this proposal, I would like to establish the following ground rules. I will first call upon the witnesses who have pre-registered to testify at this hearing. After hearing from these witnesses, I will provide any other interested parties with the opportunity to testify as time allows. Testimony is limited to ten minutes for each witness. (8)

7 Organizations are requested to designate one witness to present testimony on its behalf. Each witness is asked to submit three written copies of his or her testimony to aid in the transcribing of the hearing. Please hand me your copies prior to presenting your testimony. Please state your name, address, affiliation for the record prior to presenting your testimony. We would appreciate your help by spelling names and terms that may not be generally familiar so that the transcript can be as accurate as possible. Because the purpose of this hearing is to receive comments on the proposal, EQB or DEP staff may question witnesses. However, the witnesses may not question the EQB or DEP staff during the public hearing. In addition to or in place of oral testimony presented at today's hearing, interested persons may also submit written comments on this proposal. All comments must be received by the EQB on or before June 8th, 09. Comments should be addressed to the Environmental Quality Board, P.O. Box 8477, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Comments may also be submitted by to the EQB at by June 8th, 09. All comments received at this hearing as (8)

8 1 well as written or electronic comments received by 2 June 8th, 09 will be considered by the EQB and will 3 become included in a comment response document which 4 will be prepared by the Department and reviewed by the 5 EQB prior to the Board taking its final action on this 6 regulation. Anyone interested in a copy of the 7 transcript of this hearing may contact the reporter 8 here this afternoon to arrange a purchase of the copy. 9 I would now like to call for the first witness. MR. PALOMBO: Thank you. My name is Michael Palombo and I'm one of the owners of Performance Roofing Associates, Incorporated. We are located at 1 East Uwchlan Avenue, and Uwchlan is U-W-C-H-L-A-N Avenue, and that's in Exton, E-X-T-O-N, Pennsylvania. And the ZIP code there is 341. Performance Roofing is a manufacturer's representative for Firestone Building Products Company and we are currently doing business in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as the States of New Jersey and Delaware. I am here today on behalf of the EPDM Roofing Manufacturers Association, otherwise known as ERA. ERA is made up of two companies that manufacture a particular type of single-ply roofing

9 1 membrane called EPDM and other companies who make 2 products that support the installation and repair of 3 EPDM, things such as fasteners and adhesives. 4 Firestone Building Products Company is one of the two 5 companies that manufacture EPDM. 6 My comments today are directed at the 7 following parts of the regulation. Regulation Number (m) and 0.703(c) which state that low VOC 9 products only have to be used during the following time periods; period number one is for the years and, which would apply from April th through October the th and then on or after January 1st,. On behalf of ERA, I would like to thank the Environmental Quality Board and the Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Air Quality, for listening to the concerns of our industry and including a phased-in seasonal implementation approach for the use of adhesives, sealants and primers that are used with single-ply roofing membranes. This phased-in implementation will go a long way towards allowing our industry time to get the thousands of roofing contractors properly trained so that these new products can be properly used. On behalf of ERA, our members and the

10 thousands o f roofing cont ractors in Pennsylvania, we support t he regulation. Thank you. MR. LAPATO: Thank you, Mike. At this time, Mike is the only one preregistered. However, I'd like to open it up to an ybody who's in attendance who would like to make a -- - iike to go on the record to offer testimony At this point, I'll keep the testimony opened up fo r about a half hour or so. MR. PALOMBO: We're not al lowed to a sk questions; are we? MR. LAPATO: hearing, ye s But I mean, officially right now, no. OFF RECORD DISCUSSION MR. LAPATO: Not during t he hearing, no. After the With no other witnesse s present, on behalf of the Environment al Quality Board, I hereby adjourn thi s hearing at 1 :47 p.m. Thank you. * * * * * * * HEARING CONCLUDED AT 1: 47 P.M. * * * * * * *

11 CERTIFICATE I hereby certify that the foregoing proceeding 05/07/09 hearing held before Chairman Dan Lapato, wa s reported by me, that I have read this transcript on 05//09, and I attest that this transcript is a true and accurate record of the proceeding Court Reporter

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