GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

1989 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 132

SENATE BILL 392

 

AN ACT TO ELIMINATE UNNECESSARY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION TO CLASSIFY SOURCES OF AIR POLLUTION.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 143-215.107(a) reads as rewritten:

"(a)      Duty to Adopt Plans, Standards, etc. - The Commission is hereby directed and empowered, as rapidly as possible within the limits of funds and facilities available to it, and subject to the procedural requirements of this Article and Article 21:

(1)       To prepare and develop, after proper study, a comprehensive plan or plans for the prevention, abatement and control of air pollution in the State or in any designated area of the State.

(2)       To determine by means of field sampling and other studies, including the examination of available data collected by any local, State or federal agency or any person, the degree of air contamination and air pollution in the State and the several areas of the State.

(3)       To develop and adopt, after proper study, air quality standards applicable to the State as a whole or to any designated area of the State as the Commission deems proper in order to promote the policies and purposes of this Article and Article 21 most effectively.

(4)       To develop and adopt classifications for use in classifying air contaminant sources, which in the judgment of the Commission may cause or contribute to air pollution, according to levels and types of emissions and other characteristics which relate to air pollution and may require reporting for any such class or classes. Such classifications may be for application to the State as a whole or to any designated area of the State, and shall be made with special reference to effects on health, economic and social factors, and physical effects on property. To collect information or to require reporting from classes of sources which, in the judgment of the Environmental Management Commission, may cause or contribute to air pollution. Any person operating or responsible for the operation of air contaminant sources of any class for which the Commission requires reporting shall make reports containing such information as may be required by the Commission concerning location, size, and height of contaminant outlets, processes employed, fuels used, and the nature and time periods or duration of emissions, and such other information as is relevant to air pollution and available or reasonably capable of being assembled.

(5)       To develop and adopt such emission control standards as in the judgment of the Commission may be necessary to prohibit, abate or control air pollution commensurate with established air quality standards. Such standards may be applied uniformly to the State as a whole or to any area of the State designated by the Commission.

(6)       To adopt, when necessary and practicable, a program for testing emissions from motor vehicles and to adopt motor vehicle emission standards in compliance with applicable federal regulations.

(7)       To develop and adopt standards and plans necessary to implement programs for the prevention of significant deterioration and for the attainment of air quality standards in nonattainment areas; provided, that the Commission shall adopt no standard which is not made mandatory upon approved State programs by rules, regulations or published guidelines of the United States Environmental Protection Agency or the Federal Clean Air Act."

Sec. 2.  This act is effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 25th day of May, 1989.