Importance of “Responsible Official” definition in Air Permitting

Can anyone at the facility sign the air permit applications, compliance certifications, or deviation reports? The answer is in the Clean Air Act regulations, complex, strict, and can have serious consequences if not implemented correctly.

Following is the definition of Responsible Official in federal and state regulations:

Responsible official means one of the following:

(1) For a corporation: a president, secretary, treasurer, or vice-president of the corporation in charge of a principal business function, or any other person who performs similar policy or decision-making functions for the corporation, or a duly authorized representative of such person if the representative is responsible for the overall operation of one or more manufacturing, production, or operating facilities applying for or subject to a permit and either:

(i) The facilities employ more than 250 persons or have gross annual sales or expenditures exceeding $25 million (in second quarter 1980 dollars); or

(ii) The delegation of authority to such representatives is approved in advance by the permitting authority;

Note that $25 million, in second quarter 1980 dollars, is equivalent to $73 million in 2016 dollars.

Most often the facility manager certify the forms as a responsible official. Note that this is okay as long as the facility can prove that it is employing more than 250 persons or has annual revenue exceeding $73 million. If not, the facility manager may be signing a document that can be deemed incomplete and unacceptable.

Here’s an example to explain what can go wrong:

Scenario: A permit renewal application is submitted in time with facility manager’s signature. The facility revenue does not exceed $73 million or employ more than 250 persons. Additionally, a delegation of authority is not documented.

Potential Outcome: During the application renewal process, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) files a complaint that the application is not administratively complete. The application must be resubmitted with a proper signature.  This resubmission causes a loss of permit application shield. Basically, if the new permit is not issued before the permit expiration date, the facility must cease operations on permit expiration date until a valid air permit is issued.

Scenario: Annual compliance certification is submitted with certification from EHS manager, or facility manager. The facility revenue does not exceed $73 million or employ more than 250 persons. Additionally, a delegation of authority is not documented.

Potential Outcome: A demand to resubmit with proper signatures, a notice-of-violation, or a fine to discourage repeating the mistake.

These are administrative issues that can stall the environmental compliance program. It is highly recommended that an officer of the company (a president, secretary, treasurer, or vice-president) submit a delegation of authority letter to the agency and get an approval before the facility manager certifies as a responsible official.

It pays to have a knowledgeable environmental consultant on your team. Please feel free to contact Sam Joshi at (215) 389-2811 if you have any questions or want to implement a delegation of authority for your environmental compliance program.