BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY BOARD. IN RE: Proposed rulemaking, adhesives, sealants, primers and solvents PUBLIC HEARING

Transcription

1 H- 37 SS RECEIVED m HW 26 PH 3 menbiremm WCOMMISaON BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY BOARD * * * * * * * * * IN RE: Proposed rulemaking, adhesives, sealants, primers and solvents PUBLIC HEARING * * * * * * * * * BEFORE: RICHARD FOX, Chair U HEARING: Friday, May 8, 09 1:01 p.m. LOCATION: Rachel Carson State Office Building Room 5 Harrisburg, PA 5 WITNESSES: Bill Schneider Reporter: Tyler D. Rhoads Any reproduction of this transcript is prohibited without authorization by the certifying agency Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc ( 8)

2 1 INDEX OPENING REMARKS By Richard Fox TESTIMONY By Bill Schneider CERTIFICATE (8)

3 3 1 E X H I B I T S 2 3 Page 4 Number Description Offered 5 NONE OFFERED (8)

4 P. R 0 C E E ; CHAIR: Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome you to the Env ironmental Quality Board's public hearing on the propos ed Adhesives, Seala nts, Primers and Solvent s rulemaking My name is Richa rd Fox. I am a membe f the Environmental Quality Boa rd, represent! ng Sena tor Raphael Mu sto and I'll call t his hearing to order at 1:01 p.m. The purpose of the hearing is to accept tes timony on the proposed Adhesives, formal iy Sealan ts, Primers and Solvents rulemaking. In addition to t his hearing, t he Environmental Quality Board he Id hear ing s on the proposed rulemaking in Pittsburgh on Monday May 4, and in Norristown on Thursday, May 7, 09. The Adhesives, Sealants, Prime rs and Solvents rulemaking proposes to add VOC emi ssion limits for the use and application of 37 categories o f products that are currently unregulated in this Commonweal th, including adhes ives, sealants, adhesive primers, sealant primers, and adhesive or sealant products applied to particula r substrates. The rulemaking also includes requ irements for t he use of sur face preparation so Ivents and cleanup solvents. The emission limit ations proposed in the (8)

5 rulemaki ng will apply to the industrial and comme rc ial use of t he owners and process. products, as well as their use by fa ci lity operators as a part of a manufacturing As such, owners and operators of faciliti es that use or apply these products wil 1 be sub]ect to the regulations, as well as any person who sell s, supplies, offers for sale or manufacture s for sale for use in this Commonwealth an adhesive sealant, adhesive primer, sealant primer, surfa ce preparat ion solvent or cleanup solvents. A per son who uses the se products or applies for compensation in this Commonwealth to use these products will al so be required to rulemaki ng. comply with the provisions in this This would include, for example, plumbers, roofers, window and automotive glass installe rs, home builders and remodelers, const ruct ion companie s, landscapers, boat builders, ceramic ti le installe rs and vinyl flooring installers. The rulemaking, once implemented, is expected to reduce VOC emissions in Pennsylvania by approximate ly 7,957 tons per year. The additiona 1 VOC emi s sion reductions that will occur as a result of the rulemaki ng are reasonably necessary as a part o f the Commonwealt h's strategy to achieve and maintain (8)

6 1 hour ozone national ambient air quality standard 2 throughout the Commonwealth. The provisions contained 3 in the rulemaking are modeled after control measures 4 recommended by the Ozone Transport Commission in its 5 06 Model Rule for adhesives, sealants and primers 6 and would be applicable starting April,, with 7 certain exceptions. 8 To provide flexibility, the rulemaking 9 allows owners and operators that use noncompliant products 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. Organizations are requested to designate 2 4 one witness to present testimony on its behalf. Each witness is asked to submit three written copies of his (8)

7 or her testimon yto Please hand me your aide in transcr ibing the hearing. copies prior to presenting your testimony. Please state your name, address and affiliation for the record prior to presenting your testimony. And we would appreciate your help by spelling names and terms that may not be generally familiar so tha t the transcript can be as accurate as poss ible. Beca use the purpose of a receive comment a proposal, EQB hearing is to or DEP staff may question witnes ses. Howeve r, the witnesses may not question the EQB or DEP staf f during the public hearing. In addition to or in p lace of oral tes timony presented a t today's hearing, interested person' s may also submit written comment be received by the this proposal. EQB on or before All comments must June 8th, 09. Comments should be addressed to the Environmental Quality Board, Post Office Box 8477, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Comments may also be submitted by to the EQB at regcomments@state.pa.us by June 8th, 09. Al 1 comments received at this hearing, a s well as written or electronic comments received by June 8th, 09, wil 1 be considered by the EQB and wil 1 become included in. a comment response document, which 7 (8)

8 will be prepared by the Department and reviewed by the EQB prior to the Board taking its final action on this regulation. Anyone interested in a copy of the transcript of this hearing may contact the reporter here this afternoon to arrange to purchase a copy. I would now like to call for the first witness, Bill Schneider with Carlisle SynTec. MR. SCHNEIDER: Good afternoon. My name is Bill Schneider, S-C-H-N-E-I-D-E-R, and I'm with Carlisle SynTec, Incorporated from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. And I'm here today representing both Carlisle SynTec and the EPDM Roof Association or ERA. ERA is made up of manufacturers and suppliers who support EPDM roofing in the commercial roofing market segment. As I mentioned, I am employed in the Research and Development group of Carlisle SynTec, Incorporated headquartered in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Carlisle SynTec is one of the world's leading manufacturers of EPDM roofing membrane having manufactured and warranted over billion square feet of roofing membrane since the 60s. My comments are directed at the proposed rule: Pennsylvania Code Chapters 1, 9, and 0 Adhesives, Sealants, Primers, and Solvents. More ( 8)

9 specifically I will comment oh the product categories listed as single ply roofing as EPDM roofing falls into these categories. Before I get to my primary remarks, 1 would like to make a comment on the rule's proposed definition of single ply roof membrane. The proposed definition of the term single ply roof membrane specifies that it is a prefabricated single sheet of rubber, normally EPDM that is field applied to a building roof using one layer of membrane material. The commercial roofing industry also considers thermoplastic membranes such as TPO, thermoplastic polyolefin and PVC, polyvinyl chloride, as part of the single ply roofing market. It is our position that this definition should be expanded to include thermoplastic membranes. It should be noted that Carlisle SynTec also manufactures and sells thermoplastic roofing membranes. For those not familiar with EPDM roofing, EPDM stands for ethylene propylene diene monomer which is a synthetic polymer used to produce a strong, flexible and weather resistant black or white rubber membrane. EPDM membrane has demonstrated over 30 years of service life in North America. It represents 53 percent of the (8)

10 1 commercial roofing market in Pennsylvania with over 90 2 million square feet installed in 08. EPDM is the 3 leading choice for commercial roofing applications in 4 Pennsylvania as well as every other Northeast and Mid 5 Atlantic state because it is able to accommodate 6 extreme temperature shifts, standing up to freeze-thaw 7 cycles and structural movement of buildings. EPDM is 8 also workable in colder weather allowing roofing and 9 construction to proceed on a year round basis. EPDM roofing is supported by an experienced contractor based in Pennsylvania and has established an outstanding track record in keeping the commercial buildings of the state watertight under a wide variety of weather conditions. In 08 ERA approached the Pennsylvania DEP and members of the Environmental Quality Board with our concerns over a proposed rule to regulate industrial adhesives, sealants and primers which included a category for single ply roofing. This proposed rule was based on a model rule developed by the Ozone Transport Commission which in turn was based on the reasonably available control technology and best available retrofit control technology determined by the California Air Resources Board. The VOC limits of the proposed OTC Model Rule were derived from a (8)

11 California rule that did not anticipate the effects of cold temperatures and the unique benefits of EPDM roofing. The unique features that I discussed previously are not as critical in moderate climates such as California, therefore, EPDM is infrequently specified or used in California. In Pennsylvania, where temperature swings and free ze-thaw cycles are intense, the high flexibility of EPDM roofing is a major consumer choice to avoid premature roof failure due to cracking or splitting. Climate differences also exist between Pennsylvania and California that affect installation of the currently available EPDM roofing VOC compliant adhesives which are water based. Water based adhesives are not able to be used at temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit and cannot be stored on rooftops at colder temperatures due to the risk of freezing. ERA 1 s proposal to the DEP was that it would be reasonable to provide a transitional period that would temporarily allow the use of non-compliant single ply roofing adhesives during the colder months. Specifically in and, we proposed requiring the use of compliant single ply roofing adhesives in the time frame of April through October. This Sargent * s Court Reporting Service, Inc. (8)

12 transitional period will allow the EPDM industry to develop and field test new adhesive products that can be used year round in Pennsylvania. It will also provide the time necessary to properly train the thousands of Pennsylvania roofing contractors on the use of such adhesives. The EPDM industry is committed to having a year round product commercialized by January 1,. In addition to providing needed flexibility to minimize the economic impact of the proposed rule for both the roofing contractors and building owners of Pennsylvania, such a transitional seasonal strategy also provides an immediate, measurable, and significant impact on the release of VOC! s during the critical ozone season months. DEP listened to and addressed ERA's concerns with this draft rule as it does include a transitional period for single ply roofing for the years and. We are fully supportive of the rule as currently written. In summary, the adoption of the proposed transitional seasonal strategy for single ply roofing adhesives will produce significant reductions in VOCproducing adhesives and sealants, uninterrupted employment of the thousands of roofing crew members who work in the state, and continued protection of (8)

13 1 building owners' assets with high-performance EPDM 2 roofs installed on a year-round basis. 3 It is also consistent with regulations in 4 place in the neighboring OTC states of New Jersey, 5 Maryland and Delaware, placing Pennsylvania 6 contractors on equal competitive ground with 7 contractors from those states. On behalf of ERA, 8 Carlisle SynTec Incorporated, roofing contractors and 9 building owners across Pennsylvania, I want to thank the Board and the DEP for listening to and addressing our issues with this draft regulation. I would be happy to answer any questions. CHAIR: Thank you very much. I don't think there 1 s any other does anyone else wish to present testimony? With no other witnesses present, on behalf of the Environmental Quality Board, I hereby adjourn this hearing at 1: p.m. Thank you. ^g * * * * * * * * HEARING CONCLUDED AT 1: P.M. 2% * * * * * * * * (8)

14 CERTIFICATE 4 I hereby certify that the foregoing proceeding 05/08/09 hearing held before Richard Fox was 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. (8)