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NJDEP Issues Compliance Advisory Interpreting Title V Stack Testing Deadlines
On January 23, 2025, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) issued Compliance Advisory #2025-02 clarifying the following language in Title V operating permits requiring a source to perform stack testing every five years:
Testing every 5 years shall be defined as no later than the end of the 60th month after the first required and each subsequent stack test was completed for the new or modified source.
The Division of Air Enforcement clarified that the initial stack test performed for a source will establish an anchor point, i.e., the starting date, from which all future 5-year stack testing deadlines are to be determined. Stack testing must be completed by the end of the 60th month after this initial stack test, and every 5 years moving forward. Performing a stack test late or early will not change the deadline by which future stack tests will need to be performed. Any stack tests conducted within 18 months of the 5-year stack testing deadline that satisfies all of the requirements for testing can be used to comply with this requirement. Stack testing that is required by a significant modification will establish a new anchor point from which all subsequent stack testing deadlines will run.
For example, a facility performs an initial stack test on Source A on January 3, 2025. January 3, 2025 becomes the “anchor date” for Source A. The facility will need to perform the first 5-year stack test no later than January 31, 2030, i.e., the end of the 60th month following the initial stack test. The facility conducts its first 5-year stack test on Source A on April 15, 2029, within 18 months of the stack testing deadline. Even though the facility conducted the stack test early, the next 5-year stack test would still be due by January 31, 2035, and by the end of January every five years thereafter. If the facility undertakes a major modification to Source A and conducts a stack test on June 1, 2031, then June 1, 2031 becomes the new anchor date, and the next 5-year stack test would be due by June 30, 2036.
Existing permits that do not have the new stack testing language should continue to follow the deadlines in their Title V permits and facilities with expired permits should continue to follow the deadlines in the Compliance Advisory #2022-01, issued January 14, 2022. Once the new language is incorporated into the Title V permit, the anchor date would be the date of the most recent 5-year test conducted prior to the change in permit language.
For questions regarding the Compliance Advisory, please contact Jessica Hunt at 484.430.2338 or jhunt@mankogold.com
