PSAPCA regulations (Reg I, Section 6.03) require that a Notice of Construction permit application be submitted and approved to construct, install, establish, or modify certain classes of equipment anywhere in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Equipment is defined as any stationary or portable device or any part of such a device that emits or has the potential to emit any air contaminant into the atmosphere.
What equipment requires a permit? There are two categories:
Fuel burning equipment such as boilers or heaters (>1 million btu/hr). Private dwellings serving four or less families are exempt.
Refuse burning equipment such as incinerators or crematories. Large incinerators (over 12 TPD) and hospital incinerators have special requirements that are available from the agency.
Processing equipment includes a wide variety of items such as air strippers, asphalt plants, blast cleaning units, coffee roasters, concrete plants, degreasers, dry cleaning machines, dryers, electroplating lines, fiberglass operations, food processing, fume hoods, gas stations, incinerators, kilns, melting furnaces, ovens, rock crushers, soil venting, spray booths, spray painting, storage tanks or wood product equipment.
This includes:
Adsorbers, afterburners, baghouses, cyclones, dust collection, filters, precipitators, or scrubbers.
There are certain types of equipment do not require a Notice of Construction permit. Regulation I, Section 6.03 lists these types of equipment. If you are in doubt, please contact a staff person at (206) 689-4052 or write to us to the attention of the permit review section.
If you know what kind of equipment that you need to obtain a
permit for, consult our staff contact list and contact the staff
member specializing in your type of equipment or industry.
By contacting a staff member, we can assure that you
receive all of the forms that are relevant to your application.
The application needs to be submitted on the forms provided by the agency. The application should be accompanied by a set of plans that fully describes the proposed source, the means for prevention or control of the emission, the appropriate fee and any other information required by the agency's Board of Directors or Air Pollution Control Officer to demonstrate that the proposed source will meet the requirements of Section 6.07.
In addition, we need an environmental checklist. The environmental checklist is the first step in complying with the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). If we are the lead agency, you may complete the checklist you will receive from us. In other cases, you can send us a copy of the environmental checklist required by the lead agency. As a general rule, if our Notice of Construction is the only permit required, we are the lead agency. If not, the other city, county or state permitting agency is the lead agency with respect to SEPA.
Please fill in Section A, "Background," completely. Section B, "Environmental Elements," should be answered with the scope of the proposal in mind. Many times, "not applicable" is an appropriate answer. We rarely require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) when we are the lead agency.
The owner or his agent (the contractor, seller) files the forms with the agency. The general Form P is always needed (except for certain source categories). In addition, we need a Form R for control devices; Form S for process equipment; Form T for toxics; Form G for gas stations; and an Environmental Checklist. A checklist needs to accompany all Notice of Construction forms except for Form G (gas stations)
The filed application is reviewed by a agency engineer for completeness. The fee should accompany the application. The application will not be considered complete until all fees are paid.
When the agency has received fee payment and the application is complete, the reviewing engineer submits his/her recommendation to the Air Pollution Control Officer within 30 days. In some cases, a 30-day public comment period may be required pursuant to Section 6.06.
As soon as you receive an Order of Approval, you may proceed. Be sure, however, that you have any other necessary permits from other agencies.
If the application is denied, the agency will issue a written Order to Prevent Construction. This order will give the reasons for disapproval in detail. Disapprovals can be appealed by the applicant.
When the installation is complete, you must notify the agency that the equipment is ready for inspection by mailing the Notice of Completion form. An inspection usually follows within 30 days, but you do not need to wait for this inspection before operating the equipment. Construction or installation must commence within 24 months of the permit approval date. You may obtain an extension, but there will be additional fees and possibly new requirements (Reg I, Section 6.07 (e)).
Our review process generally takes less than 30 days from the time that we receive complete information and fees. If a public comment period is involved, an additional 30 days must be allowed in the review process totaling up to 60 days maximum. You may phone us at any time to ask about the status of your application. Payment of the permit fees at the time of submittal will often shorten the total permit approval time.
Here is the table explaining Notice of Contruction fees. The permit application is complete when applicable fees are paid. When a public comment period is required, we will invoice you for the cost of publishing the public notice. If it is discovered that work has been done (equipment constructed, installed, established, or web page hosting - AvaHost.Net modified ) without a Notice of Construction permit, the fee is four times the regular fee.
| Replacement of existing control equipment with equipment of like design |
$200 |
| Refuse burning equipment: | |
| 12 tons per day or less | $5,000 |
| more than 12 tons/day, but less than 250 tons/day |
$20,000 |
| 250 tons per day or more | $50,000 |
| Storage tanks: | |
| less than 20,000 gallons | $300 |
| 20,000 gallons or more | $1,000 |
| Spray painting operation (per spray booth) | $500 |
| Gasoline station | $500 |
| Dry cleaner (per machine) | $300 |
| Landfill gas system | $2,500 |
| Composting facility | $2,500 |
| Soil thermal desorption unit | $3,000 |
| Relocation of approved soil thermal desorbtion unit to new address |
$1,000 |
| Minor NOC change not involving change of equipment |
$500 |
| Relocation of previously permitted portable source to a new address |
$500 |
| NOC applicability determination | $200 |
| Synthetic minor, includes public notice fee, but not publication fees |
$700 |
| Air pollution control equipment or equipment used in a manufacturing process |
$400 |
| Other :(not classified above) | $300 |
| Additional Charges: | |
| SEPA threshold determination | $250 |
| Air toxics review (under Reg. III, Sec. 2.07(c)(2) | $500 |
| Major source, major modification, or sources subjet to prevention of significant deterioration thresholds (Reg. I, Sec. 9.09(c)) |
$5,000 |
| Opacity/grain loading correlation | $5,000 |
| Facilities subject to an NSPS or NESHAP (except residential wood heaters, asbestos processing, chromic acid anodizing, chromium electroplating, perchloroethylene dry cleaning or cold solvent cleaners). |
$1,000 |
| Public notice (publication fees billed at cost) | $500 |
Updated August 1998
