NOx Percent Monitor Data Availability (PMA) Reporting Discrepancies
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD). CAMD oversees the data reporting and evaluation process for the Acid Rain Program and several other EPA programs.
Recently, ESC Spectrum helped CAMD investigate a reporting discrepancy at a customer’s facility. While the customer’s StackVision database showed their NOx Percent Monitor Data Availability (PMA) emission rate (lb/mmbtu) to be 95%, the PMA in the customer’s 2020 Q4 report was closer to 80%.
After further investigation into the discrepancy, an ESC Spectrum team member discovered that someone at the customer facility had reprocessed data in Q2, Q3, and Q4 of 2020, as well as for February and March of 2021 — after the close date for the submission period. The person responsible was unaware that the EPA requires facilities to re-submit updated quarterly data files to the EPA Host System.
How Can StackVision’s Data Locking Wizard Help Prevent Reporting Discrepancies?
Without proper corrections, reporting discrepancies can lead to State and Federal audits and steep fines. Luckily, that was not the case for this facility. However, the facility’s reporting oversight could have been easily prevented with the employment of StackVision’s Database Locking Wizard.
The Database Locking Wizard, located in the Tools section of StackVision’s Main Menu, allows facilities to secure and lock down the emissions database at the end of a reporting submission period. Using StackVision’s Database Locking Wizard enables users to protect their database in less than five minutes; and, if needed, the tool can unlock the database or any portion of it in under five minutes as well.
Don’t let your facility suffer reporting discrepancies! On the first day following each quarterly reporting submission period, lock down your database. You can read more about using the locking/unlocking feature of the Database Locking Wizard in the Help section of StackVision.
We are happy to answer questions or provide more information. Contact us to learn more about StackVision.
“Blessing in Disguise”: Senior Regulatory Specialist Jon Konings’ Experience
This case highlights how important it is to be in control of your own data.
Even though we were able to resolve this situation with no penalties, that may not always be the case. A similar situation happened to me in the 1990’s, and it was a blessing in disguise. It made the technicians at the plant pay more attention to their work and use the procedures we developed with them to perform their jobs. It also helped the plant managers justify spending more time and money on training their people on doing their jobs and the background reasons for doing their jobs well.
Jon
