Control best practicable means

Some variants of best practicable means are spelled out in the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1977. One is the requirement that best available control technology (BACT) for a specific pollutant be employed on new "major sources" that are to be located in an area that has attained the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for that pollutant. BACT is also required for pollutants for which there is no NAAQS [e.g., total reduced sulfur (TRS), for which emission limits are specified by a Federal New Source Performance Standard (NSPS)]. BACT must be at least as stringent as NSPS but is determined on a case-by-case basis. 

HMIP publish sets of Guidance Notes, which relate to activities they control. These notes are known as Best Practicable Means (BPM) Notes. BPM is explained in Note BPM 1/88, Best Practicable Means. General Principles and Practices. Copies of these notes may be obtained from the Department of the Environment Publications Sales Unit, Building 1, Victoria Road, South Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 ONZ, telephone 020 8841 3425. 

Section 5 of this Act places a duty on persons having control of premises to take the best practicable means to prevent the emission into the atmosphere of noxious or offensive substances. This Section is used by HMIP in the enforcement of best practical means for the scheduled processes. 

Under Part I of the act an IPC system controls emissions to air, land or water for the most polluting industrial and similar processes. IPC is limited to prescribed processes (e.g. chemical, fuel and power, waste disposal, minerals etc.) by prior authorization. Authorization is based on the requirement for owners/controllers to prevent release of prescribed substances or, where this is not practicable, to reduce the release to a minimum. Any residual release must be rendered harmless. To achieve these aims, operators must use the best practicable means not entailing excessive cost (BATNEEC). 

Emission standards are derived differently by the air quality management and the best practicable means of control approaches to air pollution control. In the best practicable means of control approach, emission standards are derived by consideration only of the means of engineering control available to control emission from a process. Air quality standards ate not involved in the setting of the emission limit, and emission controls of the same stringency ate applied to different processes. 

A defence on contravention of a noise order may be that the best practicable means had been used to reduce or control the noise. Constraints may be placed on construction or demolition work. 

In the UK all major works using lead come within the jurisdiction of HM Alkali and Clean Air Inspectorate [10]. The Inspectorate s policy of enforcing best practicable means of pollution control is well known. Presumptive limits applying to all gases and exhaust streams from scheduled lead processes have been set. These are as follows ... 

The flows and the activity concentrations of liquid and gaseous effluents need to be monitored and controlled to ensure that the authorized discharge limits are not exceeded [1]. Liquid and gaseous treatment facilities that are based on the best practicable means should be provided, as discussed in the following subsections. References [12, 16] provide recommendations and information on the calculation of the exposure of the public resulting from radioactive discharges. 

Any person having control of any premises of a class prescribed for the purposes of Section 1(1 )(d) must use the best practicable means of preventing the emission into the atmosphere from the premises of noxious or offensive substances, and of rendering harmless and inoffensive such substances as may be so emitted. 

The authors are grateful to colleagues at Tata Steel, Mr Simon Johnston, Mr Richard Earl and Mr Pete Smith for collecting the stack emission samples used in this study and providing expert advice in XRF and carbon-sulphur analysis. This work has benefitted from collaboration with the regulatory authorities who have confirmed that best practicable means were used to measure and control sinter plant stack emissions. 

An inventory management system should be established - meaning set up on a permanent basis to meet defined inventory policies and objectives approved by executive management. It should be documented - meaning that there should be a description of the system, how it works, the assignment of responsibilities, the codification of best practice, procedures, and instructions. The system should be planned, organized, and controlled in order that it achieves its purpose. A person should therefore be appointed with responsibility for the inventory management system and the responsibilities of those who work the system should be defined and documented. Records should be created and maintained that show how order quantities have been calculated in order that the calculations can be verified and repeated if necessary with new data. The records should also provide adequate data for continual improvement initiatives to be effective. 

BPT means the best practicable control technology currently available under the U.S. 

Optimisation was defined as the best practical reduction in lead concentrations and was taken to mean maintaining an optimum orthophosphate dose throughout a water supply system, within an optimum pH range. If pH and alkalinity control were proposed as the only treatment measures, water companies had to demonstrate that an optimum dose of orthophosphate could not achieve a further significant reduction in lead concentrations in practice, none did so. References were also made to increasing orthophosphate doses to overcome organic colour and the need to minimise corrosion of iron mains within distribution systems because of its relevance to particulate lead. 

If the one-point calibration in ambient air is not sufficient, the next best approach is to use the calibration box method.- The air state is created in a closed box made of nonhygroscopic material, like metal or plastic. A controlled state of humidity is maintained by exposing the air in the box to a liquid surface of a saturated salt solution. In practice, a dish containing the saturated water solution of a salt is placed on supports at the bottom of the box. The air in the box is circulated by means of a small fan. The box should be airtight and positioned in a constant temperature environment. The calibrated instruments are placed in the box. A dewpoint hygrometer can be used as a reference. A wide range of humidity can be created by using solutions of different salts. Table 12.5 shows a few examples of equilibrium humidities achieved with different salt solutions. 

To improve the S/N ratio, the modulation signal is processed by amplification with a tuned amplifier using phase-sensitive detection. This means that the detected signal must not only be at the modulation frequency, but must also be in phase with the modulation. Since the amplifier itself can introduce a bit of phase shift, there is a phase control which, in principle, should be adjusted to maximize the signal amplitude. In practice, this control needs to be adjusted only rarely and in most cases the best approach is to leave it alone. 

While the laws of this country require that the safety of foods, chemicals, and drugs be demonstrated by well-controlled studies, the authority of the FDA cannot be exercised beyond the borders of the United States. Concluding that the best means of satisfying the law would be to physically observe the operations and practices of the laboratory, the... 

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