Written on: July 1, 2013 by Doug Raymond
CARB
In April, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) made some significant modifications to their proposed amendments to their Consumer Products volatile organic compound (VOC) regulations.
CARB modified the proposed limits for the Aerosol Coatings categories. The new limits will be challenging, to say the least. For the General Coating Categories, industry will have until 1/1/2017 to comply.
CARB moved the Web Aerosol Adhesive category to a higher limit. Mist Spray still remains at 30%. This limit will be extremely difficult to meet.
The LVP-VOC definition changes were dropped for now, pending scientific studies to be performed by CARB. This was a significant change and was due in a major part by Industry comments to CARB requesting scientific research in this area.
Multi-purpose Solvent and Paint Thinner categories will have modifications to the categories but will only affect product sold in the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
However, in May, CARB delayed the board hearing for these amendments from July until Sept. 26–27. A new proposal is to be sent out before the board hearing. Hopefully, modifications to the amendments that were made in April will remain.
Other changes to the Consumer Products Rule include:
The newest version of the amendments should be out soon. CARB has to release their final version of their amendments 45-days before the Sept. 26–27 board hearing. Everyone should review the amendments to the Consumer Products Regulation and the Aerosol Coating regulation. The current proposed changes can be found at
http://www.arb.ca.gov/consprod/regact/2013/2013ra.htm.
Ozone Transport Commission
The Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) held its last meeting on June 13, 2013 in New Haven, CT. As everyone should know by now, OTC adopts regulations adopted by CARB. Therefore, it is very important to monitor the OTC activity to ensure that the regulations that OTC adopts are similar and consistent with CARB. As an industry, we do not want a patchwork of regulations throughout the country.
Utah
On June 5, 2013 the Utah Air Quality Board adopted a VOC regulation on Consumer Products. The Utah Division on Air Quality (DAQ) proposed a Consumer Products regulation that was similar to the OTC regulations. Its process moved extremely quickly. The rule was posted in March 2013 and adopted in June 2013.
Yet another reason Industry needs to monitor the rules at OTC. Utah staff used OTC as the model for their rules. Utah rules will take effect on Sept. 1, 2014.
National Conference on Weights & Measures
The National Conference on Weights & Measures (NCWM) will meet in Louisville, KY on July 14–18. The issue of whether Bag-on-Valve (BOV) products will need to declare their net contents by weight or volume will once again be discussed. SPRAY
