The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regulates the installation and operation of various air emission sources (e.g., emergency generators, boilers, cooling towers, VOC sources) that exceed the following regulatory thresholds:

• Emergency generators having an output capacity equal to or greater than 37 Kw.
• Individual boilers having a heat input capacity equal to or greater than 10 MMBtu/hr or a group of boilers within close proximity or using a single stack that have an aggregate heat input capacity greater than 10 MMBtu/hr.
• Cooling towers that have the potential to emit greater than one ton of particulates or 20,000 gpm of blowdown.
• Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) sources (e.g., solvents, paints, degreasers, etc) that have the potential to emit greater than one ton of VOCs.

Final approval by DEP can take from several months or up to one year to complete so it is critical that this process begins as soon as possible during the design phase of a project to ensure that the appropriate approval/permit is in place to support the installation schedule.

Prior to purchasing and installing an air emission source that exceeds the regulatory threshold for DEP approval/permitting, a consulting engineer must be hired to coordinate with the Owner and the installation Contractor on obtaining DEP approval and ensuring that all compliance requirements are met.  In order to ensure that consultants working at the University understand Harvard-specific requirements for air compliance, the EH&S Department has compiled the attached list of Air Compliance/Engineering Consultants [PDF] who have done satisfactory auditing work for the University.

To ensure that contractors who are purchasing and installing permitted air emission sources are given clear direction on University standards for such work, the EH&S Department has prepared the attached Air Emission Source Installation Specification [PDF].  The air compliance consultant should incorporate this specification into the design documents that he/she prepares for a specific project. 

By using the template specification above, the Contractor is required to submit certain documents prior to the start of abatement activities and other documents before close-out of their contract.