Evolution of a State Air Toxics Control Program: A Review of the Wisconsin Experience, 1992 Environmental Conference Proceedings

Both the environmental regulatory agency and industry in Wisconsin have now had approximately three years of compliance experience with a state air toxics program which covers 437 chemical substances. After an extended development history and a substantial legal challenge, compliance efforts with the Wisconsin air toxics rules have yielded several important lessons. These include: the importance of continuing compliance workshops for industry sources affected by the rules; the necessity for investigating process by-products; and several innovative methods for complying with emission limitations, including waste minimization, inventory simplifications and inter-industry synergies. This paper summarizes information on compliance efforts by the pulp and paper industry in Wisconsin and on efforts to reconcile differences between the Wisconsin air toxics rules and the development of Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT)standards for the pulp and paper industry under the federal Clean Air Act Amendments.