ESC|University March 19th PADEP Mercury (Hg) Regulations Workshop POSTPONED!

On January 30, 2009 the Pennsylvania courts struck down the state mercury rule in its entirety as a result of a lawsuit filed by PP&L.  As part of that ruling, the court issued an immediate court order to prevent the Commonwealth from continued implementation and enforcement of the rule.  The Pennsylvania Secretary filed an appeal to the ruling on February 5, which included a stay to the court order halting the implementation and enforcement of the rule.  A further injunction against the request to stay the court order was filed by PP&L on March 4, 2009.  The court ruled in favor of this injunction. 

As of March 9, 2009, the court considers the rule to be unenforceable.  Thus, PADEP cannot issue Phase III certifications or accept mercury data until a final verdict is issued by the Supreme Court.  Current guidance from the DEP is that mercury reporting will be conducted following the existing draft technical guidance if/when the state Supreme Court reinstates the rule.  Based on correspondence with Tony Pitts, it is their recommendation that facilities collect data from their Mercury monitoring systems until a final decision is issued by the court.  This data cannot be submitted and certification approvals will not be issued until after the state Supreme Court issues a final ruling on the matter.  As far as ESC is aware, there is currently no projected timeline for the court to hear the case. 

At this time, ESC believes that a PADEP Mercury (Hg) Regulations training could only offer information based on the technical guidance document, which may or may not be applicable for data collection and reporting in the future depending on the court's final verdict.  In the interest of providing the most accurate and reliable compliance information to our customers, ESC has chosen to postpone the March 19th PADEP Mercury (Hg) Regulations Workshop until a final decision has been reached by the courts and further details are released from the DEP on implementation of the requirements for data reporting using the CEMSDPS tool.  Clients who have enrolled in this class may choose to keep their enrollment active for attendance to the postponed class or apply the costs to an alternate offering from ESC's posted training schedule.

ESC would like to apologize in advance for any inconveniences this may cause you.  Should you have any questions, please contact ESC|University at 865.688.7900 or email escu@envirosys.com.