Protection of Stratospheric Ozone: Amendments to the Section 608 Leak Repair Requirements

Resumen

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing changes to the leak repair regulations promulgated under Section 608 of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAA or Act). EPA is proposing to lower the leak repair trigger rates for comfort cooling, commercial refrigeration, and industrial process refrigeration and air- conditioning equipment (i.e., appliances) with ozone-depleting refrigerant charges greater than 50 pounds. This action proposes to streamline existing required practices and associated reporting and recordkeeping requirements by establishing similar leak repair requirements for owners or operators of comfort cooling, commercial refrigeration, and industrial process refrigeration appliances. This action also proposes to reduce the use and emissions of class I and class II controlled substances (such as but not limited, to CFC-11, CFC-12, HCFC-123, HCFC-22) by requiring the following: Verification and documentation of all repairs, retrofit or retirement of appliances that cannot be sufficiently repaired, mandatory replacement of appliance components that have a history of failures, and mandatory recordkeeping of the determination of the full charge and the fate o