New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection Bureau of Air Quality Planning

The NJDEP Bureau of Air Quality Planning hosts a Regulatory Development page which points the viewer to the current and proposed air quality regulations.

Rules Currently in Effect:

The New Jersey Administrative Code, Title 7, Chapter 27, Air Pollution Control has links to sub-chapters 1 – 34 describing various air pollution control measures.

Sub-Chapter 16 Control and Prohibition of Air Pollution by Volatile Organic Compounds was enacted in 2011. Curiously, the recommendations of the various VOC working groups which reported in 2006-07, do not appear to have been incorporated in the 2011 version, as many of the compliance dates are prior to 2006.

Subchapter 23 Prevention of Air Pollution from Architectural Coatings was enacted in 2008. It includes a lengthy table of VOC content limits for dozens of products. The date of compliance is Jan 1, 2005, which suggests that they were not informed by the working group recommendations of 2006-07 described below.

Subchapter 26 Prevention of Air Pollution from Adhesives, Sealants, Adhesive Primers and Sealant Primers was enacted in 2011. It includes a lengthy table of VOC content limits for dozens of products. The date of compliance is Jan 1, 2009. The limits appear to be significantly higher than comparable limits in California.

Rule Adoptions:

A list of rules adoptions are listed at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/aqm/1997adop.html. The Control and Prohibition of Air Pollution by Volatile Organic Compounds and Oxides of Nitrogen was adopted in 2009. It includes an amendment to sub-chapter 16 on VOCs. Curiously, this Adoption pre-dates the published version of sub-chapter 16 shown above, so this version may be obsolete. There is an Adoption of Subchapter 23 Prevention of Air Pollution from Architectural Coatings dated 2004, prior to subsequent updates. This tends to confirm that the Rules Adoption is an archive of previous enactments and not the current version in effect.

Rule Proposals:

NJDEP Air Quality Management Regulatory Development Proposals appears to contain an archive of rules changes open for comment. The dates are all several years in the past, and therefore likely obsolete.

Working Groups of 2006-07:

In 2006 and 2007, several VOC Workgroups published their Workgroup Recommendations for updating the VOC content limits for various categories:

VOC001 – Consumer Products. May 2, 2006. The workgroup recommended adopting the latest updated limits from California Air Resources Board (CARB).

VOC006 – Industrial Surface Coatings. May 22, 2006. The workgroup recommended adopting the EPA MACT standards for industrial surface coatings. The limits are broken into several different product categories.

VOC010 – Architectural and Industrial Maintenance Coatings. January 2, 2007. The workgroup compared the current New Jersey limits on VOC content to those of the Ozone Transport Group (OTC), California Air Resources Board (CARB), and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).

VOC011 – Adhesives and Sealants. January 2, 2007. This workgroup pointed to the updated SCAQMD limits.

VOC012 – Cutback and Emulsified Asphalt Paving. January 2, 2007. This workgroup recommended to ban the use of cutback asphalt from April 15 to October 15 and to lower the allowable volatile organic compound content (VOC) in emulsified asphalt, in line with OTC.

These reporting dates occurred after the dated of enactment of the various VOC regulations noted above. It is not clear whether the recommendations were adopted or abandoned.