§ 63.7 Performance testing requirements.
(a) Applicability and performance test dates. (1) The applicability of this section is set out in § 63.1(a)(4).
(2) Except as provided in paragraph (a)(4) of this section, if required to do performance testing by a relevant standard, and unless a waiver of performance testing is obtained under this section or the conditions of paragraph (c)(3)(ii)(B) of this section apply, the owner or operator of the affected source must perform such tests within 180 days of the compliance date for such source.
(i)-(viii) [Reserved]
(ix) Except as provided in paragraph (a)(4) of this section, when an emission standard promulgated under this part is more stringent than the standard proposed (see § 63.6(b)(3)), the owner or operator of a new or reconstructed source subject to that standard for which construction or reconstruction is commenced between the proposal and promulgation dates of the standard shall comply with performance testing requirements within 180 days after the standard's effective date, or within 180 days after startup of the source, whichever is later. If the promulgated standard is more stringent than the proposed standard, the owner or operator may choose to demonstrate compliance with either the proposed or the promulgated standard. If the owner or operator chooses to comply with the proposed standard initially, the owner or operator shall conduct a second performance test within 3 years and 180 days after the effective date of the standard, or after startup of the source, whichever is later, to demonstrate compliance with the promulgated standard.
(3) The Administrator may require an owner or operator to conduct performance tests at the affected source at any other time when the action is authorized by section 114 of the Act.
(4) If a force majeure is about to occur, occurs, or has occurred for which the affected owner or operator intends to assert a claim of force majeure:
(i) The owner or operator shall notify the Administrator, in writing as soon as practicable following the date the owner or operator first knew, or through due diligence should have known that the event may cause or caused a delay in testing beyond the regulatory deadline specified in paragraph (a)(2) or (a)(3) of this section, or elsewhere in this part, but the notification must occur before the performance test deadline unless the initial force majeure or a subsequent force majeure event delays the notice, and in such cases, the notification shall occur as soon as practicable.
(ii) The owner or operator shall provide to the Administrator a written description of the force majeure event and a rationale for attributing the delay in testing beyond the regulatory deadline to the force majeure; describe the measures taken or to be taken to minimize the delay; and identify a date by which the owner or operator proposes to conduct the performance test. The performance test shall be conducted as soon as practicable after the force majeure occurs.
(iii) The decision as to whether or not to grant an extension to the performance test deadline is solely within the discretion of the Administrator. The Administrator will notify the owner or operator in writing of approval or disapproval of the request for an extension as soon as practicable.
(iv) Until an extension of the performance test deadline has been approved by the Administrator under paragraphs (a)(4)(i), (a)(4)(ii), and (a)(4)(iii) of this section, the owner or operator of the affected facility remains strictly subject to the requirements of this part.
(b) Notification of performance test. (1) The owner or operator of an affected source must notify the Administrator in writing of his or her intention to conduct a performance test at least 60 calendar days before the performance test is initially scheduled to begin to allow the Administrator, upon request, to review an approve the site-specific test plan required under paragraph (c) of this section and to have an observer present during the test.
(2) In the event the owner or operator is unable to conduct the performance test on the date specified in the notification requirement specified in paragraph (b)(1) of this section due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond his or her control, the owner or operator must notify the Administrator as soon as practicable and without delay prior to the scheduled performance test date and specify the date when the performance test is rescheduled. This notification of delay in conducting the performance test shall not relieve the owner or operator of legal responsibility for compliance with any other applicable provisions of this part or with any other applicable Federal, State, or local requirement, nor will it prevent the Administrator from implementing or enforcing this part or taking any other action under the Act.
(c) Quality assurance program. (1) The results of the quality assurance program required in this paragraph will be considered by the Administrator when he/she determines the validity of a performance test.
(2)
(i) Submission of site-specific test plan. Before conducting a required performance test, the owner or operator of an affected source shall develop and, if requested by the Administrator, shall submit a site-specific test plan to the Administrator for approval. The test plan shall include a test program summary, the test schedule, data quality objectives, and both an internal and external quality assurance (QA) program. Data quality objectives are the pretest expectations of precision, accuracy, and completeness of data.
(ii) The internal QA program shall include, at a minimum, the activities planned by routine operators and analysts to provide an assessment of test data precision; an example of internal QA is the sampling and analysis of replicate samples.
(iii) The performance testing shall include a test method performance audit (PA) during the performance test. The PAs consist of blind audit samples supplied by an accredited audit sample provider and analyzed during the performance test in order to provide a measure of test data bias. Gaseous audit samples are designed to audit the performance of the sampling system as well as the analytical system and must be collected by the sampling system during the compliance test just as the compliance samples are collected. If a liquid or solid audit sample is designed to audit the sampling system, it must also be collected by the sampling system during the compliance test. If multiple sampling systems or sampling trains are used during the compliance test for any of the test methods, the tester is only required to use one of the sampling systems per method to collect the audit sample. The audit sample must be analyzed by the same analyst using the same analytical reagents and analytical system and at the same time as the compliance samples. Retests are required when there is a failure to produce acceptable results for an audit sample. However, if the audit results do not affect the compliance or noncompliance status of the affected facility, the compliance authority may waive the reanalysis requirement, further audits, or retests and accept the results of the compliance test. Acceptance of the test results shall constitute a waiver of the reanalysis requirement, further audits, or retests. The compliance authority may also use the audit sample failure and the compliance test results as evidence to determine the compliance or noncompliance status of the affected facility. A blind audit sample is a sample whose value is known only to the sample provider and is not revealed to the tested facility until after they report the measured value of the audit sample. For pollutants that exist in the gas phase at ambient temperature, the audit sample shall consist of an appropriate concentration of the pollutant in air or nitrogen that can be introduced into the sampling system of the test method at or near the same entry point as a sample from the emission source. If no gas phase audit samples are available, an acceptable alternative is a sample of the pollutant in the same matrix that would be produced when the sample is recovered from the sampling system as required by the test method. For samples that exist only in a liquid or solid form at ambient temperature, the audit sample shall consist of an appropriate concentration of the pollutant in the same matrix that would be produced when the sample is recovered from the sampling system as required by the test method. An accredited audit sample provider (AASP) is an organization that has been accredited to prepare audit samples by an independent, third party accrediting body.