Environmental Standard Operating Procedures

Air permit compliance and utility operations, equipment status

NAU operates under an air quality permit issued by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Sources include: large boilers at the North and South Heating Plants and smaller boilers located throughout campus. Without operational restrictions, NAU has the potential to emit air pollutants above major source thresholds. To keep NAU under a major permit category that would require more operational restrictions, ADEQ assigned limits on the amount of gas that can be combusted annually and run hours on emergency generators.

To ensure continuing permit compliance, NAU must monitor these operational restrictions and report to ADEQ within 24 hours if there are any deviations. Discrepancies or operational changes that would trigger reporting include:

  1. Exceeding the annual maximum amount of natural gas combusted for all campus sources which is 1,475 MMSCF.
  2. Maintain monthly records of incoming gas usage from main utility gas meter readings and keep rolling monthly totals to represent cumulative amount of gas usage. Records of the monthly totals of gas volume combusted should be maintained and sent to EH&S on a quarterly basis or monitored in Energy Cap software.
  3. Observing opacity (smoke) emissions from any boiler exhaust stack with the exception of uncombined water vapor (condensate).
  4. Installing or removing new boilers (any capacity), wet-cooling towers for heat transfer, emergency generators, or any type of fuel burning equipment. Notify Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) for recordkeeping.
  5. Exceeding an annual maximum of 200 hours for maintenance purposes in the emergency generators. There is no time limit for the generators when operating in true emergencies but each instance and duration of emergency use should be recorded. Records of the monthly totals of the hours of operation should be maintained and sent to EH&S on a quarterly basis.

Due to the ADEQ 24-hour reporting time frame, once any discrepancy is observed, Facility Services shall submit a “Permit Deviation Form” to EH&S.