R 336.1403 Oil- and natural gas-producing or transporting facilities and natural gas- processing facilities; emissions; operation.

Rule 403. (1) Except as provided in subrule (3) of this rule, it is unlawful for a person to cause or allow the emission of sour gas from an oil- or natural gas-producing or transporting facility or a natural gas- processing facility without burning or equivalent control of hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans. (2) Except as provided in subrule (3) of this rule, sour gas that is burned at an oil- or natural gas-producing or transporting facility or at a natural gas-processing facility shall be burned in a properly engineered flare, incinerator, or other combustion system with elevated discharge to the atmosphere. If the flare, incinerator, or other combustion system burns sour gas in such volume and with such hydrogen sulfide concentration that the daily quantity of hydrogen sulfide in the gas is less than 28 pounds, then it shall be equipped with either a pilot flame which will burn continuously when gas flows to the flare, incinerator, or other combustion system or with an automatic ignition system, unless otherwise authorized by the department. If the flare, incinerator, or other combustion system burns sour gas in such volume and with such hydrogen sulfide concentration that the daily quantity of hydrogen sulfide in the gas is 28 pounds or more, then it shall be equipped with a continuously burning pilot flame and a mechanism which will operate, upon failure of the pilot flame, to shut off the flow of gas, unless otherwise authorized by the department. (3) The provisions of subrules (1) and (2) of this rule do not apply to either of the following: (a) Crude oil-producing facilities that serve a well or group of wells which attained an average production level of 10 or less barrels per day per well before January 1, 1978, unless the department has received 1 complaint of odors regarding the facility, and the owner or operator is unable to or fails to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the department, that the uncontrolled hydrogen sulfide and mercaptan emissions do not cause an odor nuisance or health hazard. (b) A vessel or a battery of vessels that releases a total daily volume of vapors of less than 5,000 standard cubic feet, if the owner or operator demonstrates both of the following: (i) Combustion of the vapors is not economically reasonable. (ii) The uncontrolled release of the vapors will not cause a violation of the provisions of R 336.1901. (4) A person shall not cause or allow the emission of sulfur dioxide from a new sweetening facility, unless such emissions are controlled using the best available control technology. (5) The operator of a sour gas-, crude-, or condensate-sweetening facility-ty shall do all of the following: (a) Monitor the mass flow rate of hydrogen sulfide either entering the plant or going to the waste gas flare or flares on a periodic schedule specified by the department. The monitoring program shall include a determination of the hydrogen sulfide concentration using colorimetric detector tubes or their equivalent and a determination of the volumetric gas flow rate. The monitoring data shall be submitted to the department in an acceptable format within 30 days following the end of the month in which the data were collected. (b) Provide fencing, warning signs, or other measures as necessary to warn or deter unauthorized individuals from entering the plant property or buildings. Signs shall read: "Danger--Poison Gas," with at least 1 sign on each side of the plant property. (c) Provide control of malodorous emissions from any pressure relief valve or valves, storage tanks, and dehydrator vent or vents by burning or equivalent control. (d) Conduct a program of continuous monitoring of concentrations of hydrogen sulfide in any building enclosing a sweetening process. The sensor shall be placed as close to process equipment as practicable. The system shall be designed, installed, and maintained to provide a visual alarm when the hydrogen sulfide concentration is more than 50 ppm. (e) Automatically begin a safe and orderly shutdown of all process inflow streams to the facility if the concentration of hydrogen sulfide is more than 100 ppm in any building enclosing a sweetening process. Full operation may be resumed only after successful corrective measures have been applied. (f) Automatically commence shut-in of the facility within 1 second after extinguishment of the flare flame, unless otherwise authorized by the department. Operation of the facility shall not continue unless corrective measures taken to reignite the flame are successful. (6) A new sweetening facility shall not be installed at a distance of less than 1,300 feet from an existing residence, unless otherwise authorized by the department. Such authorization shall depend upon a satisfactory showing by a permit applicant that an odor nuisance shall not result from a lesser setback distance.