EPA lauds industry on environment
David Perry -- Furniture Today, May 26, 2003
Greensboro, N.C. — A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official praised the furniture industry last week for its record on protecting the environment.
Sally Shaver, director of EPA's emission standards division, also thanked the American Furniture Manufacturers Assn. for its "commitment to promoting and encouraging environmentally responsible manufacturing."
She spoke at an AFMA meeting here, reviewing a number of federal environmental initiatives, including Maximum Achievable Control Technology, or MACT, rules to address emissions from industrial combustion boilers.
EPA's deadline for finalizing boiler regulations was May of last year. But the agency's plan, which would have required companies to retrofit even small boilers with expensive add-on pollution control technologies, was withdrawn after testimony from AFMA staff before officials of the Office of Management and Budget, which was conducting a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed rule.
AFMA emphasized its concerns about what it said was the broad scope and high compliance costs of the regulations on solid-fuel, wood- and coal-fired boilers used by wood furniture makers.
The revised EPA rule, published in January, excludes by definition 90% of the solid-fuel, fire-tube boilers used in furniture factories.
AFMA officials said they have focused on the development of a reasonable, cost-effective rule that excludes boilers that pose no significant human health risk and have no significant impact on the environment.
The trade group is continuing to work on technical arguments to exempt all wood furniture manufacturers from the boiler rule.
