8:00 a.m.            
Registration and Continental Breakfast with Sponsors

8:30 a.m.    
Welcome and Program Overview
Robin Thomerson, Partner, Dentons Bingham Greenebaum LLP

8:30 a.m.    
General Session 1:      
Update from Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet
Rebecca Goodman, Secretary, Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet  

9:15 a.m.    
General Session 2:
Kentucky Air Quality Update
Robin Thomerson, Partner, Dentons Bingham Greenebaum LLP
Michael Kennedy, PE, Director, Kentucky Division for Air Quality

Air Quality regulations are once again in a state of flux as EPA reviews and takes action on regulatory actions from the last administration. This session will provide an update on all the changes taking place from the federal level and will examine updates on the state level.

10:30 a.m.    
General Session 3:
Environmental Permitting and Reporting Under New Risk Imperatives – ESG, Sustainability, Customer/Consumer Activism and Beyond     
John Colebrook, Manager, Consulting Services, Trinity Consultants
Mark Pendley, CIH, QEP, CSP, CHMM, Environmental, Safety and Security Team Leader, Logan Aluminum

Environmental permitting and reporting has historically been governed by identifying applicable requirements and developing programs/systems that can continuously demonstrate compliance assurance. New nonregulatory drivers are emerging that must be adequately balanced with compliance assurance when preparing environmental permit applications and compliance reports. GHG emissions reported under the annual emissions inventory can no longer be “passed along” without also verifying consistency with a range of internal and external reports (i.e., corporate sustainability reports, carbon reduction goals, etc.). Potable water consumption and wastewater discharge data must be reconciled with the environmental performance criteria of standards organization certifications. Trends in environmental releases reported under each reporting platform should be reflective of the same underlying “story” about your company’s environmental performance. This presentation will provide insights on how to develop, enhance, and modernize your environmental programs under the new and emerging environmental risk imperatives that cannot be found in a regulation.

11:30 a.m.
General Session 4:  
Best Practices for Deploying a Sustainable Air Quality EMIS Solution that Can Support ESG Reporting
Karen Thompson, Senior Technical Manager, ALL4, Inc.
Julie Taccino, Managing Consultant, Digital Solutions, ALL4, Inc.

Implementing an air emissions system can be much more transparent and robust than calculating emissions in spreadsheets. Having real-time visibility on air quality emissions, in particular GHG emissions, is also an emerging need for many operations as a result of ESG reporting requirements and executive focus on the KPIs in these reports.  However, there are common challenges faced in in making air emissions system implementations deliver anticipated capabilities and return on investment –
•    very high level of effort to define and configure organization specific air quality calculation approaches into the solution,
•    effectively integrating with continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS), continuous monitoring systems (compliance focused), and operations data systems tracking parameters like fuel use, and
•    difficult to extract or present the data in a user-friendly format to submit to agencies, support an audit of the system, or to support internal reporting related to initiatives such as ESG.

In this presentation, we will discuss tools and approaches to avoid these common pitfalls for air emission implementation and achieve a sustainable solution. By sustainable we mean a deployed solution that can be self-maintained with a high degree of adoption. These tools include best practices around data inputs including integrations, methods of producing more usable data outputs, and approaches for streamlining solution setup and maintenance related to air emissions methodologies and inputs.

12:15 p.m.
Lunch with Sponsors

1:15 p.m.
General Session 5:      
Key Issues in Water Permitting
Bradley Strait, Attorney, Dentons Bingham Greenebaum LLP
Todd Svoboda, Senior Engineer, East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Inc.
Carey Johnson, Director, Kentucky Division of Water

Legal and regulatory developments concerning the scope of the Clean Water Act are making permitting decisions increasingly complex. Specifically, the U.S. Supreme Court published an opinion in April 2020 that has significantly impacted the way in which courts treat groundwater that is hydrologically connected to surface water. Several cases have since been published that help give us a clearer understanding on key legal issues, such as what a "point source discharge" may actually look like today. The answer may not be as straightforward as we all once thought, and may require permits for "discharges" that were not previously subject to NPDES / KPDES permitting. Additionally, the Supreme Court is poised to once again consider the scope of the definition of "water of the United States," and the scope of water quality certification review continues to shift as courts and EPA address the issue, at times through conflicting directives.

2:15 p.m.
General Session 6:  
Inspections, Enforcement and the EJ in the Post-COVID World
Jennifer Cave, Attorney, Stites & Harbison PLLC

This presentation will provide tips for handling a return to in-person local, state, and federal regulatory inspections. During COVID, many regulatory inspectors relied on paper reviews or "desktop inspections" of permitted facilities. With the continuing decline of COVID, on-site inspections are expected to resume. This presentation will provide tips on how to prepare your site for a regulatory inspection. We will also discuss U.S. EPA's National Compliance Initiatives and explore how enforcement has continued to focus on these areas. Lastly, we will examine how new environmental justice programs may impact permitting, inspection, and enforcement activity at your facility.

3:15 p.m.
General Session 7:
Latest Developments in the Ongoing Evolution of Coal Combustion Residuals Regulation
Timothy J. Hagerty, Member, Frost Brown Todd LLC

Over the past decade, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rolled out an ever-evolving set of regulatory requirements governing the disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCR) produced by coal-fired electric generating units – including those operated by public utilities across Kentucky. This presentation will evaluate the latest developments in CCR regulation, from EPA’s ongoing consideration of requests by scores of utilities to extend the closure date for CCR surface impoundments (so-called ash ponds), to EPA’s proposed federal permitting program for CCR units, to EPA’s anticipated late-2022 rulemaking concerning heretofore unregulated “legacy” CCR surface impoundments. Learn what you need to know to keep up with this fast-changing regulatory program that has critical implications for utilities, communities, and ratepayers across Kentucky.

4:00 p.m.
General Session 8:
Proposed Good Neighbor Federal Implementation Plan for the 2015 Ozone NAAQS: Strategic Permitting Considerations & Economic Impacts to the Commonwealth
Scott Kirkpatrick, Technical Director, ALL4 LLC
Michael Kennedy, PE, Director, Kentucky Division for Air Quality
Philip Imber, Manager, Environmental Air Section, LG&E and KU Energy LLC

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has proposed a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for 25 states (including Kentucky) to address the “good neighbor” provision in the Clean Air Act (CAA) for the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). With the proposed FIP, U.S. EPA is essentially expanding the previous Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) to include more stringent requirements for electric generating units (EGUs) and to include (for the first time) ozone season nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions limits for certain non-EGU combustion sources. With initial compliance dates coming in 2026 for non-EGU sources, affected stationary sources need to be in action for capital project planning and permitting. This presentation will summarize developments in the rulemaking (February 2022 – Present), identify strategic permitting considerations for stationary sources impacted, and discuss economic impacts to the citizens of the commonwealth by the proposed rulemaking.

5:00 p.m.
Day One Adjourns

8:00 a.m.            
Registration and Continental Breakfast with Sponsors

8:30 a.m.    
Legislative and Policy Overview
Kate Shanks, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, Kentucky Chamber

8:45 a.m.
General Session 9:  
The Clean Water Act: Still Turning Heads at 50!
Sarah Payne-Jarboe, Partner, English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley LLP
Joye Beth Spinks, Associate, English, Lucas, Priest & Owsley LLP

The federal Clean Water Act turns 50 this year, and is still one of the most affecting and effective environmental laws enacted. Regrettably, after five decades of cogitation, conflagration and Court cases, the CWA still appears confused about its own boundaries. Its compulsive course changes with each new administration leaves the regulated community, and sometimes state permitting authorities, confused about what should be permitted, and what shouldn’t. This has an outsized impact for Kentucky businesses because of Kentucky’s legal restrictions preventing the State from regulating discharges beyond the limits of the federal NPDES requirements (currently no similar constraints for air emissions under the CAA). How has the CWA’s authority expanded since it was written in 1972? What are the key issues today? And what are those state limitations, anyway? Join us to celebrate the CWA’s birthday, and decide for yourself if it’s behaving as a 50-year-old should!    
   
10:00 a.m.
General Session 10:      
Best Practices for Documenting and Presenting Emissions Calculations in Air Quality Permit Applications
Maren Seibold, Managing Consultant, Trinity Consultants    

Clear, well-documented emissions calculations are essential for preparing successful air quality permit applications. The effective presentation of this information minimizes processing delays, reduces the risk of undue scrutiny, and streamlines the preparation of future emissions surveys. The presentation will cover best practices in documenting emissions calculations in Kentucky permit applications, including consistent sequential approaches, sufficient source documentation, sample calculations, and direct linkage to application forms. The session will explain how emissions calculations presented in permit applications will be integrated into the Kentucky Emissions Inventory Survey for actual emissions reporting and when permit revisions are required to update the survey system. Additional key components for preparing accurate emissions calculations will be addressed, including using “actual” emission factors developed from stack tests or other site-specific knowledge. Finally, the presentation will address methods for streamlining and reality-checking emissions calculations across reporting programs from emissions inventory to Toxic Release Inventory.

11:00 a.m.        
General Session 11:      
Environmental Reporting in the Data Age
Brian Otten, Senior Consultant, Trinity Consultants

In the advent of The Data Age, EPA and local regulatory agencies have implemented systems that make data collection, analysis, and access easier than ever. Many companies are implementing their own data systems and being asked by agencies to report relevant datasets. Once data has been reported, government agencies, citizen groups, and other companies may use that data to the detriment of the reporting entity. This means that the accuracy of reported datasets has become paramount as the data can now be cross-checked, reviewed, and potentially used for ulterior motives with ease. This presentation will review relevant reporting systems, how reported data is being used, and why companies need to be paying attention.

11:45 a.m.    
Lunch with Sponsors

12:45 p.m.
General Session 12:  
Permitting Implications of Reuse and Recycling
Clay Larkin, Partner, Dentons Bingham Greenebaum LLP

Businesses in nearly every sector are increasingly looking at opportunities to reuse and recycle materials that may otherwise be discarded. Despite the significant environmental and financial benefit that can arise from these practices, they may also raise complicated permitting issues to which there are no easy answers. This presentation will examine key regulatory issues related to reuse and recycling with an emphasis on the available permitting actions that may be used to provide comfort to those businesses seeking to engage in innovative practices.    

1:45 p.m.
General Session 13:
PFAS- A Continuing Saga
Tony Hatton, Commissioner, Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection
Robin Thomerson, Partner, Dentons Bingham Greenebaum LLP

The ever-changing regulatory status of the so-called “forever chemicals” has the potential to impact many industrial sectors. PFAS chemicals have been successfully used for decades in cosmetics, clothing, fire-fighting foam, cooking equipment and food packaging, to name a few.  In recent years, the environmental and health impacts of the “forever chemicals” have come under scrutiny. EPA is moving rapidly to address PFAS impacts to all media. This update will inform participants of the ongoing regulatory actions as well as potential practical challenges that will have to be met.

2:30 p.m.    
General Session 14:
Meet with the Regulators
Tony Hatton, Commissioner, Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection
Amanda Lefevre, Deputy Commissioner, Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection
Michael Kennedy, PE, Director, Kentucky Division for Air
Carey Johnson, Director, Division of Water, Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection
Tammi Hudson, Director, Division of Waste Management, Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection
Moderated by: Robin Thomerson, Partner, Dentons Bingham Greenebaum LLP

3:30 p.m.        
25th Annual Kentucky Environmental Permitting and Reporting Conference Adjourns