Nevada Mercury Control Program (NMCP) - Annual Emissions Reporting
Pursuant to NMCP regulations, facilities must report mercury emissions and the mercury co-product collected annually. Annual reports are received by the NDEP in the month of March, each year. The NDEP reviews the data submittals and aggregates the data into a spreadsheet report by July 1st, each year. Mercury emissions are calculated for every thermal unit, which is not De Minimis, using the most recent NDEP-approved stack test emission factor with actual throughput (production) values for the year. The Annual Emissions Reporting document describes the emissions reporting protocol and the NMCP Method 29 Source Test Guidelines contains the Method 29 source test parameters. Learn more about Method 29...
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TRI Reporting Is Different Than NMCP Reporting
Under the US EPA Toxic Release Inventory Program (TRI), the threshold for facilities to report mercury (mercury compounds) is 10 lbs per calendar year. TRI defines a mercury compound as “any unique chemical substance that contains mercury as part of the chemical’s infrastructure.” TRI reporting calculates emissions from releases to air (fugitive and point sources), water discharges, land, transfers off site and other waste management activities.
The NMCP requires annual mercury emissions reporting from thermal units only (point sources). The NMCP has explicit testing and data requirements that differ from TRI. The NMCP only allows the use of a US EPA Reference Test Method 29, approved by the NMCP, from the same calendar year as the reporting year. An NMCP-approved test consists of: an NMCP-approved protocol, an NMCP-witnessed test and an NMCP-approved test report. A facility may use an NMCP-approved source test for TRI reporting, but other data sources acceptable forTRI reporting are not acceptable for NMCP reporting. Therefore, TRI and NMCP data values may be different for the same unit.
View Annual Emission Reports in PDF Format
For the 2006 reporting year, not all thermal units had been stack tested for mercury emissions. Only Tier-1 units had the requirement to test prior to December 31, 2006; Tier-2 units began testing in the 2007 calendar year. Facilities which had not tested were instructed to use an emission factor from a similar unit in industry as a "surrogate emission factor." Later testing demonstrated that many of the surrogate values were quite different from tested values; thus the 2006 reported emission totals are coarse.
For the 2007 reporting year, all thermal units were stack tested for mercury emissions, except De Minimis designated units. All units were tested with Method 29, except for a few individual units which used Method 101A. These source tests had NDEP-approved test protocols, NDEP-witnessed tests and NDEP-approved test results. Because every unit tested and had its own emission factor, the 2007 year offers the best emissions data resolution to date.