Section 125-C:6 Powers and Duties of the Commissioner.
In addition to the other powers and duties granted herein, the commissioner shall have and may exercise the following powers and duties:
I. Exercising general supervision of the administration and enforcement of this chapter and all rules adopted and orders promulgated under it;
II. Developing a comprehensive program and provide services for the study, prevention, and abatement of air pollution;
III. Conducting and encouraging studies relating to air quality;
IV. Collecting and disseminating the results of studies relating to air quality;
V. Advising, consulting, and cooperating with the cities and towns and other agencies of the state, federal government, interstate agencies, and other affected agencies or groups in matters relating to air quality;
VI. Encouraging local units to promote cooperation by the people, political subdivisions, industries, and others in preventing and controlling air pollution in the state;
VI-a. Encouraging the recycling of waste oil by allowing qualified marketers to sell, and qualified facilities to burn, a mixture that consists of at least 90 percent virgin no. 6 oil and the remainder complying with the used fuel oil specifications in 40 CFR, section 279.11, table 1;
VII. Entering at all reasonable times in or upon any private or public property, except private residences, for the purpose of inspecting or investigating any condition which is believed to be either an air pollution source or in violation of any of the rules or orders promulgated hereunder. Any information, other than emission data, relating to secret processes or methods of manufacture or production obtained in the course of such inspection or investigation shall not be disclosed by the commissioner without permission of the person whose source is inspected or investigated;
VIII. Accepting, receiving, and administering grants or other funds or gifts for the purpose of carrying out any of the functions of this chapter, including such monies given under any federal law to the state for air quality control activities, surveys, or programs;
IX. Consulting the air resources council established by RSA 21-O:11 on the policies and plans for the control and prevention of air pollution;
X. Exercising all incidental powers necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter;
XI. Conducting emission tests and requiring owners or operators of stationary sources to install, maintain, and use emission monitoring devices and to make periodic reports to the commissioner on the nature and amounts of emissions from such stationary sources. The commissioner shall have the authority to make such data available to the public and as correlated with any applicable emission standards;
XII. Carrying out a program of inspection and testing of all modes of transportation, to enforce compliance with applicable emission standards when necessary and practicable and to control or limit the operation of motor vehicular and other modes of transportation when in the opinion of the commissioner such modes of transportation are producing or pose an imminent danger of producing levels of air pollutants that will result in a violation of an ambient air quality standard, or that will result in a significant deterioration, as defined in applicable federal regulations, of existing air quality in an area classified as a ""clean air'' area by state or federal regulations;
XIII. Coordinating and regulating the air pollution control programs of political subdivisions of the state and entering agreements with said subdivisions to plan or implement programs for the control and abatement of air pollution;
XIV. Establishing and operating a statewide system under which permits shall be required for the construction, installation, operation or material modification of air pollution devices and sources, which system shall be established pursuant to RSA 125-C:11 and the sections which follow. The authority vested in the commissioner by this section shall include the power to delay or prevent any construction, modification or operation of said air pollution sources and modifications which, in the opinion of the commissioner, would cause the ambient air pollution level in the locality of such construction, modification or operation to exceed limits for ambient concentrations established by the New Hampshire state implementation plan adopted pursuant to the Clean Air Act as amended, or which construction, modification or operation would, in the opinion of the commissioner, violate any provision of any land use plan established by the New Hampshire state implementation plan;
XIV-a. Establishing fuel quality standards and testing requirements for biomass other than round wood and wood chips derived from round wood or waste wood such as limbs, branches, brush, slash, bark, stumps, sawdust, saw mill trimmings, clean pallets, and untreated wood scraps from furniture and other manufacture and eligible biomass fuel related to the combustion of such materials at stationary sources. The commissioner may establish such standards as necessary to maintain statewide compliance with Clean Air Act standards and RSA 125-I.
XV. Implementing a program of prevention of significant deterioration of ambient air quality by establishing air quality increments limiting the maximum allowable increases in the amounts of air pollutants provided such increments are not less stringent than those specified in the Clean Air Act and amendments thereto, and in regulations promulgated thereunder;
XVI. Establishing an air quality monitoring equipment replacement program to provide for sufficient annual replacement to meet federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines and to assure the reliability and accuracy of the network equipment.
XVII. Implementing a program to control the emissions of air contaminants from consumer products for purposes of RSA 485:16-c, by establishing limits on the manufacture, use, or sale of such products, provided that such limits are not less stringent than those established under the Clean Air Act and amendments thereto, and in regulations promulgated under the Clean Air Act.
Source. 1979, 359:2. 1981, 332:3. 1986, 202:6, I(h), 8, 10. 1988, 277:1. 1995, 192:1. 1996, 228:104. 2001, 293:6, eff. July 17, 2001. 2008, 113:4, eff. Aug. 2, 2008.