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Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
          Austin                       Texas
                       Memorandum

From:  Bridget C. Bohac, Attorney, Legal Division
To:  Lawrence E. Pewitt, P.E., Director, Permits Division
Date:  December 8, 1987
Subject:  Request for Legal Opinion - Permit Renewal

This is in response to your request for a legal opinion
concerning whether a permit may be voided by an applicant
after a fifteen-year period (or less) and a claim for a
standard exemption made instead of proceeding with a permit
renewal review.

Section 3.27(a) gives the Board authority to adopt rules to
exempt certain types of facilities from the requirements set
forth in Sections 3.27 and 3.28.  The Board has adopted Rule
116.6, now 116.211, in Regulation VI pursuant to this
authority.  Rule 116.6, now 116.211, incorporates by reference
the Standard Exemption List.  If a facility meets the
requirements of Rule 116.6, now 116.211, and the criteria of
a specific standard exemption, the facility qualifies for a
standard exemption and is exempt from all requirements set
forth in Sections 3.27 and 3.28 of the Act.

Section 3.28(g) of the Texas Clean Air Act (the Act)
authorizes review of a permit fifteen years after it has been
issued.  This subsection of the Act also states that if the
holder of an operating permit "to which the board has mailed
notice of the requirements of this subsection does not apply
for review of that permit by the date specified by the board
pursuant to this subsection, the permit shall expire fifteen
years following the date it was issued or last continued." 
Rule 116.12(h), now 116.311(c), which was adopted pursuant to
authority granted by the Act also states that if the permit
holder does not apply for review and renewal of the operating
permit, the operating permit shall expire.

In summary, pursuant to Section 3.28 (g) of the Act and Rule
116.12, now 116.310, the holder of an operating permit may
choose not to make application for review and renewal of that
permit.  In that event, the permit would expire and the
facility would no longer be authorized to operate pursuant to
the conditions of that permit. 

However, if the facility met the criteria of a standard
exemption and the requirements of Rule 116.6, now 116.211,
then the facility could continue to operate under that
authority.  We can find no authority to preclude the holder of
a permit from taking this course of action, upon expiration of
the fifteen year period or at any time prior to the expiration
of the fifteen year period.