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Virginia Administrative Code
Title 9. Environment
Agency 5. State Air Pollution Control Board
Chapter 170. Regulation for General Administration
12/30/2024

9VAC5-170-60. Availability of information.

A. Emission data in the possession of the department shall be available to the public without exception.

B. Other records, reports, or information in the possession of the department shall be available to the public with the following exception. The department shall consider records, reports, or information confidential in accordance with §§ 10.1-1314 and 10.1-1314.1 of the Virginia Air Pollution Control Law upon a showing satisfactory to the department by an owner that records, reports, or information meet the criteria in subsection C of this section and the owner provides a certification to that effect signed by a responsible representative of the owner. Records, reports or information may be disclosed, however, to other officers, employees or authorized representatives of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concerned with carrying out the provisions of the Virginia Air Pollution Control Law and the federal Clean Air Act.

C. In order to be exempt from disclosure to the public under subsection B of this section, the record, report or information must satisfy the following criteria:

1. Information for which the owner has been taking and will continue to take measures to protect confidentiality;

2. Information that has not been and is not presently reasonably obtainable without the owner's consent by private citizens or other firms through legitimate means other than discovery based on a showing of special need in a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding;

3. Information which is not publicly available from sources other than the owner; and

4. Information the disclosure of which would cause substantial harm to the owner.

D. The department shall have the right to substitute information which is not confidential for information claimed as confidential and to inquire as to the basis of the confidentiality claim. Upon approval of the department, an owner may substitute information which is not confidential for information claimed as confidential. Information substituted shall be limited to that which would have the same substantive effect in analyses conducted by the department as the information for which the inquiry is made.

E. The responsible representative of the owner who certifies information as confidential which does not meet the criteria in subsection C of this section shall be in violation of the Virginia Air Pollution Control Law.

Statutory Authority

§ 10.1-1308 of the Code of Virginia.

Historical Notes

Derived from Virginia Register Volume 14, Issue 3, eff. January 1, 1998; amended, Virginia Register Volume 39, Issue 5, eff. November 23, 2022.

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