40 CFR 70.12 – Public petition requirements
(a) Standard petition requirements. Each public petition sent to the Administrator under § 70.8(d) of this part must include the following elements in the following order:
(1) Identification of the proposed permit on which the petition is based. The petition must provide the permit number, version number, or any other information by which the permit can be readily identified. The petition must specify whether the permit action is an initial permit, a permit renewal, or a permit modification/revision, including minor modifications/revisions.
(2) Identification of petition claims. Any issue raised in the petition as grounds for an objection must be based on a claim that the permit, permit record, or permit process is not in compliance with applicable requirements or requirements under this part. Any arguments or claims the petitioner wishes the EPA to consider in support of each issue raised must be contained within the body of the petition, or if reference is made to an attached document, the body of the petition must provide a specific citation to the referenced information, along with a description of how that information supports the claim. In determining whether to object, the Administrator will not consider arguments, assertions, claims, or other information incorporated into the petition by reference. For each claim raised, the petition must identify the following:
(i) The specific grounds for an objection, citing to a specific permit term or condition where applicable.
(ii) The applicable requirement as defined in § 70.2, or requirement under this part, that is not met.
(iii) An explanation of how the term or condition in the permit, or relevant portion of the permit record or permit process, is not adequate to comply with the corresponding applicable requirement or requirement under this part.
(iv) If the petition claims that the permitting authority did not provide for a public participation procedure required under § 70.7(h), the petition must identify specifically the required public participation procedure that was not provided.
(v) Identification of where the issue was raised with reasonable specificity during the public comment period provided for in § 70.7(h), citing to any relevant page numbers in the public comment submitted to the permitting authority and attaching this public comment to the petition. If the grounds for the objection were not raised with reasonable specificity during the public comment period, the petitioner must demonstrate that such grounds arose after that period, or that it was impracticable to raise such objections within that period, as required under § 70.8(d) of this part.
(vi) Unless the grounds for the objection arose after the public comment period or it was impracticable to raise the objection within that period such that the exception under § 70.8(d) applies, the petition must identify where the permitting authority responded to the public comment, including page number(s) in the publicly available written response to comment, and explain how the permitting authority’s response to the comment is inadequate to address the issue raised in the public comment. If the response to comment document does not address the public comment at all, the petition must state that.
(b) Timeliness. In order for the EPA to be able to determine whether a petition was timely filed, the petition must have or be accompanied by one of the following: A date or time stamp of receipt through EPA’s designated electronic submission system as described in § 70.14; a date or time stamp on an electronic submission through EPA’s designated email address as described in § 70.14; or a postmark date generated for a paper copy mailed to EPA’s designated physical address.