If you operate a boiler that has an input of over 5 million BTUs and youve overlooked the NJDEPs annual combustion reporting requirement, expect a visit from an inspector with the authority to issue a hefty fine. This inspector is likely to be from your county health department, which is tasked with enforcing the NJDEPs emissions reporting requirements.

According to the NJDEPs Compliance and Enforcement website, Compliance and Enforcement inspectors perform more than 24,000 inspections and compliance evaluations per year and issue approximately 6,000 enforcement actions. If you think youll avoid the attention of the DEP because youre a small property owner without the resources to comply with the requirements of your Air Quality General Permit, you might want to reconsider. The DEPs online reporting system makes it easy to find you, and just as easy to prove that you havent submitted the readings.

Fortunately, there are some positive developments concerning air quality reporting. The NJDEP has made significant progress in simplifying the permitting process, and the NJDEPs online reporting tool (NJDEP Online) gives all property owners with access to the Internet a way to submit the combustion reading. However, the tool has some quirky features that have users pulling their hair out and cursing regulation in all its forms. For example, theres a field that will return an error if you enter a number with two decimal places instead of one. If you use natural gas, youll also need to be familiar with the conversion of therms to cubic feet of natural gas or some other unit of measure. And lastly, the cumbersome certification process with its different authorization levels makes the final step in the process like kicking a 50 yard field goal, into the wind.

Property owners searching for help with Air Quality compliance now have an affordable option offered by American Boiler Company. Customers of American Boiler Company who sign up for an Annual Service and Boiler Cleaning can include Air Quality Reporting for an additional fee of $395 per location. American Boiler Company will prepare and certify the combustion report using the NJDEP Online system. Property owners will only need to review the readings and simply click submit. Confirmation of the submission is received directly from the NJDEP. With American Boiler Companys services, your boilers will be professionally serviced and your combustion readings will be submitted guaranteed.

Contact American Boiler Company for more details at (973) 923-1999. Dont let another year pass without submitting combustion readings.

For more information about setting up an NJDEP Online account, instructions are available by clicking here.

For information on how to submit Annual Combustion Adjustments, the NJDEP has instructions available here.