GASP Investigates: Title V Operating Permit Backlog Persists Despite Official Denials

Updated: May 26

At GASP we do more than just watch air quality and push back against industrial polluters’ illegal emissions. We also try to hold air quality regulators accountable for doing their jobs and fulfilling the duties that air pollution laws impose on them.

This includes tracking how efficiently these regulators in Pennsylvania – specifically, the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) – process permit applications for sources of air pollution (more on the significance of such permits below).

Since 2018 we’ve researched and reported on the backlogs that exist at ACHD and at DEP’s six regional offices for processing applications for Title V Operating Permits, the permits that the Clean Air Act requires the largest sources of air pollution to have.

“Notwithstanding DEP's claims from earlier this year that it eliminated its permit backlog, GASP’s investigation uncovered applications that were still pending for longer than the eighteen months allowed under the Clean Air Act and DEP's own regulations.”

Understanding Title V Operating Permits: What They Are, Who Needs Them and Rules About How They’re Issued

Operating permits for major sources of air pollution are required by Title V of the Clean Air Act and thus are commonly called Title V Operating Permits.

A Title V Operating Permit for a particular facility must contain all the operating requirements that the air pollution laws impose on the facility. This helps facilitate compliance with those requirements – regulators and the public can use a facility’s Title V Operating Permit to see what requirements it has and to help determine whether the facility is complying with them.

A major source must apply for a Title V Operating Permit once it begins normal operations and the permitting authority gives it notice that it must submit a permit application. A Title V Operating Permit is good for five years, and sources must apply to renew their Title V Operating Permits before their old ones expire. The Clean Air Act, Pennsylvania’s air pollution control rules, and Allegheny County’s air pollution control regulations all require that the agency responsible for issuing Title V Operating Permits finish its review of any complete permit application within 18 months.

Notably, the Clean Air Act allows a source that has submitted a complete application for a Title V Operating Permit to continue to operate pending the responsible agency’s final approval of the application, even if agency approval takes years. The Clean Air Act also requires that the operations of the state and local programs that administer Title V Operating Permits be funded entirely from the emissions and permit fees paid by the sources subject to the requirements of Title V.

We first blogged about the backlogs of applications for new and renewed operating permits for major sources of air pollution that existed in DEP’s Southwest Regional Office (SWRO) and in Allegheny County (where Title V sources are regulated by ACHD) in September 2016.

In April 2018, we updated that research and expanded it to include sources permitted by DEP’s other five regional offices. We have updated that research every year since.

Here’s what our review turned up this year:

In Allegheny County, there are now 23 major sources of air pollution. One of those facilities has applied for, but has never been issued, a Title V Operating Permit – ATI Flat-Rolled Products (which was formerly known as Allegheny Ludlum Brackenridge Works).

ACHD did, however, publish a draft Title V Operating Permit for that facility in 2024.

Including ATI Flat-Rolled Products, ACHD has failed to act on renewal applications for two of the 23 major sources in Allegheny County within 18 months as its regulations require:

We are hopeful that increases in air permit fees that GASP and our partners worked to get passed for more than a year will allow ACHD to allocate the staffing and resources to completely eliminate its backlog once and for all.

Southwest

For purposes of air quality permitting, DEP’s Southwest Regional Office (SWRO) includes sources in Beaver, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties.

This year we counted 54 major sources under the jurisdiction of the SWRO. There are a few interesting things going on with the permitting of major sources in the Southwest Region:

The Brunner Landfill in Beaver County, which has never been issued a Title V Operating Permit, finally submitted a Title V Operating Permit application in January 2026.
DEP has not yet published what would be the initial Title V Operating Permit for Shell Chemical Appalachia’s ethane cracker in Beaver County. The facility applied for its first Title V Operating Permit in mid-2024. Subsequently, the facility applied for a Plan Approval that would significantly change applicable emissions limits and operating restrictions at the plant.
The Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station in Westmoreland County has been constructed and operated for many years under its Plan Approval, or preconstruction permit. DEP published a draft Title V Operating Permit for Tenaska in October 2025, but has not yet issued a Title V Operating Permit to the facility;
Markwest Liberty Midstream & Resource’s Houston Gas Plant has had applications pending at one time or another for both a minor source operating permit and a Title V Operating Permit. The facility appears to have neither an operating permit (of any kind) currently in place nor an application for such a permit currently pending. At least from the information available on DEP’s eFACTS website, it is not clear whether DEP has classified this source as a major source subject to Title V or a minor source.

Four major sources in the Southwest Region have had applications for Title V Operating Permit pending for more than the 18 months allowed by the Clean Air Act.

Northwest

DEP’s Northwest Region (NWRO) includes Armstrong and Indiana Counties for Title V permitting purposes, as well as Butler, Clarion, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, Venango, and Warren Counties. We count 64 active major sources of air pollution in the Northwest Region.

One facility, Webco Industries in Oil City, Venango County, was reclassified as a major source several years ago and still has its application for its first Title V Operating Permit pending.

Including Webco Industries, four of the 64 facilities in the Northwest Region have had renewal applications for their Title V Operating Permit pending for more than 18 months:

Northcentral

DEP’s Northcentral Region (NCRO) includes Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, and Union Counties.

We counted 50 major sources of air pollution in the Northcentral Region. Three facilities in the Northcentral Region have had their applications to renew their Title V Operating Permits pending for more than 18 months:

Southcentral

DEP’s Southcentral Region (SCRO) includes Adams, Bedford, Berks, Blair, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntington, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin, Perry, and York Counties.

We counted eighty-five active major sources of air pollution in these counties. No source in the Southcentral Region has had a renewal application for a Title V Operating Permit pending for more than 18 months.

Northeast

DEP’s Northeast Region (NERO) includes Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne, and Wyoming Counties.

We counted 53 active major sources of air pollution in those counties, three of which have had applications to renew their Title V Operating Permits pending for more than 18 months:

Worth noting: DEP’s eFACTS website (which tracks the status of facility permits) does not show that the Chrinergy Power facility has an application to renew its operating permit pending as of June 9, 2025; a source violates the air pollution laws if it continues to operate without submitting a timely application to renew or replace its operating permit. The facility does, however, have a plan approval from DEP in place and could be operating legally pursuant to that.

Southeast

DEP’s Southeast Region (SERO) includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties for purposes of permitting sources of air pollution (Philadelphia’s Air Management Services administers the Title V permitting program for facilities located in Philadelphia).

We counted 70 active major sources of air pollution in the Southeast Region, only one of which has had its renewal application for a Title V Operating Permit pending for more than 18 months:

Title V Permit Backlog 2018-2026

To give you some idea of how the Title V permit backlogs have (or haven’t) changed over the years, here’s a summary of the backlog has looked like at ACHD and each of DEP’s regional offices since 2018.

Take a look at any of the actual permits at GASP's Air Permits Clearinghouse. Permits are sorted by county, along with supporting documents and more information.

Here are GASP's Title V investigations since 2020 for those who'd like to take a deeper dive into the backlog issue:

Editor's Note: Check out this coverage of the Title V backlog investigation from Jack Troy of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

Group Against Smog & Pollution