(a) An owner or operator may elect to have all valves within a process unit to comply with an allowable percentage of valves leaking of equal to or less than 2.0 percent.

(b) The following requirements shall be met if an owner or operator decides to comply with an allowable percentage of valves leaking:

(1) An owner or operator must notify the Administrator that the owner or operator has elected to have all valves within a process unit to comply with the allowable percentage of valves leaking before implementing this alternative standard, as specified in §61.247(d).

(2) A performance test as specified in paragraph (c) of this section shall be conducted initially upon designation, annually, and at other times requested by the Administrator.

(3) If a valve leak is detected, it shall be repaired in accordance with §61.242-7(d) and (e).

(c) Performance tests shall be conducted in the following manner:

(1) All valves in VHAP service within the process unit shall be monitored within 1 week by the methods specified in §61.245(b).

(2) If an instrument reading of 10,000 ppm or greater is measured, a leak is detected.

(3) The leak percentage shall be determined by dividing the number of valves in VHAP service for which leaks are detected by the number of valves in VHAP service within the process unit.

(d) Owner or operators who elect to have all valves comply with this alternative standard shall not have a process unit with a leak percentage greater than 2.0 percent.

(e) If an owner or operator decides no longer to comply with §61.243-1, the owner or operator must notify the Administrator in writing that the work practice standard described in §61.242-7(a)-(e) will be followed.