[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 182 (Wednesday, September 20, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54985-54986]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-15599]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-R01-OAR-2006-0226; A-1-FRL-8221-1]
Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Budgets in Submitted State
Implementation Plan for Transportation Conformity Purposes; Maine;
Maintenance Plan Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets for the Portland Maine
8-Hour Ozone Area, and the Hancock, Knox, Lincoln and Waldo Counties
Maine 8-Hour Ozone Area
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of adequacy.
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SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that EPA has found
that the 2016 motor vehicle emissions budgets in the August 3, 2006
Maine State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision are adequate for
transportation conformity purposes. The submittal included MOBILE6.2
motor vehicle emissions budgets for 2016 for the Portland Maine 8-Hour
Ozone Area, and the Hancock, Knox, Lincoln and Waldo Counties
(Midcoast) Maine 8-Hour Ozone Area. On March 2, 1999, the DC Circuit
Court ruled that budgets in submitted SIPs cannot be used for
conformity determinations until EPA has affirmatively found them
adequate. As a result of our finding, the Portland Maine 8-hour ozone
area and the Midcoast Maine 8-hour ozone area can use the MOBILE6.2
motor vehicle emissions budgets from the submitted plan for future
conformity determinations.
DATES: These motor vehicle emissions budgets are effective October 5,
2006.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donald O. Cooke, Environmental
Scientist, Air Quality Planning Unit, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, EPA New England Regional Office, One Congress Street, Suite
1100 (CAQ), Boston, MA 02114-2023, (617) 918-1668,
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever ``we,''
``us'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA.
Today's notice is simply an announcement of a finding that we have
already made. EPA New England sent a letter to Maine Department of
Environmental Protection on September 8, 2006, stating that the 2016
MOBILE6.2 motor vehicle emissions budgets in the August 3, 2006 State
Implementation Plans (SIPs) are adequate for transportation conformity
purposes. This finding will also be announced on EPA's conformity Web
site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm,
(once there, click on ``What SIP submissions has EPA already found
adequate or inadequate?''). The adequate motor vehicle emissions
budgets (MVEBs) are provided in the following table:
Adequate Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets
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VOC (tons NOX (tons
per summer per summer
day) day)
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Year 2016 MVEBs for the Portland 8-hour Ozone 16.659 32.837
Area.........................................
Year 2016 MVEBs for the Midcoast 8-hour Ozone 3.763 6.245
Area.........................................
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Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the
Clean Air Act. EPA's conformity rule requires that transportation
plans, programs, and projects conform to state air quality
implementation plans and establishes the criteria and procedures for
determining whether or not they do. Conformity to a SIP means that
transportation activities will not produce new air quality violations,
worsen existing violations, or delay timely attainment of the national
ambient air quality standards.
The criteria by which we determine whether a SIP's motor vehicle
emission budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in
40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). Please note that an adequacy review is separate
from EPA's completeness review, and it also should not be used to
prejudge EPA's ultimate approval of the SIP. Even if we find a budget
adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved.
We have described our process for determining the adequacy of
submitted SIP budgets in a May 14, 1999 memorandum entitled
``Conformity Guidance on Implementation of March 2, 1999 Conformity
Court Decision.'' Additional guidance on EPA's adequacy
[[Page 54986]]
process was published in a July 1, 2004 Federal Register final
rulemaking, ``Transportation Conformity Rule Amendments for the New 8-
hour Ozone and PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards
and Miscellaneous Revisions for Existing Areas; Transportation
Conformity Rule Amendments: Response to Court Decision and Additional
Rule Changes'' (69 FR 40004). We followed this guidance in making our
adequacy determination.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q.
Dated: September 11, 2006.
Robert W. Varney,
Regional Administrator, EPA New England.
[FR Doc. E6-15599 Filed 9-19-06; 8:45 am]
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