[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 96 (Wednesday, May 20, 2009)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 23632-23635]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-11638]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R05-OAR-2008-0786; FRL-8907-3]
Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans;
Minnesota
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Direct final rule.
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SUMMARY: EPA is approving a request submitted by the Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) on October 9, 2008, to revise the
Minnesota State Implementation Plan (SIP) for particulate matter less
than 10 microns (PM10). The approval revises the Minnesota
SIP by updating information regarding the steel mini-mill facility
located at 1678 Red Rock Road, St. Paul, Minnesota. The approval
acknowledges the change of ownership and operation of the source from
North Star Steel Company to Gerdau Ameristeel US Inc. The revision also
amends the SIP by removing the Administrative Order issued to North
Star Steel Company, and replacing the SIP conditions from the
Administrative Order and placing those SIP requirements in a joint
Title I/Title V document for Gerdau Ameristeel US, Inc. These revisions
will not result in an increase in PM10 emissions because no
emission limits were increased.
DATES: This direct final rule will be effective July 20, 2009, unless
EPA receives adverse comments by June 19, 2009. If adverse comments are
received, EPA will publish a timely withdrawal of the direct final rule
in the Federal Register informing the public that the rule will not
take effect.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R05-
OAR-2008-0786, by one of the following methods:
1. http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for
submitting comments.
2. E-mail: [email protected].
3. Fax: (312) 886-5824.
4. Mail: John M. Mooney, Chief, Criteria Pollutant Section, Air
Programs Branch (AR-18J), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 77 West
Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604.
5. Hand Delivery: John M. Mooney, Chief, Criteria Pollutant
Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J), U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604. Such
deliveries are only accepted during the Regional Office normal hours of
operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of
boxed information. The Regional Office official hours of business are
Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. excluding Federal
holidays.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R05-OAR-
2008-0786. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information
provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without
going through http://www.regulations.gov your e-mail address will be
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of
any defects or viruses.
Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 5, Air and Radiation Division, 77 West
Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604. This facility is open from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Federal
holidays. We recommend that you telephone Charles Hatten, Environmental
Engineer, at (312) 886-6031 before visiting the Region 5 office.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles Hatten, Environmental
Engineer, Criteria Pollutant Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J),
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, 77 West Jackson
Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604, (312) 886-6031,
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document whenever ``we,''
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA. This supplementary information
section is arranged as follows:
I. General Information
II. What Revision did the State Request Be Incorporated into the
SIP?
III. What is EPA's Analysis of the State Submission?
IV. What Action is EPA Taking?
V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
[[Page 23633]]
I. General Information
A. Does this Action Apply to Me?
This action applies only to the Gerdau Ameristeel US, Inc. (Gerdau)
steel mini-mill facility located at 1678 Red Rock Road, St. Paul,
Minnesota (Ramsey County).
B. Has Public Notice been Provided?
Minnesota published a public notice of the revisions to the SIP on
July 25, 2008. The comment period began on July 26, 2008, and ended on
August 25, 2008. In the public notice, Minnesota stated it would hold a
public hearing if one were requested during the comment period. This
follows the alternative public participation process EPA approved on
June 5, 2006 (71 FR 32274). For limited types of SIP revisions that the
public has shown little interest in, a public hearing is not
automatically required. Because no one requested a public hearing,
Minnesota did not hold a public hearing.
C. What is the Background to this Action?
Gerdau owns and operates a steel mini-mill formerly owned and
operated by North Star Steel Company. The mill receives recycled
automobile bodies, tin cans from refuse-derived fuel recycling
operations, recycled white goods, and other grades of scrap steel.
These materials are shredded in a hammer mill and the shredded steel is
separated from the non-ferrous materials. The scrap steel is refined
and converted into a large number of steel alloys in an electric arc
furnace (EAF) and ladle refining station (LRS). The molten steel is
cast into billets by a continuous casting machine. The billets are sold
as such or reheated in a reheat furnace and hot-rolled into various
structural shapes in a rolling mill.
Gerdau is planning to make some physical changes at the steel mini-
mill, generally, to update the facility. The changes at the facility
will include: (1) Replacing the current additive silos with new lime
additive silos, (2) replacing the current conveyor system with a new
pneumatic system transferring the lime from the silos to the EAF, (3)
the addition of lime injection ports on the EAF, and (4) removal of the
fluff landfill and slag crushing operation (no longer in operation).
The State provided a modeling analysis of the effect of the above-
mentioned changes at the facility on local PM10
concentrations. Below in section III, a more detailed discussion of the
modeling analysis and its results can be found.
II. What Revision did the State Request Be Incorporated into the SIP?
The State has requested that EPA approve as a revision to the
Minnesota SIP: (1) A change in the ownership of the source from North
Star Steel Company to Gerdau Ameristeel US, Inc., (2) the replacement
of the SIP conditions from the Administrative Order with the SIP
conditions in the joint Title I/Title V document for Gerdau, and (3)
the removal of the Administrative Order issued to North Star Steel
Company.
A. What Prior SIP Actions are Pertinent to this Action?
The Gerdau mini-mill steel facility, previously owned and operated
by North Star Steel Company, was found to be a culpable source in the
Red Rock Road area's nonattainment plan for the PM10
National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). However, the area
currently meets the NAAQS for PM10, and was officially
redesignated as attainment on September 24, 2002.
The facility has been subject to an Administrative Order (Third
Amended Findings and Order) as part of Minnesota's SIP for attaining
the PM10 NAAQS. The Administrative Order (Order) to control
PM10 emissions was issued on April 22, 1993, and was
approved into the SIP on February 15, 1994 (59 FR 7218). MPCA
subsequently amended the Order: Amendment One was approved on June 13,
1995 (60 FR 31088) and Amendment Two on February 8, 1999 (64 FR 5936).
B. What are Title I Conditions and Joint Title I/Title V Documents?
SIP control measures were contained in permits issued to culpable
sources in Minnesota until 1990 when EPA determined that limits in
State-issued permits are not Federally enforceable because the permits
expire. Minnesota then issued permanent Administrative Orders to
culpable sources in nonattainment areas from 1991 to February of 1996.
Minnesota's consolidated permitting regulations, approved into its
SIP on May 2, 1995 (60 FR 21447), include the term ``Title I
condition'' which was written, in part, to satisfy EPA requirements
that SIP control measures remain permanent. A ``Title I condition'' is
defined as ``any condition based on source-specific determination of
ambient impacts imposed for the purposes of achieving or maintaining
attainment with the national ambient air quality standard and which was
part of the State implementation plan approved by EPA or submitted to
the EPA pending approval under section 110 of the act. * * * '' The
rule also states that ``Title I conditions and the permittee's
obligation to comply with them, shall not expire, regardless of the
expiration of the other conditions of the permit.'' Further, ``any
title I condition shall remain in effect without regard to permit
expiration or reissuance, and shall be restated in the reissued
permit.''
Minnesota has initiated using joint Title I/Title V documents as
the enforceable document for imposing emission limitations and
compliance requirements in SIPs. The SIP requirements in joint Title I/
Title V documents submitted by MPCA are cited as ``Title I
conditions,'' therefore ensuring that SIP requirements remain permanent
and enforceable. EPA reviewed the State's procedure for using joint
Title I/Title V documents to implement site-specific SIP requirements
and found it to be acceptable under both Titles I and V of the Clean
Air Act (CAA) (July 3, 1997 letter from David Kee, EPA, to Michael J.
Sandusky, MPCA). Further, a June 15, 2006, letter from EPA to MPCA
clarifies procedures to transfer requirements from Administrative
Orders to joint Title I/Title V documents.
III. What is EPA's Analysis of the State Submission?
In late 2004, the steel mini-mill facility formerly owned and
operated by North Star Steel Company was purchased by Gerdau. Gerdau
operates the facility in an area that currently meets the NAAQS for
PM10. Pursuant to paragraph VI.D. of the Administrative
Order previously issued to North Star Steel Company, Gerdau's facility
is subject to all of the same requirements of the Administrative Order
for attaining the NAAQS for PM10. The requirements of the
Order have been incorporated into a joint Title I/Title V document as
non-expiring Title I conditions.
In order to replace the Administrative Order, MPCA has placed all
the conditions necessary for maintaining the NAAQS for PM10,
including those from the Administrative Order, in Air Permit No.
12300055-004. The permit serves as a joint Title I/Title V document to
be incorporated into Minnesota's SIP, replacing the conditions from the
Administrative Order. The SIP requirements in the joint Title I/Title V
document submitted by MPCA are designated as ``Title I Condition: SIP
for PM10 NAAQS'' making it clear that the term is part of
the SIP's source-specific requirements.
The SIP revision does not include any increases in PM10
emission limits but, because some of the changes being made
[[Page 23634]]
to the facility may affect the release and dispersion of
PM10 emissions, Gerdau performed an air quality analysis to
address the facility's impact on the PM10 NAAQS. The
facility was modeled with the AERMOD air dispersion model using the
urban option and five years of meteorological data from Minneapolis.
Gerdau modeled only the impact of its own facility and added a
background concentration provided by MPCA. The background
concentrations were 28 micrograms/cubic meter ([micro]g/m\3\) for the
annual PM10 averaging time and 70 [micro]g/m\3\ for the 24-
hour averaging time. There is a PM10 monitor very close to
the Gerdau facility, which is likely to capture PM10
emissions from Gerdau and its neighbors. From 2000 to 2006, that
monitor recorded 24-hour values which averaged about 35 [micro]g/m\3\,
half the magnitude of the background value used in the modeling. The
monitor did not record any exceedances of the PM10 standards
during this period.
The following table shows the maximum annual and high, sixth high
24-hour PM10 levels from the modeling of Gerdau's facility.
Table--Maximum Modeled PM10 Concentration, Pre- and Post-Modification
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Averaging time Current operating scenario Post-modification operating scenario
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Max PM10 Max PM10
Max PM10 concentration Max PM10 concentration
concentration Gerdau + concentration Gerdau +
Gerdau background Gerdau background
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Annual.............................. 13.75 41.75 12.44 40.44
24-hour............................. 63.70 133.70 62.24 132.24
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The modeling results show that Gerdau's contribution to the ambient
PM10 concentrations will decrease from the current
operations to the post-modification scenario. A full modeled attainment
demonstration was performed for Gerdau's surrounding area in 1996.
There have been only limited changes to the other nearby sources since
then, and the existing SIP is expected to remain protective of the
PM10 NAAQS. Since Gerdau's modifications will decrease
PM10 impacts in the area, Gerdau's SIP revision will
strengthen the existing PM10 SIP.
IV. What Action is EPA Taking?
EPA is approving a revision to Minnesota's SIP changing the
ownership of the steel mini-mill from North Star Steel Company to
Gerdau Ameristeel US, Inc., and incorporating into the SIP those
provisions in the joint Title I/Title V document No. 12300055-004
labeled as ``Title I Condition: SIP for PM10 NAAQS.'' EPA is
also removing the Administrative Order issued to North Star Steel
Company from the SIP. These revisions will not result in an increase in
PM10 emissions because no emission limits were increased.
We are publishing this action without prior proposal because we
view this as a noncontroversial amendment and anticipate no adverse
comments. However, in the proposed rules section of this Federal
Register publication, we are publishing a separate document that will
serve as the proposal to approve the State plan if relevant adverse
written comments are filed. This rule will be effective July 20, 2009
without further notice unless we receive relevant adverse written
comments by June 19, 2009. If we receive such comments, we will
withdraw this action before the effective date by publishing a
subsequent document that will withdraw the final action. All public
comments received will then be addressed in a subsequent final rule
based on the proposed action. The EPA will not institute a second
comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action
should do so at this time. If we do not receive any comments, this
action will be effective July 20, 2009.
V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
Under the Clean Air Act, the Administrator is required to approve a
SIP submission that complies with the provisions of the Act and
applicable Federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a).
Thus, in reviewing SIP submissions, EPA's role is to approve State
choices, provided that they meet the criteria of the Clean Air Act.
Accordingly, this action merely approves State law as meeting Federal
requirements and does not impose additional requirements beyond those
imposed by State law. For that reason, this action:
Is not a ``significant regulatory action'' subject to
review by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Order
12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993);
Does not impose an information collection burden under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.);
Is certified as not having a significant economic impact
on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory
Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.);
Does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or
uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded
Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4);
Does not have Federalism implications as specified in
Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999);
Is not an economically significant regulatory action based
on health or safety risks subject to Executive Order 13045 (62 FR
19885, April 23, 1997);
Is not a significant regulatory action subject to
Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001);
Is not subject to requirements of Section 12(d) of the
National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272
note) because application of those requirements would be inconsistent
with the Clean Air Act; and
Does not provide EPA with the discretionary authority to
address, as appropriate, disproportionate human health or environmental
effects, using practicable and legally permissible methods, under
Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994).
In addition, this rule does not have Tribal implications as
specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000),
because the SIP is not approved to apply in Indian country located in
the State, and EPA notes that it will not impose substantial direct
costs on Tribal governments or preempt Tribal law.
The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally
provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating
the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a
[[Page 23635]]
copy of the rule, to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller
General of the United States. EPA will submit a report containing this
action and other required information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S.
House of Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United
States prior to publication of the rule in the Federal Register. A
major rule cannot take effect until 60 days after it is published in
the Federal Register. This action is not a ``major rule'' as defined by
5 U.S.C. 804(2).
Under section 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act, petitions for
judicial review of this action must be filed in the United States Court
of Appeals for the appropriate circuit by July 20, 2009. Filing a
petition for reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule
does not affect the finality of this action for the purposes of
judicial review nor does it extend the time within which a petition for
judicial review may be filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness
of such rule or action. This action may not be challenged later in
proceedings to enforce its requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).)
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by
reference, Intergovernmental relations, Lead, Particulate matter,
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Dated: May 5, 2009.
Walter W. Kovalick Jr,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 5.
0
40 CFR part 52 is amended as follows:
PART 52--[AMENDED]
0
1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Subpart Y--Minnesota
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2. In Sec. 52.1220 the table in paragraph (d) is amended by removing
the entry for ``North Star Steel Co.'' and adding in alphabetical order
an entry for ``Gerdau Ameristeel US, Inc.'' to read as follows:
Sec. 52.1220 Identification of plan.
* * * * *
(d) * * *
EPA-Approved Minnesota Source-Specific Permits
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State
Name of source Permit No. effective date EPA approval date Comments
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* * * * * * * * *
Gerdau Ameristeel US, Inc.............. 12300055-004 09/10/08 05/20/09, [Insert page number where the Only conditions cited as ``Title I
document begins]. condition: SIP for PM10 NAAQS.''
* * * * * * *
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[FR Doc. E9-11638 Filed 5-19-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P