[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 183 (Wednesday, September 23, 2009)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 48495-48498]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-22933]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R09-OAR-2009-0188; FRL-8960-6]
Determination of Attainment of the 1997 8-Hour Ozone Standard for
Imperial County, CA
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: The EPA is proposing to determine that the Imperial County,
California moderate 8-hour ozone nonattainment area has attained the
1997 8-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone.
The State of California has requested this determination, which is
based upon three years of certified ambient air monitoring data that
show the area has monitored attainment of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS since
the 2006-2008 monitoring period. If this proposed determination is made
final, the requirements for the State to submit certain reasonable
further progress requirements, an attainment demonstration, contingency
measures and other planning requirements of the Clean Air Act related
to attainment of the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS shall be suspended for so
long as the area continues to attain the 8-hour ozone NAAQS.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before October 23, 2009. Public
comments on this action are requested and will be considered before
taking final action.
[[Page 48496]]
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-
OAR-2009-0188, by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the online instructions
for submitting comments.
E-mail: [email protected].
Fax: 415-947-3579.
Mail: Wienke Tax, Air Planning Office, Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 9, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA
94105-3901.
Hand Delivery: Marty Robin, Air Planning Office,
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, 75 Hawthorne Street, San
Francisco, CA 94105-3901. Such deliveries are only accepted during the
Regional Office's normal hours of operation. The Regional Office's
official hours of business are Monday through Friday, 8 to 4:55
excluding Federal holidays.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-
2009-0188. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at
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 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
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. For additional information about EPA's public docket visit the
EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wienke Tax, Air Planning Office,
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, (415) 947-4192,
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, ``we,'' ``us'' and
``our'' refer to EPA.
Table of Contents
I. What Action Is EPA Proposing to Take?
II. What Is the Effect of This Action?
III. What Is the Background for This Action?
IV. What Is EPA's Analysis of the Relevant Air Quality Data?
V. Proposed Action
VI. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. What Action Is EPA Proposing to Take?
EPA is proposing to determine that the Imperial County moderate 8-
hour ozone nonattainment area in California has attained the 1997 8-
hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone. This
determination is based upon three years of certified ambient air
monitoring data that show that the area has monitored attainment of the
8-hour ozone NAAQS of 0.08 parts per million (ppm) since the 2006-2008
monitoring period. Quality controlled and quality assured ozone data
for 2009 that are available in the EPA Air Quality System (AQS)
database, but not yet certified, also show that the area continues to
attain the 8-hour ozone NAAQS.\1\
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\1\ See AQS Quicklook Report dated August 24, 2009 in the docket
for today's action.
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II. What Is the Effect of This Action?
If this determination is made final, under the provisions of EPA's
ozone implementation rule (40 CFR section 51.918), the requirements for
the State to submit certain reasonable further progress requirements,
an attainment demonstration, and contingency measures under section
172(c)(9) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and any other planning State
Implementation Plans (SIPs) related to attainment of the 1997 8-hour
ozone NAAQS in Imperial County will be suspended for so long as the
area continues to attain the ozone NAAQS. This finding does not address
the 2008 8-hour ozone standard of 0.075 ppm, which EPA promulgated on
March 12, 2008 (see 73 FR 16435, March 27, 2008).
If this rulemaking is finalized and EPA subsequently determines,
after notice-and-comment rulemaking in the Federal Register, that the
area has violated the 1997 8-hour ozone standard, the basis for the
suspension of these requirements for that area would no longer exist,
and the area would thereafter have to address the pertinent
requirements within a reasonable period of time. EPA would establish
that period taking into account the individual circumstances
surrounding the particular submissions at issue.
This proposed action is not equivalent to the redesignation of the
Imperial County area to attainment under CAA section 107(d)(3), because
we would not yet have an approved maintenance plan for the area as
required under section 175A of the CAA, nor a determination that the
area has met the other requirements for redesignation. The
classification and designation status of the area would remain moderate
nonattainment for the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS until such time as EPA
determines that it meets the CAA requirements for redesignation to
attainment.
III. What Is the Background for This Action?
On April 30, 2004 (69 FR 23857), EPA designated as nonattainment
any area that was violating the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS based on the
three most recent years (2001-2003) of air quality data. At that time,
a number of areas in California, including Imperial County, were
designated as nonattainment. See 40 CFR 81.305. Imperial County was
initially classified as a marginal nonattainment area with a maximum
attainment date of June 15, 2007. 69 FR 23858. On February 13, 2008,
EPA determined that Imperial County had failed to attain the 1997 8-
hour ozone NAAQS by the applicable attainment deadline and reclassified
the area by operation of law as a moderate 8-hour ozone nonattainment
area, with a maximum attainment date of June 15, 2010. 73 FR 8209
(final rule effective March 14, 2008). This determination was based on
ambient air quality data from the 2004-2006 monitoring period. More
recent air quality data, however, indicate that the Imperial County
area is now attaining the 1997 8-hour ozone standard.
On February 19, 2009, the California Air Resources Board requested
that EPA determine that the Imperial County area is attaining the 1997
8-hour ozone standard of 0.08 ppm, based on certified ambient air
monitoring data from the 2006-2008 monitoring period.
IV. What Is EPA's Analysis of the Relevant Air Quality Data?
In California's request and a subsequent certification letter, the
State certified that the air quality monitoring data it submitted for
the years 2006, 2007, and 2008 was accurate and quality-assured,
consistent with state
[[Page 48497]]
and EPA monitoring requirements.2 3 California submitted
these data to EPA's AQS, where it is available to the public via http://www.epa.gov/ttn/airs/airsaqs/ airsaqs/. Table 1 summarizes the ozone air
quality data for Imperial County, from 2006 to 2008.
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\2\ Letter from James Goldstene, Executive Officer, California
Air Resources Board, to Laura Yoshii, Acting Regional Administrator,
U.S. EPA Region 9, dated February 19, 2009.
\3\ Letter from Karen Magliano, Chief, Air Quality Data Branch,
California Air Resources Board, to Laura Yoshii, Acting Regional
Administrator, EPA Region 9, dated March 4, 2009.
Table 1--Fourth Highest 8-Hour Average Ozone Concentrations and Design Values (in Parts per Million, PPM) in
Imperial County, California 2006-2008
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2006-2008
Monitor site 2006 2007 2008 Design value
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Calexico East................................... .078 .083 .078 .079
Calexico Ethel.................................. .068 .087 .087 .080
El Centro....................................... .091 .083 .074 .082
Niland.......................................... .072 .078 .075 .075
Westmorland..................................... .086 .085 .077 .082
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Under EPA regulations at 40 CFR part 50, the 8-hour ozone standard
is attained when the 3-year average of the annual fourth-highest daily
maximum 8-hour average ozone concentrations at an ozone monitor is less
than or equal to 0.08 ppm (i.e., 0.084 ppm, based on the rounding
convention in 40 CFR part 50, Appendix I). This 3-year average is
referred to as the design value. When the design value is less than or
equal to 0.084 ppm (84 parts per billion (ppb)) at each monitor within
the area, then the area is meeting the NAAQS. See 69 FR 23857 (April
30, 2004) for further information. Also, the data completeness
requirement is met when the average percent of days with valid ambient
monitoring data is greater than 90%, and no single year has less than
75% data completeness as determined in Appendix I of 40 CFR part 50.
Table 1 shows the fourth highest daily maximum 8-hour average ozone
concentrations for the Imperial County monitors for the years 2006-
2008. EPA's review of these data indicate that the Imperial County
nonattainment area has met and continues to meet the 8-hour ozone
NAAQS.
EPA is soliciting public comments on the issues discussed in this
notice or on other relevant matters. EPA will consider these comments
before taking final action. Interested parties may participate in the
Federal rulemaking procedure by submitting written comments to the EPA
office listed in the ADDRESSES section of this Federal Register.
V. Proposed Action
EPA is proposing to determine that the Imperial County, California
ozone nonattainment area has attained the 1997 8-hour ozone standard
based on three years of certified ambient air monitoring data at all
ozone monitoring sites in the area. Quality-assured data through the
present demonstrate that the area continues to attain the standard
through June 2009. As provided in 40 CFR 51.918, if EPA finalizes this
determination, it would suspend the requirements for California to
submit an attainment demonstration, a reasonable further progress plan,
and contingency measures under section 172(c)(9), and any other
planning SIP related to attainment of the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS for
the Imperial County area. This suspension of requirements would be
effective as long as the area continues to attain the 1997 8-hour ozone
standard. Please note that this action addresses only the 1997 8-hour
ozone standard of 0.08 ppm, and does not address the 2008 8-hour ozone
standard of 0.075 ppm.
VI. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
Under Executive Order 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993), this
proposed action is not a ``significant regulatory action'' and
therefore is not subject to review by the Office of Management and
Budget. For this reason, this action is also not subject to Executive
Order 13211, ``Actions Concerning Regulations That Significantly Affect
Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use'' (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001). This
action proposes to make a determination based on air quality data, and
would, if finalized, result in the suspension of certain Federal
requirements. Accordingly, the Administrator certifies that this rule
will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of
small entities under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601, et
seq.). Because this rule proposes to make a determination based on air
quality data, and would, if finalized, result in the suspension of
certain Federal requirements, it 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).
This proposed rule also does not have tribal implications because
it will not have a substantial direct effect on one or more Indian
tribes, on the relationship between the Federal Government and Indian
tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between
the Federal Government and Indian tribes, as specified by Executive
Order 13175 (59 FR 22951, November 9, 2000). This proposed action also
does not have Federalism implications because it does not have
substantial direct effects on the States, on the relationship between
the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power
and responsibilities among the various levels of government, as
specified in Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999),
because it merely proposes to make a determination based on air quality
data and would, if finalized, result in the suspension of certain
Federal requirements, and does not alter the relationship or the
distribution of power and responsibilities established in the Clean Air
Act. This proposed rule also is not subject to Executive Order 13045
``Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety
Risks'' (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997), because it proposes to determine
that air quality in the affected area is meeting Federal standards.
The requirements of section 12(d) of the National Technology
Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) do not apply
because it would be inconsistent with applicable law for EPA, when
determining the attainment status of an area, to use voluntary
consensus standards in place of
[[Page 48498]]
promulgated air quality standards and monitoring procedures that
otherwise satisfy the provisions of the Clean Air Act.
This proposed rule does not impose an information collection burden
under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C.
3501, et seq.)
Under Executive Order 12898, EPA finds that this rule involves a
proposed determination of attainment based on air quality data and will
not have disproportionately high and adverse human health or
environmental effects on any communities in the area, including
minority and low-income communities.
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Intergovernmental
relations, Nitrogen oxides, Ozone, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements, Volatile organic compounds.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: September 11, 2009.
Laura Yoshii,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 9.
[FR Doc. E9-22933 Filed 9-22-09; 8:45 am]
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