[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 123 (Thursday, June 26, 1997)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 34419-34421]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-16754]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 81

[NV029-0003; FRL-5847-5]


Clean Air Act Reclassification; Nevada-Clark County Nonattainment 
Area; Carbon Monoxide

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: EPA proposes to find that the Clark County, Nevada carbon 
monoxide (CO) nonattainment area has not attained the CO national 
ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) by the Clean Air Act (CAA) after 
having received a one year extension from the mandated attainment date 
of December 31, 1995 for moderate nonattainment areas to December 31, 
1996. This finding is based on EPA's review of monitored air quality 
data for compliance with the CO NAAQS. If EPA takes final action on 
this proposed finding, the Clark County, Nevada nonattainment area will 
be reclassified by operation of law as a serious nonattainment area. As 
a result of a reclassification the State will have additional time to 
submit a new State implementation plan (SIP) providing for attainment 
of the CO NAAQS by no later than December 31, 2000, the CAA attainment 
deadline for serious CO areas.

DATES: Written comments on this proposal must be received by July 28, 
1997.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to: Julia Barrow, Chief, Air 
Planning Office, AIR-2, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, 
75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, California 94105.
    The rulemaking docket for this document, Docket No. NV029-0003, may 
be inspected and copied at the following location between 8 a.m. and 
4:30 p.m. on weekdays. A reasonable fee may be charged for copying 
parts of the docket. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, 
Air Division, Air Planning Office, AIR-2,75 Hawthorne Street, San 
Francisco, California 94105.
    Copies of the docket are also available at the State and County 
offices listed below:

Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, 333 West Nye Lane, Carson 
City, Nevada, 89710; and,
Clark County Department of Comprehensive Planning, 500 South Grand 
Central Parkway, Suite 3012, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89155-1741.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Larry Biland, AIR-2, Air Division, 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, 75 Hawthorne Street, 
San Francisco, California 94105, (415) 744-1227.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

A. CAA Requirements and EPA Actions Concerning Designation and 
Classifications

    The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAA) were enacted on November 
15, 1990. Under section 107(d)(1)(C) of the CAA, each carbon monoxide 
(CO) area designated nonattainment prior to enactment of the 1990 
Amendments, such as the Clark County area, was designated nonattainment 
by operation of law upon enactment of the 1990 Amendments. Under 
section 186(a) of the Act, each CO area designated nonattainment under 
section 107(d) was also classified by operation of law as either 
``moderate'' or ``serious'' depending on the severity of the area's air 
quality problem. CO areas with design values between 9.1 and 16.4 parts 
per million (ppm), such as the Clark County area, were classified as 
moderate. These nonattainment designations and classifications were 
codified in 40 CFR part 81. See 56 FR 56694 (November 6, 1991).
    States containing areas that were classified as moderate 
nonattainment by operation of law under section 107(d) were required to 
submit State implementation plans (SIPs) designed to attain the CO 
national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) as expeditiously as 
practicable but no later than December 31, 1995.1
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    \1\ The moderate area SIP requirements are set forth in section 
187(a) of the Act and differ depending on whether the area's design 
value is below or above 12.7 ppm. The Clark County area has a design 
value below 12.7 ppm. 40 CFR 81.303.
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B. Attainment Date Extensions

    If a state does not have the two consecutive years of clean data 
necessary to show attainment of the NAAQS, it may apply, under section 
186(a)(4) of the CAA, for a one year attainment date extension. EPA 
may, in its discretion, grant such an extension if the state has: (1) 
complied with the requirements and commitments pertaining to the 
applicable implementation plan for the area, and (2) the area has 
measured no more than one exceedance of the CO NAAQS at any monitoring 
site in the nonattainment area in the year preceding the extension 
year. Under section 186(a)(4), EPA may grant up to two such extensions 
if these conditions have been met. EPA has granted Clark County one 
extension to December 31, 1996. (40 CFR Part 52 Vol. 61, No. 216, 
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1996).

C. Reclassification to a Serious Nonattainment Area

    EPA has the responsibility, pursuant to sections 179(c) and 
186(b)(2) of the CAA, of determining, within six months of the 
applicable attainment date, whether the Clark County area has attained 
the CO NAAQS. Under section 186(b)(2)(A), if EPA finds that the area 
has not attained the CO NAAQS, it is reclassified as serious by 
operation of law. Pursuant to section 186(b)(2)(B) of the Act, EPA must 
publish a document in the Federal Register identifying areas which 
failed to attain the standard and therefore must be reclassified as 
serious by operation of law.
    EPA makes attainment determinations for CO nonattainment areas 
based upon

[[Page 34420]]

whether an area has two years (or eight consecutive quarters) of clean 
air quality data.2 Section 179(c)(1) of the Act states that 
the attainment determination must be based upon an area's ``air quality 
as of the attainment date.'' Consequently, where an area has received 
an extension, EPA will determine whether an area's air quality has met 
the CO NAAQS by the required date, or in the case of Clark County by 
the extended date of December 31, 1996, based upon the most recent two 
years of air quality data.
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    \2\ See generally memorandum from Sally L. Shaver, Director, Air 
Quality Strategies and Standards Division, EPA, to Regional Air 
Office Directors, entitled ``Criteria for Granting Attainment Date 
Extensions, Making Attainment Determinations, and Determinations of 
Failure to Attain the NAAQS for Moderate CO Nonattainment Areas,'' 
October 23, 1995 (Shaver memorandum).
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    EPA determines a CO nonattainment area's air quality status in 
accordance with 40 CFR 50.8 and EPA policy.3 EPA has 
promulgated two NAAQS for CO: an 8-hour average concentration and a 1-
hour average concentration. Because there were no violations of the 1-
hour standard in the Clark County area, this notice addresses only the 
air quality status of the Clark County area with respect to the 8-hour 
standard. The 8-hour CO NAAQS requires that not more than one non-
overlapping 8-hour average in any consecutive two-year period per 
monitoring site can exceed 9.0 ppm (values below 9.5 are rounded down 
to 9.0 and they are not considered exceedances). The second exceedance 
of the 8-hour CO NAAQS at a given monitoring site within the same two-
year period constitutes a violation of the CO NAAQS.
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    \3\  See memorandum from William G. Laxton, Director Technical 
Support Division, entitled ``Ozone and Carbon Monoxide Design Value 
Calculations'', June 18, 1990. See also Shaver memorandum.
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II. Today's Action

    By today's action, EPA is proposing to find that the Clark County 
CO nonattainment area has failed to attain the CO NAAQS by December 31, 
1996. This proposed finding is based upon air quality data showing 
exceedances of the CO NAAQS during 1995 and 1996, resulting in two 
violations in 1996.

A. Ambient Air Monitoring Data

    The following table lists each of the monitoring sites in the Clark 
County CO nonattainment area where the 8-hour CO NAAQS has been 
exceeded during 1995 and 1996.

   Exceedances of 8-hour Carbon Monoxide National Ambient Air Quality Standard\1\ in the Clark County, Nevada   
                                               Nonattainment Area                                               
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                                                      1995                                  1996                
           Monitoring site           ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                         Concentration \2\         Date        Concentration \2\         Date   
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2850 East Charleston Blvd...........  10.2 ppm...............        11/23  10.1 ppm...............          1/6
                                      .......................  ...........  10.3 ppm...............         1/14
                                      .......................  ...........  10.2 ppm...............        3/10 
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\1\ The eight-hour carbon monoxide NAAQS is 9 parts per million.                                                
\2\ Concentration = monitored carbon monoxide concentration in parts per million.                               

1. 1995 Data
    During calendar year 1995, Clark County exceeded the eight-hour CO 
NAAQS once at the East Charleston monitoring site. Consequently, there 
were no violations of the CO NAAQS in 1995.
2. 1996 Data
    During the first quarter of 1996, Clark County exceeded the eight-
hour CO NAAQS three times, all at the East Charleston monitoring site. 
These exceedances total two violations of the CO NAAQS.
3. Discussion of CO NAAQS Exceedances During the 1995-96 Winter CO 
Season
    Clark County qualified for an attainment date extension to December 
31, 1996 by having no more than one exceedance of the CO NAAQS in the 
nonattainment area in 1995. However, this achievement was clouded by 
three exceedances of the CO NAAQS during January and March 1996. Clark 
County raised several concerns with the East Charleston monitoring site 
which recorded the violations, suggesting that siting problems biased 
the data collected there.
a. Clark County Concerns With East Charleston Monitoring Site
    In 1995 and early 1996, Clark County raised to EPA several concerns 
with the siting of the East Charleston monitor, and also proposed 
several changes to their CO monitoring network.4 Clark 
County asserted that the configuration of the East Charleston 
monitoring site was inconsistent with the requirements for National Air 
Monitoring Stations (NAMS) given in the Code of Federal Regulations 
(see 40 CFR Part 58) and this was biasing the data. Because of these 
concerns, Clark County asked EPA to delay a finding of attainment or 
nonattainment for the 1995 attainment deadline until new CO data was 
collected during October to December of 1996 at the new monitoring 
sites. Towards this end, Clark County proposed the following actions: 
(a) to relocate the East Charleston monitoring station within the same 
neighborhood; (b) to increase the number of EPA recognized neighborhood 
sites by adding monitoring sites at East Sahara and East Flamingo 
Boulevards, and at Crestwood Elementary School in the East Charleston 
Blvd. vicinity, and, (c) to add a microscale monitoring station with 
high pedestrian traffic at the Las Vegas Blvd. and Tropicana Ave. 
intersection.
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    \4\ See correspondence from Michael Naylor, Clark Co. Health 
District to John Kennedy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 
February 7, 1996.
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    In response to Clark County's concerns and proposal, EPA agreed 
with revisions to the CO monitoring network in Clark County. The East 
Charleston monitoring site continued to operate according to all 
applicable protocols until its lease expired in 1997. Three new 
monitoring sites were added to the Clark County air monitoring network 
before the 1996-97 winter CO season: two neighborhood scale sites, one 
at Sunrise Acres Elementary School and the other at Crestwood 
Elementary School in the East Charleston area; and, a microscale site, 
the MGM site, located on Las Vegas Blvd. at Tropicana. The Sunrise 
Acres site was the direct replacement site for the high-CO East 
Charleston site.
    At the close of the winter 96-97 season Region 9 and the State of 
Nevada examined whether East Charleston CO levels correlated with the 
levels at

[[Page 34421]]

Sunrise Acres. Based on November 1996 to March 1997 CO data, EPA staff 
determined that there was a strong correlation of peak 1- and 8-hour 
average CO levels at East Charleston and Sunrise Acres. A comparison of 
peak 8-hour CO concentrations at Sunrise Acres and the East Charleston 
site showed that Sunrise Acres values consistently exceeded East 
Charleston levels. With the continued operation of Sunrise Acres and 
MGM replacement sites, and the value-added Crestwood site, Region 9 
supported Clark County's shutdown of the East Charleston site. It is 
implicit that in showing that Sunrise Acres closely tracked East 
Charleston CO levels, that previous East Charleston data were valid. 
Previous Clark County assertions that the configuration of the East 
Charleston siting positively biased previously collected CO data are 
inconsistent with EPA findings. Thus EPA considers data from the East 
Charleston station collected in 1995-96 to be valid for regulatory 
purposes. EPA is relying on this data in the proposed finding that 
Clark County failed to attain the Federal CO standard on December 31, 
1996.

B. SIP Requirements for Serious CO Areas

    CO nonattainment areas reclassified as serious under section 
186(b)(2) of the CAA are required to submit, within 18 months of the 
area's reclassification, SIP revisions demonstrating attainment of the 
CO NAAQS as expeditiously as practicable but no later than December 31, 
2000. The serious CO area planning requirements are set forth in 
section 187(b) of the CAA. EPA has issued two general guidance 
documents related to the planning requirements for CO SIPs. The first 
is the ``General Preamble for the Implementation of Title I of the 
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990'' that sets forth EPA's preliminary 
views on how the Agency intends to act on SIPs submitted under Title I 
of the Act. See generally 57 FR 13498 (April 16, 1992) and 57 FR 18070 
(April 28, 1992). The second general guidance document for CO SIPs 
issued by EPA is the ``Technical Support Document to Aid the States 
with the Development of Carbon Monoxide State Implementation Plans,'' 
July 1992.
    If the Clark County area is reclassified to serious, the State 
would have to submit a SIP revision to EPA within 18 months of the 
final reclassification that, in addition to the attainment 
demonstration, includes: (1) Any new measures necessary to attain the 
standard; (2) a forecast of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for each year 
before the attainment year and provisions for annual updates of these 
forecasts; (3) adopted contingency measures; and (4) adopted 
transportation control measures and strategies to offset any growth in 
CO emissions from growth in VMT or number of vehicle trips. See CAA 
sections 187(a)(7), 187(a)(2)(A), 187(a)(3), 187(b)(2), and 187(b)(1). 
Upon reclassification, contingency measures in the moderate area plan 
for the Clark County area must be implemented.

III. Executive Order (EO) 12866

    Under E.O. 12866, 58 FR 51735 (October 4, 1993), EPA is required to 
determine whether regulatory actions are significant and therefore 
should be subject to OMB review, economic analysis, and the 
requirements of the Executive Order. The Executive Order defines a 
``significant regulatory action'' as one that is likely to result in a 
rule that may meet at least one of the four criteria identified in 
section 3(f), including, under paragraph (1), that the rule may ``have 
an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more or adversely 
affect, in a material way, the economy, a sector of the economy, 
productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or 
safety, or State, local, or tribal governments or communities''.
    The Agency has determined that the finding of failure to attain 
proposed today would result in none of the effects identified in 
section 3(f). Under section 186(b)(2) of the CAA, findings of failure 
to attain and reclassification of nonattainment areas are based upon 
air quality considerations and must occur by operation of law in light 
of certain air quality conditions. They do not, in-and-of-themselves, 
impose any new requirements on any sectors of the economy. In addition, 
because the statutory requirements are clearly defined with respect to 
the differently classified areas, and because those requirements are 
automatically triggered by classifications that, in turn, are triggered 
by air quality values, findings of failure to attain and 
reclassification cannot be said to impose a materially adverse impact 
on State, local, or tribal governments or communities.

IV. Regulatory Flexibility

    Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq., EPA 
must prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis assessing the impact of 
any proposed or final rule on small entities. 5 U.S.C. 603 and 604. 
Alternatively, EPA may certify that the rule will not have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. 
Small entities include small businesses, small not-for-profit 
enterprises, and government entities with jurisdiction over populations 
of less than 50,000.
    As discussed in section III of this notice, findings of failure to 
attain and reclassification of nonattainment areas under section 
186(b)(2) of the CAA do not in-and-of-themselves create any new 
requirements. Therefore, I certify that today's proposed action does 
not have a significant impact on small entities.

V. Unfunded Mandates

    Under sections 202, 203 and 205 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 
of 1995 (Unfunded Mandates Act), signed into law on March 22, 1995, EPA 
must assess whether various actions undertaken in association with 
proposed or final regulations include a Federal mandate that may result 
in estimated costs of $100 million or more to the private sector, or to 
State, local or tribal governments in the aggregate. EPA believes, as 
discussed above, that the proposed finding of failure to attain and 
reclassification of the Clark County nonattainment area are factual 
determinations based upon air quality considerations and must occur by 
operation of law and, hence, do not impose any Federal 
intergovernmental mandate, as defined in section 101 of the Unfunded 
Mandates Act.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 81

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Carbon monoxide, 
Intergovernmental relations.

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q.

    Dated: June 16, 1997.
Felicia Marcus,
Regional Administrator.
[FR Doc. 97-16754 Filed 6-25-97; 8:45 am]
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