[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 2, 1999)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 10118-10119]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-5092]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Parts 52 and 97

[FRL-6305-8]


Findings of Significant Contribution and Rulemaking on Section 
126 Petitions for Purposes of Reducing Interstate Ozone Transport

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice to reopen comment period.

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SUMMARY: The EPA is reopening the comment period for the notice of 
proposed rulemaking published on October 21, 1998 at 63 FR 56292, under 
section 126 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to allow comment on how the 
proposed section 126 action may be affected by a recently proposed 
action by EPA to revoke the 1-hour national ambient air quality 
standard (NAAQS) for ozone for certain of the areas in States that have 
submitted petitions.

DATES: The EPA is establishing a comment period ending on March 26, 
1999.

ADDRESSES: Comments must be postmarked by the last day of the comment 
period and sent directly to the Docket Office listed in ADDRESSES (in 
duplicate form if possible).
    Comments may be submitted to the Air and Radiation Docket and 
Information Center (6102), Attention: Docket No. A-97-43, U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M Street SW, room M-1500, 
Washington, DC 20460, telephone (202) 260-7548. Comments and data may 
also be submitted electronically by following the instructions under 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION of this document. No confidential business 
information (CBI) should be submitted through e-mail.
    This document was immediately available after signature on EPA's 
web site at http://www.epa.gov/airlinks. Documents relevant to this 
action are available for inspection at the Docket Office, at the above 
address, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
excluding legal holidays. A reasonable copying fee may be charged for 
copying.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions concerning today's action 
should be addressed to Carla Oldham, Office of Air Quality Planning and 
Standards, Air Quality Strategies and Standards Division, MD-15, 
Research Triangle Park, NC, 27711, telephone (919) 541-3347.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Availability of Related Information

    The official record for this rulemaking, as well as the public 
version, has been established under docket number A-97-43 (including 
comments and data submitted electronically as described below). A 
public version of this record, including printed, paper versions of 
electronic comments, which does not include any information claimed as 
CBI, is available for inspection from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The official rulemaking 
record is located at the address in ADDRESSES at the beginning of this 
document. Electronic comments can be sent directly to EPA at: A-and-R-
D[email protected]. Electronic comments must be submitted as an 
ASCII file avoiding the use of special characters and any form of 
encryption. Comments and data will also be accepted on disks in 
WordPerfect in 5.1/6.1 file format or ASCII file format. All comments 
and data in electronic form must be identified by the docket number A-
97-43. Electronic comments on this NPR rule may be filed online at many 
Federal Depository Libraries.
    The EPA has issued a separate rule on nitrogen oxides 
(NOX) transport entitled, ``Finding of Significant 
Contribution and Rulemaking for Certain States in the Ozone Transport 
Assessment Group Region for Purposes of Reducing Regional Transport of 
Ozone,'' (63 FR 57356, October 27, 1998; see notices included in the 
docket for this rulemaking). The rulemaking docket for that rule, 
hereafter referred to as the NOX State implementation plan 
(SIP) call (NOX SIP call), contains information and analyses 
that are relied upon in today's notice. Therefore, EPA is including by 
reference the entire NOX SIP call record for purposes of the 
section 126 rulemaking. Documents related to the NOX SIP 
call rulemaking are available for inspection in Docket No. A-96-56 at 
the address and times given above. In addition, the proposed 
NOX SIP call and associated documents are located at http://
www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/otagsip.html. Modeling and air quality assessment 
information can be obtained in electronic form at http://
www.epa.gov.scram001/regmodcenter/t28.htm. Information related to the 
budget development can be found at http://www.epa.gov/capi.
    Additional information relevant to this section 126 rulemaking is 
available on the Agency's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards 
(OAQPS) Technology Transfer Network (TTN) via the web at http://
www.epa.gov/ttn/. If assistance is needed in accessing the system, call 
the help desk at (919) 541-5384 in Research Triangle Park, NC. 
Documents related to the Ozone Transport Assessment Group (OTAG), which 
did substantial technical work upon which the NOX SIP call 
and the section 126 rulemaking are based, may be downloaded directly 
from OTAG's webpage at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/otag. The OTAG's 
technical data are located at http://www.iceis.mcnc.org/OTAGDC.

I. Reopening of Comment Period

    In August 1997, eight Northeastern States filed petitions under 
section 126 seeking to mitigate what they described as significant 
transport of one of the main precursors of ground-level ozone, 
NOX, across State boundaries. The eight petitioning States 
are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont (States or Petitioner States).
    All of the Petitioner States directed their petitions at the 1-hour 
ozone NAAQS. Three of the States, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and 
Vermont, also directed their petitions at the new 8-hour ozone 
standard. In notices dated September 30, 1998 (63 FR 52213) and October 
21, 1998 (63 FR 56292), EPA proposed action on the petitions. The 
October 21, 1998 notice of proposed rulemaking (section 126 NPR) 
contains the longer, more detailed version of the proposal. Familiarity 
with that notice is assumed for purposes of today's action. In the 
section 126 NPR, EPA proposed action under the 1-hour and/or the 8-hour 
standard as specifically requested in each State's petition.
    In the section 126 NPR, EPA proposed which upwind States should be 
linked to each of the Petitioner States under the 1-hour NAAQS and, to 
the extent relevant, the 8-hour NAAQS. These links, which are 
identified in tables II-1 and II-2 in the section 126 NPR (63 FR 56303) 
are based on determinations made in the NOX SIP call. For 
the 1-

[[Page 10119]]

hour NAAQS, the links were based on determinations as to which upwind 
States included source emissions which contribute significantly to 
nonattainment areas in the Petitioner States.
    After publication of the section 126 NPR on October 21, 1998, EPA 
published a separate rulemaking that proposed to determine that the 1-
hour ozone standard no longer applied to certain nonattainment areas, 
including the following areas in the Petitioner States: Boston-
Lawrence-Worcester (E.MA), Massachusetts-New Hampshire; Portland, 
Maine; Portsmouth-Dover-Rochester, New Hampshire; and Providence (all 
RI), Rhode Island (63 FR 69598, December 17, 1998) (revocation NPR). 
The proposal was based on the fact that those areas experienced three 
consecutive ozone seasons--1996-1998--in which the air quality did not 
violate the 1-hour ozone standard. In prior, similar rulemakings, EPA 
had determined that under these circumstances, the 1-hour standard no 
longer applied to such areas (63 FR 31014, June 5, 1998). If EPA 
promulgates a final determination that the 1-hour ozone standard no 
longer applies for those designated nonattainment areas in the 
Petitioner-States, EPA believes that contributions from sources in 
upwind States to those areas would no longer constitute a basis for EPA 
to approve the Petitioner States' requested findings as to the 1-hour 
ozone standard for those areas.
    The EPA solicits comment on the impacts on the section 126 
rulemaking that would result were EPA to finalize a determination that 
the 1-hour ozone standard no longer applies to the specified 
nonattainment areas in the Petitioner States.
    The EPA has received two requests to reopen the comment period on 
the section 126 NPR in light of the proposed determination in the 
revocation NPR that the 1-hour NAAQS no longer applies to certain 
areas. See Docket A-97-43, numbers IV-G-69 (Midwest Ozone Group) and 
IV-G-56 (Hunton & Williams, representing the Utility Air Regulatory 
Group). This notice responds to those requests.

    Dated: February 24, 1999.
Robert Perciasepe,
Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation.
[FR Doc. 99-5092 Filed 3-1-99; 8:45 am]
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