[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 200 (Monday, October 16, 2000)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 61134-61135]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-26612]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[FRL-6886-7]


Supplemental Information to Support Proposed Approvals of One-
Hour Ozone Attainment Demonstrations for Serious Ozone Nonattainment 
Areas

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of availability and reopening of comment period.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that EPA has performed an analysis to 
evaluate emission levels of oxides of nitrogen ( NOX) and 
volatile organic compounds (VOC) and their relationships to the 
application of current and anticipated control measures expected to be 
implemented in four serious one-hour ozone nonattainment areas. This 
analysis was done to determine if additional reasonably available 
control measures (RACM) are available after adoption of Clean Air Act 
(Act) required measures for the following serious ozone nonattainment 
areas: Greater Connecticut, New York-New Jersey-Connecticut; 
Springfield, Massachusetts; Washington, D.C.-Virginia-Maryland; and 
Atlanta, Georgia. The EPA performed this analysis in response to 
comments that were submitted on the proposals on these areas' one-hour 
ozone attainment demonstrations. The EPA took action to propose 
approval (and disapproval in the alternative) of these areas' State 
implementation plans (SIPs) on December 16, 1999 (Greater Connecticut 
(64 FR 70332); Springfield (64 FR 70319); Metropolitan Washington (64 
FR 70460); and Atlanta (64 FR 70478)). This information supplements the 
December 16, 1999 proposals.

DATES: The EPA is establishing a comment period, ending on October 31, 
2000. All comments should be sent to the appropriate regional office as 
listed in the ADDRESSES section by that date.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on the Greater Connecticut and Springfield 
SIPs should be sent (in duplicate if possible) to: David B. Conroy, EPA 
Region I (New England) Office, One Congress Street, Suite 1100-CAQ, 
Boston, Massachusetts 02114-2023. Copies of the Connecticut and 
Massachusetts State submittals and EPA's technical support document are 
available for public inspection during normal business hours at the 
following address: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 1 (New 
England), One Congress St., 11th Floor, Boston, Massachusetts, 
telephone (617) 918-1664. Please telephone in advance before visiting.
    Written comments on the Washington, D.C.-Virginia-Maryland 
submittals should be submitted (in duplicate if possible) to: David L. 
Arnold, Chief, Ozone and Mobile Sources Branch, Mailcode 3AP21, U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 3, 1650 Arch Street, 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Copies of the documents relevant to 
this action are available for public inspection during normal business 
hours at the following address: Air Protection Division, U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1650 Arch Street, 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103, and the docket numbers are DC039-
2019, VA090-5036 and MD073-3045.
    Written comments on the Atlanta SIP should be submitted (in 
duplicate if possible) to: Scott M. Martin, EPA Region 4, Air Planning 
Branch, 61 Forsyth Street, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30303. Copies of the 
State submittal are available at the following address for inspection 
during normal business hours: Environmental Protection Agency, Region 
4, Air Planning Branch, 61 Forsyth Street, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 
30303-8960, and the docket number is GA-47-200002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general questions on the RACM 
analysis for mobile sources, contact Mr. Mark Simons at either 734-214-
4420 or by e-mail [email protected]. For general questions on the 
RACM analysis for stationary sources, contact Mr. John Silvasi at 
either (919) 541-5666 or by e-mail [email protected]. For specific 
questions on the Greater Connecticut and Springfield SIPs, contact Mr. 
Richard Burkhart at (617) 918-1664 or by e-mail 
[email protected]. For specific questions on the Washington, 
D.C., SIP, contact Mr. David Arnold at (215) 814-2172 or by e-mail 
[email protected]. For specific questions on the Atlanta SIP, contact 
Mr. Scott Martin at (404) 562-9036 or by e-mail [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 172(c)(1) of the Act requires SIPs 
to contain reasonably available control measures (RACM) as necessary to 
provide for attainment as expeditiously as practicable. Several 
commenters have stated that there is no evidence in the four serious 
ozone attainment demonstrations that were proposed on December 16, 1999 
that they have adopted all RACM, and a commenter further stated that 
the mobile source emission budgets in the SIPs are inadequate by 
definition because the SIPs do not demonstrate timely attainment or 
contain the emission reductions required for all RACM. In addition, 
some commenters stated that for all potential RACM measures not adopted 
into the SIP, the State must provide a justification for why they were 
determined not to be RACM.
    The analysis EPA conducted demonstrates that a number of possible 
emission control measures have been evaluated for their emission 
reductions. It further demonstrates that the measures evaluated either 
(a) are likely to require an intensive and costly effort for numerous 
small area sources, or (b) do not advance the attainment dates for the 
four areas, and therefore would not be considered RACM under the Act.
    EPA has previously provided guidance interpreting the RACM 
requirements of 172(c)(1). See 57 FR 13498, 13560. In that guidance, 
EPA indicated its interpretation that potentially available measures 
that would not advance the attainment date for an area would not be 
considered RACM. EPA concluded that a measure would not be reasonably 
available if it would not advance attainment. EPA also indicated in 
that guidance that States should consider all potentially available 
measures to determine whether they were reasonably available for 
implementation in the area, and whether they would advance the 
attainment date. Further, States should indicate in their SIP 
submittals whether measures considered were reasonably available or 
not, and if measures are reasonably available they must be adopted as 
RACM. Finally, EPA indicated that States could reject potential RACM 
measures either because they would not advance the attainment date, 
would cause substantial widespread and long-term adverse impacts, or 
for various reasons related to local conditions, such as economics or 
implementation concerns.

[[Page 61135]]

The EPA also issued a recent memorandum on this topic, ``Guidance on 
the Reasonably Available Control Measures (RACM) Requirement and 
Attainment Demonstration Submissions for Ozone Nonattainment Areas.'' 
John S. Seitz, Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, 
dated November 30, 1999. A copy can be obtained from www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/t1pgm.html.
    In response to public comments received on the proposed rulemakings 
in December, EPA has reviewed the SIP submittals for the four serious 
areas and determined that they did not include sufficient documentation 
concerning available RACM measures. Therefore, EPA has itself reviewed 
numerous potential RACM measures, as documented in the available 
analysis. Based on this analysis, EPA concluded that these measures 
would either (a) likely require an intensive and costly effort for 
numerous small area sources, or (b) not advance the attainment date in 
any of the four areas and, therefore, would not be considered RACM.
    Although EPA encourages areas to implement available RACM measures 
as potentially cost effective methods to achieve emissions reductions 
in the short term, EPA does not believe that section 172(c)(1) requires 
implementation of potential RACM measures that either require costly 
implementation efforts or produce relatively small emissions reductions 
that will not be sufficient to allow any of the four areas to achieve 
attainment in advance of full implementation of all other required 
measures.
    Electronic Availability--An electronic version of EPA's RACM 
analysis can be downloaded at www.epa.gov/ttn/rto under ``What's New.''
    For those persons without electronic capability, a copy of this 
analysis may be obtained from Ms. Linda Lassiter at (919) 541-5526.
    The official record for these proposed actions have been 
established under individual dockets which are located at the Regional 
office address in the ADDRESSES section at the beginning of this 
document. 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 file 
format or ASCII file format. All comments and data in electronic form 
must be identified by the docket number associated with the individual 
state proposal.

    Dated: October 10, 2000.
Henry C. Thomas,
Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. 00-26612 Filed 10-13-00; 8:45 am]
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