[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 4, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5638-5639]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-2535]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[CO-001-0073; FRL-7447-9 ]


Adequacy Status of the Fort Collins, Colorado Carbon Monoxide 
Maintenance Plan for Transportation Conformity Purposes

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of adequacy.

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SUMMARY: In this document, EPA is notifying the public that we have 
found that the motor vehicle emissions budgets in the Fort Collins, 
Colorado carbon monoxide (CO) maintenance plan, that was submitted by 
the Governor on August 9, 2002, are adequate for conformity purposes. 
On March 2, 1999, the DC Circuit Court ruled that budgets in submitted 
State Implementation Plans (SIPs) cannot be used for conformity 
determinations until EPA has affirmatively found them adequate. As a 
result of our finding, the North Front Range Transportation & Air 
Quality Planning Council, the City of Fort Collins, the Colorado 
Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation 
are required to use the motor vehicle emissions budgets from this 
submitted maintenance plan for future conformity determinations.

DATES: This finding is effective February 19, 2003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kerri Fiedler, Air & Radiation Program 
(8P-AR), United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8, 999 
18th Street, Suite 300, Denver, Colorado 80202-2466, (303) 312-6493. 
The letter documenting our finding is available at EPA's conformity Web 
site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/transp/conform/adequacy.htm.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document wherever ``we'', 
``us'', or ``our'' are used we mean EPA.
    This action is simply an announcement of a finding that we have 
already made. We sent a letter to the Colorado Air Pollution Control 
Division

[[Page 5639]]

on January 15, 2003, stating that the motor vehicle emissions budgets 
in the submitted Fort Collins CO maintenance plan are adequate. This 
finding has also been announced on our conformity Web site at http://www.epa.gov/otaq/transp/conform/adequacy.htm.
    Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the 
Clean Air Act. Our conformity rule requires that transportation plans, 
programs, and projects conform to SIPs and establishes the criteria and 
procedures for determining whether or not they do. Conformity to a SIP 
means that transportation activities will not produce new air quality 
violations, worsen existing violations, or delay timely attainment of 
the national ambient air quality standards.
    The criteria by which we determine whether a SIP's motor vehicle 
emission budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in 
40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). Please note that an adequacy review is separate 
from our completeness review, and it also should not be used to 
prejudge our ultimate approval of the SIP. Even if we find a budget 
adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved, and vice versa.
    We've described our process for determining the adequacy of 
submitted SIP budgets in a memo entitled, ``Conformity Guidance on 
Implementation of March 2, 1999 Conformity Court Decision,'' dated May 
14, 1999. We followed this guidance in making our adequacy 
determination.

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.

    Dated: January 23, 2003.
Robert E. Roberts,
Regional Administrator, Region VIII.
[FR Doc. 03-2535 Filed 2-3-03; 8:45 am]
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