[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 221 (Monday, November 17, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64894-64895]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-28649]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7587-1]


Regional Haze Regulations; Availability of Guidance Documents

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of guidance availability.

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SUMMARY: We are announcing today the availability of guidance to assist 
States and Tribes in implementing regulations governing regional haze 
which were published in the Federal Register on July 1, 1999. These 
documents address the establishment of natural visibility conditions 
and the tracking of progress under the regional haze program.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties can download the Guidance for Estimating 
Natural Visibility Conditions Under the Regional Haze Program and 
Guidance for Tracking Progress Under the Regional Haze Program from 
EPA's Web site on the Internet under the following

[[Page 64895]]

address: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/amtic/visinfo.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Neil Frank, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency (C304-01), Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; e-mail 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In section 169A of the 1977 Amendments to 
the Clean Air Act, Congress established a national visibility goal as 
the ``prevention of any future, and the remedying of any existing, 
impairment of visibility in mandatory Federal Class I areas which 
impairment results from manmade air pollution'' (42 U.S.C. 7491). These 
provisions were further supplemented by section 169B of the Clean Air 
Act Amendments of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 7492). States are required to develop 
implementation plans that make ``reasonable progress'' toward this 
goal.
    The EPA issued initial visibility regulations in 1980 \1\ that 
addressed visibility impairment in a specific mandatory Federal Class I 
area that is determined to be ``reasonably attributable'' to a single 
source or small group of sources. Regulations to address regional haze 
were deferred until improved techniques could be developed in 
monitoring, modeling, and in understanding the effects of specific 
pollutants on visibility impairment. The EPA issued regional haze 
regulations in 1999.\2\
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    \1\ See 45 FR 80084 (December 2, 1980).
    \2\ See 64 FR 35713 (July 1, 1999). See also 40 CFR 51.300-
51.309.
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    The overall framework of the regional haze rule requires States to 
develop a State Implementation Plan that includes: (1) Reasonable 
progress goals for improving visibility in each mandatory Federal Class 
I area and (2) set of emission reduction measures to meet these goals. 
Specifically, States will set progress goals for each mandatory Federal 
Class I area to:

[sbull] Provide for an improvement in visibility for the 20 percent 
most impaired (i.e., worst visibility) days over the period of the 
implementation plan, and
[sbull] Ensure no degradation in visibility for the 20 percent least 
impaired (i.e., best visibility) days over the same period.

Baseline visibility conditions for the 20 percent worst and 20 percent 
best days are to be determined using monitoring data collected during 
calendar years 2000-2004. Baseline conditions for 2000-2004, progress 
goals, and tracking changes over time are to be expressed in terms of 
the deciview index.\3\
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    \3\ The deciview is a haze index derived from calculated light 
extinction, such that uniform changes in haziness correspond to 
uniform incremental changes in visual perception across the entire 
range of conditions, from pristine to highly impaired. Deciview = 10 
ln(bext/10).
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    Most States (and Tribes as appropriate \4\) participating in 
regional planning organizations will submit regional haze 
implementation plans, including estimates of natural conditions and 
proposed progress goals in the 2007-2008 time frame. In developing any 
progress goal, the State will need to analyze and consider in its set 
of options the rate of improvement between 2004 (when 2000-2004 
baseline conditions are set) and 2018 that, if maintained in subsequent 
implementation periods, would result in achieving estimated natural 
conditions in 2064.
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    \4\ Under the Tribal Air Rule (63 FR 7254; February 12, 1998; 40 
CFR part 49), Tribal governments may elect to implement air programs 
in much the same way as States, including development of Tribal 
implementation plans.
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    The purpose of the documents announced in today's notice is to 
provide guidance to the States and Tribes in implementing the regional 
haze program and to explain how EPA intends to exercise its discretion 
in implementing Clean Air Act provisions and EPA regulations concerning 
the estimation of natural visibility and tracking progress under the 
Regional Haze program. The guidance documents are designed to implement 
national policy on these issues. The guidance documents are designed to 
assist States and Tribes in implementing national policy on these 
issues. Sections 169A and 169B of the Clean Air Act and implementing 
regulations at 40 CFR 51.308 and 51.309 contain legally binding 
requirements. These guidance documents will not substitute for those 
provisions or regulations, nor will they constitute regulations 
themselves. Thus, they will not impose binding, enforceable 
requirements on any party, and may not apply to a particular situation 
based upon the circumstances. We and State decision makers retain the 
discretion to adopt approaches on a case-by-case basis that differ from 
this guidance where appropriate. Any decisions by us regarding a 
particular SIP demonstration will only be made based on the statute and 
regulations. Therefore, you are free to raise questions and objections 
about the appropriateness of the application of this guidance to a 
particular situation; we will, and States should, consider whether or 
not the recommendations in this guidance are appropriate in that 
situation. These guidance documents will be living documents and may be 
revised periodically without public notice. We welcome public comments 
on these documents at any time and will consider those comments in any 
future revision of these guidance documents.
    Because these documents are not regulations and do not impose 
binding requirements, we are not required to solicit public comments on 
them. However, we chose to do so as a matter of discretion in order to 
improve the quality and responsiveness of the documents to the needs of 
the State and Tribal air quality management agencies. A summary of the 
comments we received and our responses to them will be available at the 
Web site identified above.

    Dated: October 31, 2003.
Henry C. Thomas, Jr.,
Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. 03-28649 Filed 11-14-03; 8:45 am]
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