[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 182 (Wednesday, September 20, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54985-54986]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-15599]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-R01-OAR-2006-0226; A-1-FRL-8221-1]


Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Budgets in Submitted State 
Implementation Plan for Transportation Conformity Purposes; Maine; 
Maintenance Plan Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets for the Portland Maine 
8-Hour Ozone Area, and the Hancock, Knox, Lincoln and Waldo Counties 
Maine 8-Hour Ozone Area

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of adequacy.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that EPA has found 
that the 2016 motor vehicle emissions budgets in the August 3, 2006 
Maine State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision are adequate for 
transportation conformity purposes. The submittal included MOBILE6.2 
motor vehicle emissions budgets for 2016 for the Portland Maine 8-Hour 
Ozone Area, and the Hancock, Knox, Lincoln and Waldo Counties 
(Midcoast) Maine 8-Hour Ozone Area. On March 2, 1999, the DC Circuit 
Court ruled that budgets in submitted SIPs cannot be used for 
conformity determinations until EPA has affirmatively found them 
adequate. As a result of our finding, the Portland Maine 8-hour ozone 
area and the Midcoast Maine 8-hour ozone area can use the MOBILE6.2 
motor vehicle emissions budgets from the submitted plan for future 
conformity determinations.

DATES: These motor vehicle emissions budgets are effective October 5, 
2006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donald O. Cooke, Environmental 
Scientist, Air Quality Planning Unit, U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, EPA New England Regional Office, One Congress Street, Suite 
1100 (CAQ), Boston, MA 02114-2023, (617) 918-1668, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever ``we,'' 
``us'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA.
    Today's notice is simply an announcement of a finding that we have 
already made. EPA New England sent a letter to Maine Department of 
Environmental Protection on September 8, 2006, stating that the 2016 
MOBILE6.2 motor vehicle emissions budgets in the August 3, 2006 State 
Implementation Plans (SIPs) are adequate for transportation conformity 
purposes. This finding will also be announced on EPA's conformity Web 
site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm, 
(once there, click on ``What SIP submissions has EPA already found 
adequate or inadequate?''). The adequate motor vehicle emissions 
budgets (MVEBs) are provided in the following table:

                Adequate Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 VOC (tons    NOX (tons
                                                 per summer   per summer
                                                    day)         day)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year 2016 MVEBs for the Portland 8-hour Ozone        16.659       32.837
 Area.........................................
Year 2016 MVEBs for the Midcoast 8-hour Ozone         3.763        6.245
 Area.........................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the 
Clean Air Act. EPA's conformity rule requires that transportation 
plans, programs, and projects conform to state air quality 
implementation plans 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 EPA's completeness review, and it also should not be used to 
prejudge EPA's ultimate approval of the SIP. Even if we find a budget 
adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved.
    We have described our process for determining the adequacy of 
submitted SIP budgets in a May 14, 1999 memorandum entitled 
``Conformity Guidance on Implementation of March 2, 1999 Conformity 
Court Decision.'' Additional guidance on EPA's adequacy

[[Page 54986]]

process was published in a July 1, 2004 Federal Register final 
rulemaking, ``Transportation Conformity Rule Amendments for the New 8-
hour Ozone and PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards 
and Miscellaneous Revisions for Existing Areas; Transportation 
Conformity Rule Amendments: Response to Court Decision and Additional 
Rule Changes'' (69 FR 40004). We followed this guidance in making our 
adequacy determination.

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

    Dated: September 11, 2006.
Robert W. Varney,
Regional Administrator, EPA New England.
 [FR Doc. E6-15599 Filed 9-19-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P