[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 13 (Thursday, January 22, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4032-4034]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-1110]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-R09-OAR-2008-0323; FRL-8763-8]


Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets in Submitted 
San Joaquin Valley 8-Hour Ozone Reasonable Further Progress and 
Attainment Plan for Transportation Conformity Purposes; California

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of adequacy and inadequacy.

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SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that the Agency 
has found that the motor vehicle emissions budgets for the years 2011, 
2014 and 2017 from the San Joaquin Valley 2007 Ozone Plan are adequate 
for transportation conformity purposes. In this notice, EPA is also 
notifying the public that the Agency has found that the motor vehicle 
emissions budgets for the years 2008, 2020 and 2023 from the San 
Joaquin Valley 2007 Ozone Plan are inadequate for transportation 
conformity purposes. The San Joaquin Valley 2007 Ozone Plan was 
submitted to EPA on November 16, 2007 by the California Air Resources 
Board (CARB) as a revision to the California State Implementation Plan 
(SIP), and includes reasonable further progress and attainment 
demonstrations for the 8-hour ozone standard. On February 1, 2008, CARB 
submitted supplemental technical information related to reasonable 
further progress for the 8-hour ozone standard in San Joaquin Valley. 
As a result of our adequacy findings, the San Joaquin Valley 
Metropolitan Planning Organizations

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and the U.S. Department of Transportation must use the adequate 
budgets, and cannot use the inadequate budgets, for future conformity 
determinations.

DATES: This finding is effective February 6, 2009.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karina O'Connor, U.S. EPA, Region IX, 
Air Division AIR-2, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-3901; 
(775) 833-1276 or [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 Region IX sent a letter to CARB on January 8, 2009 
stating that the motor vehicle emissions budgets in the submitted San 
Joaquin Valley 2007 Ozone Plan, as supplemented by CARB on February 1, 
2008, for the reasonable further progress (RFP) milestone years of 
2011, 2014, 2017 are adequate. The finding is available at EPA's 
conformity Web site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm. The adequate motor vehicle emissions budgets are provided 
in the following table:

                                         Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets
                                         [Summer planning tons per day]
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               Year                           2011                      2014                      2017
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              County                   VOC\1\        NOX         VOC\1\        NOX         VOC\1\        NOX
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Fresno............................         15.5         47.9         12.9         37.2         11.1         29.1
Kern (SJV)........................         15.7         79.4         13.5         64.1         11.6         49.5
Kings.............................          3.4         15.9          2.8         12.3          2.3          9.4
Madera............................          3.7         12.2          3.1          9.7          2.6          7.7
Merced............................          6.2         28.8          5.1         22.3          4.2         17.1
San Joaquin.......................         12.1         34.7         10.1         27.8          8.6         21.3
Stanislaus........................          9.0         22.3          7.5         17.2          6.5         13.4
Tulare............................          9.2         20.9          7.7         16.6          6.7         13.1
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\1\ The plan uses a comparable State term, reactive organic gases (ROG).

    Our letter dated January 8, 2009 also states that budgets for 2008, 
2020, and 2023 are inadequate for transportation conformity purposes. 
The San Joaquin Valley 8-hour ozone plan does not show reasonable 
further progress for the year 2008. As a result, one of the 
transportation conformity rule's adequacy criteria is not met (40 CFR 
93.118(e)(4)(iv)), and thus, the 2008 budget is inadequate. The State 
has included additional on-road mobile source emissions reductions in 
the budgets for 2020 and 2023 from the 2007 State Strategy for the 
California SIP. The adequate budgets include no such reductions but 
rather reflect emissions reductions from CARB rules that have already 
been adopted. EPA has determined that the 2020 and 2023 budgets are 
inadequate because they include new emission reductions that do not 
result from specific or enforceable control measures. As a result, 
three of the transportation conformity rule's adequacy criteria are not 
met (40 CFR 93.118(e)(4)(iii), (iv), and (v)) for these budgets. The 
inadequate motor vehicle emissions budgets are provided in the 
following table:

                                    Inadequate Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets
                                         [Summer planning tons per day]
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               Year                           2008                      2020                      2023
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              County                   VOC\1\        NOX         VOC\1\        NOX         VOC\1\        NOX
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Fresno............................         18.6         58.5          8.0         16.9          7.8         15.7
Kern (SJV)........................         18.1         93.9          8.5         28.4          8.1         24.8
Kings.............................          3.9         18.3          1.7          5.3          1.6          4.7
Madera............................          4.4         14.6          1.9          4.8          1.9          4.5
Merced............................          7.4         35.5          2.9          9.9          2.8          9.0
San Joaquin.......................         13.9         40.0          6.3         12.7          6.3         11.9
Stanislaus........................         10.5         26.7          4.9          8.0          4.6          7.1
Tulare............................         10.5         23.4          5.2          8.4          4.8          7.4
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\1\ The plan uses a comparable State term, reactive organic gases (ROG).

    Receipt of the motor vehicle emissions budgets in the San Joaquin 
Valley 2007 Ozone Plan was announced on EPA's transportation conformity 
Web site on April 18, 2008. We received comments in response to the 
adequacy review posting. The finding and the response to comments are 
available at EPA's transportation conformity Web site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm.
    Transportation conformity is required by Clean Air Act section 
176(c). EPA's conformity rule requires that transportation plans, 
transportation improvement programs, and projects conform to SIPs and 
establishes the criteria and procedures for determining whether or not 
they do conform. 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

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budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in 40 CFR 
93.118(e)(4) which was promulgated in our August 15, 1997 final rule 
(62 FR 43780, 43781-43783). We have further described our process for 
determining the adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in our July 1, 2004 
final rule (69 FR 40004, 40038), and we used the information in these 
resources in making our adequacy determination. Please note that an 
adequacy review is separate from EPA's completeness review, and should 
not be used to prejudge EPA's ultimate approval action for the SIP. 
Even if we find a budget adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved.

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

    Dated: January 9, 2009.
Laura Yoshii,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. E9-1110 Filed 1-21-09; 8:45 am]
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