[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 143 (Tuesday, July 28, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37210-37211]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-17926]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-R09-OAR-2009-0374; FRL-8936-5]


Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets in Submitted 
Attainment and Reasonable Further Progress Plan for Sacramento 8-hour 
Ozone 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 Sacramento Regional 8-Hour Ozone Attainment and 
Reasonable Further Progress Plan (``2009 Sacramento 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 year 2018 from the 2009 Sacramento 
Ozone Plan are inadequate for transportation conformity purposes. The 
2009 Sacramento Ozone Plan was submitted to EPA on April 17, 2009 by 
the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as a revision to the 
California State Implementation Plan (SIP). As a result of our adequacy 
findings, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) and the 
U.S. Department of Transportation must use the adequate budgets and 
cannot use the inadequate budget in future transportation conformity 
analyses once the finding becomes effective.

DATES: This finding is effective August 12, 2009.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Kelly, U.S. EPA, Region IX, Air 
Division AIR-2, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-3901; 
(415) 947-4151 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 July 16, 2009 
stating that the motor vehicle emissions budgets in the submitted 2009 
Sacramento Ozone Plan for the reasonable further progress (RFP) 
milestone years of 2011, 2014 and 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:

                Adequate Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets
                            [summer planning]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Reactive organic
           Budget year             gases \1\  (tons     Nitrogen oxides
                                       per day)         (tons per day)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011............................                  38                  78
2014............................                  32                  61

[[Page 37211]]

 
2017............................                  29                  48
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Reactive organic gases (ROG) is the term used in the plan and is
  comparable to the Federal term, volatile organic compounds (VOC).

    Our letter dated July 16, 2009 also states that budgets for 2018 
are inadequate for transportation conformity purposes. The 2018 budgets 
include estimated emission reductions associated with a number of 
commitments for future rule adoption that lack specificity. As such, 
the SACOG would not be able to accurately quantify future emission 
reductions associated with the commitments. Without additional 
specificity, it is also unclear how the 2018 budgets are precisely 
quantified or related to the overall emissions inventory and other 
measures. Therefore, the 2018 budgets do not meet the adequacy criteria 
found in 40 CFR 93.118(e)(4)(iii), (iv), and (v). The inadequate motor 
vehicle emissions budgets are provided in the following table:

               Inadequate Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets
                            [summer planning]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   Reactive organic
           Budget year             gases \1\  (tons     Nitrogen oxides
                                       per day)         (tons per day)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018............................                  24                  34
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Reactive organic gases (ROG) is the term used in the plan is
  comparable to the Federal term, volatile organic compounds (VOC).

    Acting in response to a request by CARB for parallel processing of 
the final, but not yet adopted, 2009 Sacramento Ozone Plan and related 
budgets, we announced availability of the plan and related budgets on 
EPA's transportation conformity Web site on March 18, 2009. We received 
no comments in response to the adequacy review posting. The finding is 
available at EPA's 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 state air 
quality implementation plans (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) 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, at 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: July 16, 2009.
Laura Yoshii,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. E9-17926 Filed 7-27-09; 8:45 am]
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