[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 234 (Thursday, December 5, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73188-73189]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-29090]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-R09-OAR-2013-0762; FRL-9903-85-Region-9]


Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Emissions Budget in Submitted 
State Implementation Plan; Maricopa County PM-10 Nonattainment Area, 
Arizona

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of adequacy.

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SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that the Agency 
has found that the motor vehicle emissions budget (MVEB) for 
particulate matter less than ten microns (PM-10) for the year 2012 in 
the Five Percent Plan for PM-10 for the Maricopa County Nonattainment 
Area (May 2012) (``Five Percent Plan'') is adequate for transportation 
conformity purposes. The Five Percent Plan for PM-10 in the Maricopa 
County Nonattainment Area was submitted to EPA on May 25, 2012 by the 
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) as a revision to the 
Arizona State Implementation Plan (SIP). As a result of our adequacy 
findings, the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and the U.S. 
Department of Transportation must use the MVEB for future conformity 
determinations.

DATES: Effective December 20, 2013.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Greg Nudd, U.S. EPA, Region IX, Air 
Division AIR-2, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-3901, 
(415) 947-4107 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever ``we,'' 
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA.
    Today's notice announces that we have found that the MVEB in the 
submitted Five Percent Plan for PM-10 in the Maricopa County 
Nonattainment Area for the year 2012 is adequate. The adequate MVEB is 
54.9 metric tons per day of PM-10. More information regarding our 
finding can be found in our letter to MAG and ADEQ dated November 22, 
2013.

[[Page 73189]]

    Receipt of the MVEB in Five Percent Plan for PM-10 for the Maricopa 
County Nonattainment Area was announced on EPA's transportation 
conformity Web site on September 12, 2013. We received no comments in 
response to the adequacy review posting. The adequacy finding is 
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 transportation 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 MVEB is adequate 
for conformity purposes are outlined in 40 CFR 93.118(e)(4), which was 
promulgated in a final rule published on August 15, 1997 (62 FR 43780, 
43781-43783). We have further described our process for determining the 
adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in a final rule published on July 1, 
2004 (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 review of the SIP, and should 
not be used to predict EPA's action for the SIP.

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

    Dated: November 26, 2013.
Jared Blumenfeld,
Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. 2013-29090 Filed 12-4-13; 8:45 am]
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