[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 10, 2015)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 12604-12607]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-05434]


 ========================================================================
 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
 ________________________________________________________________________
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
 the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
 notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
 the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
 
 ========================================================================
 

  Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 46 / Tuesday, March 10, 2015 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 12604]]



ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R03-OAR-2014-0652; FRL 9924-19-Region 3]


Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; 
Pennsylvania; Update of the Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets and General 
Conformity Budgets for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 1997 8-Hour Ozone 
National Ambient Air Quality Standard Maintenance Area

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to 
approve State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. These revisions consist of an update to 
the motor vehicle emissions budgets (MVEBs) for nitrogen oxides 
(NOX) for the 1997 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality 
Standard (NAAQS) maintenance SIP for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 1997 8-
Hour Ozone NAAQS Maintenance Area (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Maintenance 
Area or Area). These SIP revisions also include general conformity 
budgets for the construction of the Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant. In 
addition, these SIP revisions include updated point and area source 
inventories for NOX. This rulemaking action proposes to 
approve the general conformity budgets, the updated MVEBs, and updates 
to the point and area source inventories, and thereby make them 
available for transportation conformity purposes, in accordance with 
the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before April 9, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID Number EPA-
R03-OAR-2014-0652 by one of the following methods:
    A. www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for 
submitting comments.
    B. Email: [email protected].
    C. Mail: EPA-R03-OAR-2014-0652, Marilyn Powers, Acting Associate 
Director, Office of Air Program Planning, Mailcode 3AP30, U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1650 Arch Street, 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103.
    D. Hand Delivery: At the previously-listed EPA Region III address. 
Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of 
operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of 
boxed information.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R03-OAR-
2014-0652. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the public docket without change, and may be made available online 
at www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided, 
unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential 
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is 
restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to 
be CBI or otherwise protected through www.regulations.gov or email. The 
www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system, which 
means EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless you 
provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an email comment 
directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov, your email 
address will be automatically captured and included as part of the 
comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the 
Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you 
include your name and other contact information in the body of your 
comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your 
comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for 
clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic 
files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of 
encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses.
    Docket: All documents in the electronic docket are listed in the 
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, i.e., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, is not placed on the Internet and will be 
publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket 
materials are available either electronically in www.regulations.gov or 
in hard copy during normal business hours at the Air Protection 
Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1650 Arch 
Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Copies of the State submittal 
are available at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental 
Protection, Bureau of Air Quality Control, P.O. Box 8468, 400 Market 
Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17105.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Asrah Khadr, (215) 814-2071, or by 
email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    On May 28, 2014, Pennsylvania submitted formal revisions to its 
SIP. The SIP revisions consist of updated MVEBs for NOX for 
the 1997 8-Hour Ozone NAAQS, general conformity budgets for the 
construction of the Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant, and updated point 
and area source inventories for NOX.
    On July 18, 1997 (62 FR 38856), EPA established the 1997 8-Hour 
Ozone NAAQS. On April 30, 2004 (69 FR 23858), Lackawanna, Luzerne, 
Wyoming, and Monroe Counties were designated as nonattainment for the 
1997 8-Hour Ozone NAAQS as a part of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 
Nonattainment Area. On June 12, 2007, the Pennsylvania Department of 
Environmental Protection (PADEP) submitted a SIP revision which 
consisted of a maintenance plan, a 2002 base year inventory, and MVEBs 
for transportation conformity purposes. On November 19, 2007 (72 FR 
64948), EPA approved the SIP revision as well as the redesignation 
request made by PADEP; therefore, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 
Nonattainment Area was redesignated to a maintenance area.
    The current SIP-approved MVEBs for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 
Maintenance Area were developed using the Highway Mobile Source 
Emission Factor Model (MOBILE6.2). On March 2, 2010 (75 FR 9411), EPA 
published a notice of availability for the Motor Vehicle

[[Page 12605]]

Emissions Simulator (MOVES2010) model for use in developing MVEBs for 
SIPs and for conducting transportation conformity analyses. EPA 
commenced a two year grace period after which time the MOVES2010 model 
would have to be used for transportation conformity purposes. The two 
year grace period was scheduled to end on March 2, 2012. On February 
27, 2012 (77 FR 11394), EPA published a final rule extending the grace 
period for one more year to March 2, 2013 to ensure adequate time for 
affected parties to have the capacity to use the MOVES model to develop 
or update the applicable MVEBs in SIPs and to conduct conformity 
analyses. On September 8, 2010, EPA released MOVES2010a, which is a 
minor update to MOVES2010 and which is used by Pennsylvania in this SIP 
revision.

II. Summary of SIP Revision and EPA Analysis

    These SIP revisions include an update to the MVEBs for 
NOX for the years 2009 (interim year) and 2018 (maintenance 
year) that were produced using the MOVES2010a model. These SIP 
revisions also include an update to the point and area source 
inventories for NOX. The MVEBs, as well as the point and 
area source inventories, were not updated for volatile organic 
compounds (VOCs); therefore certain VOC data in the tables below is 
listed as not applicable (N/A). A comparison between the previous point 
source inventory and the updated point source inventory is provided in 
tons per summer day (tpsd) in Table 1. A comparison between the 
previous area source inventory and the updated area source inventory is 
provided for year 2018 because only that year was updated and is 
provided in Table 2. The previously approved MVEBs from the approved 
maintenance plan for the Area were produced using the Mobile Source 
Emission Factor Model (MOBILE6.2). A summary of the updated MOVES-based 
emissions and previously approved MOBILE6.2-based emissions for the 
years 2004, 2009, and 2018 is provided in Table 3. Even though there is 
an emissions increase in the MOVES-based MVEBs, the increase is not due 
to an increase in emissions from mobile sources. The increase is due to 
the fact that the MOVES model provides more accurate emissions 
estimates than MOBILE6.2 and not due to any growth that had not been 
anticipated in the approved maintenance plan. Also, part of the update 
of the MVEBs is the addition of a 2 tpsd safety margin for 
NOX. The MVEBs that will be utilized for transportation 
conformity purposes and that include the safety margins are presented 
in Table 4. These safety margins were added because emissions in the 
interim (2009) and maintenance (2018) years are significantly less than 
the attainment (2004) year emissions, which is the year that the 
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Maintenance Area attained the standard. 
Additionally, Table 5 presents the portion of the MVEBs allotted to 
each metropolitan planning organization (MPO) and regional planning 
organization (RPO). In the case of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 
Maintenance Area, there are three MPOs/RPOs involved in transportation 
planning for the counties that are a part of the maintenance area. The 
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre MPO serves Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties; the 
Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance (NEPA) MPO serves Monroe County; and 
the Northern Tier RPO serves Wyoming County.
    In addition to the updated inventories and MVEBs, the SIP revisions 
also provide general conformity budgets for NOX. These 
budgets are established for the construction of the Bell Bend Nuclear 
Power Plant. Under the general conformity rule, found at 40 CFR 
93.153(b)(2), an ozone maintenance area must provide a conformity 
determination for NOX or VOCs when a de minimus threshold of 
100 tons per year (tpy) of NOX or 50 tpy of VOCs is 
projected to be exceeded. The projections provided in this SIP revision 
do not exceed the de minimus VOC threshold but do exceed the de minimus 
NOX threshold. The estimated NOX emissions 
projected from the construction of the facility are 167.7 tpy. To 
accommodate this, the SIP revision adds a 1.0 tpsd NOX 
emissions budget to the 2009 and 2018 emissions inventories in the 
maintenance plan for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Maintenance Area, which 
will more than cover the expected annual emissions of 167.7 tpy. With 
the addition of the general conformity budgets, the Area's 2009 and 
2018 emissions are still less than the attainment year emissions; 
therefore Pennsylvania asserts and EPA finds that the construction of 
the Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant conforms to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 
Maintenance Area's approved maintenance plan. Table 6 provides the 
general conformity budgets that EPA is proposing for approval. Table 7 
presents the emission inventory totals which include the general 
conformity budgets and the safety margins. The calculations presented 
in Table 7 show that with the addition of safety margins and general 
conformity budgets the 2009 and 2018 emissions are still well below the 
attainment year (2004) emissions. A detailed summary of EPA's review 
and rationale for proposing to approve these SIP revisions as in 
accordance with CAA requirements may be found in the Technical Support 
Documents (TSDs) prepared in support of this proposed rulemaking action 
and are available on line at http://www.regulations.gov, Docket number 
EPA-R03-OAR-2014-0652.

        Table 1--Summary of Point Source Inventory in tpsd for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Maintenance Area
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                          Current                 Updated
                              Year                               -----------------------------------------------
                                                                     2009        2018        2009        2018
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOX.............................................................        9.4        10.5         7.7         5.8
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


   Table 2--Summary of Area Source Inventory in tpsd for the Scranton/
                      Wilkes-Barre Maintenance Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      Current              Updated
             Year              -----------------------------------------
                                        2018                 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOX...........................                 4.4                  7.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[Page 12606]]


       Table 3--Summary of Motor Vehicle Emissions in tpsd for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Maintenance Area
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Model                                 MOBILE6.2                        MOVES2010a
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Year                          2004       2009       2018       2004       2009       2018
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VOCs..........................................       31.6       23.3       14.3        N/A        N/A        N/A
NOX...........................................       66.1       46.9       21.6       77.0       57.3       28.5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Table 4--Revised MVEBs in tpsd for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Maintenance
                                  Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Year                       2009                2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VOCs............................                 N/A                 N/A
NOX.............................                59.3                30.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------


               Table 5--MVEBs for Each MPO in tpsd for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Maintenance Area
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                MPO                   Scranton/Wilkes-Barre           NEPA MPO              Northern Tier RPO
-----------------------------------            MPO           ---------------------------------------------------
                                   --------------------------
               Year                     2009         2018         2009         2018         2009         2018
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VOCs..............................        17.99        11.80         6.19         4.64         0.99         0.54
NOX...............................        42.67        21.90        14.10         7.10         2.50         1.60
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  Table 6--General Conformity Budgets for the Construction of the Bell
                    Bend Nuclear Power Plant in tpsd
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                Emissions
             Year              -----------------------------------------
                                        2009                 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOX...........................                 1.0                  1.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------


 Table 7--Comparison of 2004, 2009, and 2018 Emissions After Reserving the Safety Margins and General Conformity
                                                     Budgets
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Year                     2004            2009          2004-2009         2018          2004-2018
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Emissions.................            98.9            80.1            18.8            49.5            49.4
Emissions with addition of                  98.9            83.1            15.8            52.5            46.4
 Safety Margins and General
 Conformity Budgets.............
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

III. Proposed Action

    EPA is proposing to approve Pennsylvania's SIP revision submittal 
from May 28, 2014 to update the MVEBs for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 
Maintenance Area to reflect the use of the MOVES model. EPA is also 
proposing to approve the updates to the point and area source 
inventories. Additionally, EPA is proposing approval of the general 
conformity budgets for the construction of the Bell Bend Nuclear Power 
Plant. EPA is approving these SIP revisions because it will allow the 
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Maintenance Area to continue to maintain the 1997 
8-Hour Ozone NAAQS. Our in depth review of the SIP revisions leads EPA 
to conclude that the updated MVEBs meet the adequacy requirements set 
forth in 40 CFR 93.118(e)(4)(i)-(vi), and that the updated MVEBs have 
been correctly calculated to reflect the use of the MOVES model as 
explained in our TSDs. EPA also concludes that the general conformity 
budgets meet all requirements of the general conformity rule found at 
40 CFR part 93, subpart B as explained in our TSDs. EPA is soliciting 
public comments on the issues discussed in this document. These 
comments will be considered before taking final action.

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

    Under the CAA, the Administrator is required to approve a SIP 
submission that complies with the provisions of the Act and applicable 
Federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a). Thus, in 
reviewing SIP submissions, EPA's role is to approve state choices, 
provided that they meet the criteria of the CAA. Accordingly, this 
action merely approves state law as meeting Federal requirements and 
does not impose additional requirements beyond those imposed by state 
law. For that reason, this proposed action:
     Is not a ``significant regulatory action'' subject to 
review by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Order 
12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993);
     Does not impose an information collection burden under the 
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.);
     Is certified as not having a significant economic impact 
on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory 
Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.);
     Does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or 
uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded 
Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4);
     Does not have Federalism implications as specified in 
Executive

[[Page 12607]]

Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999);
     Is not an economically significant regulatory action based 
on health or safety risks subject to Executive Order 13045 (62 FR 
19885, April 23, 1997);
     Is not a significant regulatory action subject to 
Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001);
     Is not subject to requirements of Section 12(d) of the 
National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 
note) because application of those requirements would be inconsistent 
with the CAA; and
     Does not provide EPA with the discretionary authority to 
address, as appropriate, disproportionate human health or environmental 
effects, using practicable and legally permissible methods, under 
Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994).
    In addition, this proposed rule, pertaining to the update of the 
MVEBs, point and area source inventories, as well as the general 
conformity budgets for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Maintenance Area, does 
not have tribal implications as specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 
FR 67249, November 9, 2000), because the SIP is not approved to apply 
in Indian country located in the state, and EPA notes that it will not 
impose substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal 
law.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by 
reference, Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, Volatile organic compounds.

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

    Dated: February 20, 2015.
William C. Early,
 Acting Regional Administrator, Region III.
[FR Doc. 2015-05434 Filed 3-9-15; 08:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P