[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 9 (Thursday, January 14, 2016)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 1884-1887]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00559]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R06-OAR-2015-0647; FRL-9941-21-Region 6]


Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Arkansas; 
Crittenden County Base Year Emission Inventory

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Direct final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a 
revision to the Arkansas State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted to 
meet the Clean Air Act (CAA) emissions inventory (EI) requirement for 
the Crittenden County ozone nonattainment area. EPA is approving the 
SIP revision because it

[[Page 1885]]

satisfies the CAA EI requirement for Crittenden County under the 2008 
8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The 
inventory includes emissions data for Nitrogen Oxides (NOX) 
and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). EPA is approving the revisions 
pursuant to section 110 and part D of the CAA and EPA's regulations.

DATES: This rule is effective on March 14, 2016 without further notice, 
unless the EPA receives relevant adverse comment by March 14, 2016. If 
the EPA receives such comment, the EPA will publish a timely withdrawal 
in the Federal Register informing the public that this rule will not 
take effect.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket No. EPA-R06-OAR-
2015-0647, at http://www.regulations.gov or via email to 
[email protected]. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from 
Regulations.gov. The EPA may publish any comment received to its public 
docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, 
video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written 
comment is considered the official comment and should include 
discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA will generally not 
consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary 
submission (i.e. on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For 
additional submission methods, please contact Mr. Colin Schwartz, 214-
665-7262, [email protected]. For the full EPA public comment 
policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general 
guidance on making effective comments, please visit http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
    Docket: The index to the docket for this action is available 
electronically at www.regulations.gov and in hard copy at EPA Region 6, 
1445 Ross Avenue, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas. While all documents in the 
docket are listed in the index, some information may be publicly 
available only at the hard copy location (e.g., copyrighted material), 
and some may not be publicly available at either location (e.g., CBI).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Colin Schwartz, 214-665-7262, 
[email protected]. To inspect the hard copy materials, please 
schedule an appointment with Mr. Schwartz or Mr. Bill Deese at 214-665-
7253.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document ``we,'' ``us,'' and 
``our'' means the EPA.

I. Background

A. The 2008 Ozone NAAQS and Emissions Inventory Requirement

    On March 12, 2008, the EPA revised the eight-hour ozone NAAQS from 
0.08 parts per million (ppm) to 0.075 ppm. (73 FR 16436, March 27, 
2008). The EPA designated Crittenden County as a nonattainment area for 
the 2008 ozone NAAQS (77 FR 30088, May 21, 2012).\1\
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    \1\ On October 1, 2015, the EPA strengthened the ozone standard 
to 0.070 ppm (80 FR 65292, October 26, 2015). The EPA has not made 
designations under this new standard and the emission inventory 
under evaluation in this rulemaking does not address that standard.
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    CAA sections 172(c)(3) and 182(a)(1) require states to develop and 
submit as a SIP revision an emissions inventory for all areas 
designated as nonattainment for the ozone NAAQS. 42 U.S.C. 172(c) and 
182(a). An emissions inventory is an estimation of actual emissions of 
air pollutants in an area. Ground-level ozone, O3, is a gas 
that is formed by the reaction of VOCs and NOX in the 
atmosphere in the presence of sunlight. These precursor emissions are 
emitted by many types of pollution sources, including power plants and 
industrial emissions sources, on-road and non-road motor vehicles and 
engines, and smaller sources, collectively referred to as area sources. 
The EIs provide data for a variety of air quality planning tasks 
including establishing baseline emission levels, calculating federally 
required emission reduction targets, emission inputs into air quality 
simulation models, and tracking emissions over time. The total EI of 
VOC and NOX for an area are summarized from the estimates 
developed for four general categories of emissions sources: Point, 
area, mobile, and biogenic. The EPA's 2008 ozone standard SIP 
requirements rule recommends that states use 2011 as a base year to 
address EI requirements (80 FR 12264, 34190, March 6, 2015).

B. Arkansas' Submittal

    On August 28, 2015, Arkansas submitted to the EPA the SIP revision 
addressing the emissions inventory requirement for Crittenden County 
under the 2008 ozone NAAQS. The inventory includes estimates of 2011 
NOX and VOC emissions in tons per year. The 2011 Base Year 
Inventory is the starting point for calculating the reductions 
necessary to meet the requirements of the CAA. Sections 172 (c)(3) and 
182(b)(1) of the CAA require that nonattainment plan provisions include 
an inventory of actual emissions from all sources of relevant 
pollutants in the nonattainment area. The inventory includes all area, 
point, non-road mobile, and on-road mobile source emissions in the 
Crittenden County ozone nonattainment area. The inventory also includes 
a description of the methods used to estimate emissions. A copy of the 
submittal is available in the electronic docket for this action.

C. What criteria must be met for the EPA to approve this SIP revision?

    Section 182(a)(1) of the CAA requires states with nonattainment 
areas to submit a comprehensive and accurate inventory of ozone 
precursor emissions from all sources within two years of the effective 
date of designation, which was July 20, 2012. Also, Section 172(c)(3) 
requires that such an inventory shall include a comprehensive accurate, 
current inventory of actual emissions from all sources of the relevant 
pollutant or pollutants in such area, including such periodic revisions 
as the Administrator may determine necessary to assure that the 
requirements of this part are met.

II. The EPA's Evaluation

    EPA reviewed the revision for consistency with the requirements of 
EPA regulations. A summary of EPA's analysis is provided below. For a 
full discussion of our evaluation, please see our Technical Support 
Document (TSD).
    Sections 172(c)(3) and 182(a)(1) of the CAA require an inventory of 
actual emissions from all sources of relevant pollutants in the 
nonattainment area. The 2011 base year emission inventory data include 
all point, area, and non-road and on-road mobile sources in Crittenden 
County. Point source emissions were entered through the State and Local 
Emissions Inventory System (SLEIS) and area sources were developed in 
accordance with the federal Air Emissions Reporting Requirements (AERR) 
rule. Non-road mobile sources utilized the National Mobile Inventory 
Model (NMIM) while the on-road sources used the Motor Vehicle Emissions 
Simulator (MOVES2010b). The EPA has determined that the inventory was 
developed in accordance with CAA guidelines and that the revised 2011 
base year emission inventory is approvable. The submittal meets the 
goal of reaching attainment by reducing O3 forming 
precursors. Table 1 lists the emissions inventory for the Crittenden 
County area. For more detail on how the

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emissions inventories were estimated and evaluated, see the TSD.

                                                    Table 1--Base Year Emissions Inventory, 2011 Data
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                                                           Ozone season                    Ozone season                    Ozone season
                        Category                             daily NOX      Annual NOX       daily VOC      Annual VOC       daily CO        Annual CO
Units                                                           Tons/day       Tons/year        Tons/day       Tons/year        Tons/day       Tons/year
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Point...................................................          0.0017            .063            .051          186.84           0.004            1.58
Area....................................................            8.70        3,165.17           24.90        8,868.94           20.32        7,375.56
Non-road Mobile.........................................            2.11          582.63            3.66          881.35           13.78        3,476.63
On-road Mobile..........................................            6.80           2,542            2.42             845           23.13           9,051
                                                         -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total...............................................           17.61        6,290.43           31.49       10,782.13          57.234       19,904.77
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III. Final Action

    We are approving revisions to the Arkansas SIP that pertain to the 
2008 ozone SIP emissions inventory for Crittenden County, as are listed 
in Table 1.
    The EPA is publishing this rule without prior proposal because we 
view this as a non-controversial amendment and anticipate no adverse 
comments. However, in the proposed rules section of this Federal 
Register publication, we are publishing a separate document that will 
serve as the proposal to approve the SIP revision if relevant adverse 
comments are received. This rule will be effective on March 14, 2016 
without further notice unless we receive relevant adverse comment by 
February 16, 2016. If we receive relevant adverse comments, we will 
publish a timely withdrawal in the Federal Register informing the 
public that the rule will not take effect. We will address all public 
comments in a subsequent final rule based on the proposed rule. We will 
not institute a second comment period on this action. Any parties 
interested in commenting must do so now. Please note that if we receive 
relevant adverse comment on an amendment, paragraph, or section of this 
rule and if that provision may be severed from the remainder of the 
rule, we may adopt as final those provisions of the rule that are not 
the subject of an adverse comment.

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, the 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 action:
     Is not a ``significant regulatory action'' subject to 
review by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Orders 
12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, January 21, 
2011);
     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, described in the Unfunded Mandates 
Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4);
     Does not have Federalism implications as specified in 
Executive 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, the SIP is not approved to apply on any Indian reservation 
land or in any other area where EPA or an Indian tribe has demonstrated 
that a tribe has jurisdiction. In those areas of Indian country, the 
rule does not have tribal implications and will not impose substantial 
direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal law as specified 
by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000).
    The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the 
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally 
provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating 
the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule, 
to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the 
United States. The EPA will submit a report containing this rule and 
other required information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of 
Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States prior 
to publication of the rule in the Federal Register. A major rule cannot 
take effect until 60 days after it is published in the Federal 
Register. This action is not a ``major rule'' as defined by 5 U.S.C. 
804(2).
    Under section 307(b)(1) of the CAA, petitions for judicial review 
of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for 
the appropriate circuit by March 14, 2016. Filing a petition for 
reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect 
the finality of this rule for the purposes of judicial review nor does 
it extend the time within which a petition for judicial review may be 
filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness of such rule or action. 
This action may not be challenged later in proceedings to enforce its 
requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).)
    Samuel Coleman was designated the Acting Regional Administrator on 
December 30, 2015 through the order of succession outlined in Regional 
Order R6-1110.1, a copy of which is included in the docket for this 
action.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by

[[Page 1887]]

reference, Ozone, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Volatile 
Organic Compounds.

    Dated: December 30, 2015.
Samuel Coleman,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 6.

    40 CFR part 52 is amended as follows:

PART 52--APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS

0
1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:

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

Subpart E--Arkansas

0
2. In Sec.  52.170(e), the third table titled ``EPA-Approved 
Nonregulatory Provisions and Quasi-Regulatory Measures'' is amended by 
adding an entry for ``Crittenden County Base Year Emission Inventory 
for the 2008 Ozone Standard'' to the end of the table.
    The addition reads as follows:


Sec.  52.170  Identification of plan.

* * * * *
    (e) * * *

             EPA-Approved Nonregulatory Provisions and Quasi-Regulatory Measures in the Arkansas SIP
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                                     Applicable        State
                                   geographic or     submittal/
     Name of SIP provision         nonattainment     effective   EPA approval date           Explanation
                                        area            date
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                                                  * * * * * * *
Crittenden County Base Year      Crittenden County    8/28/2015  1/13/2016 [Insert  ............................
 Emission Inventory for the                                       Federal Register
 2008 Ozone Standard.                                             citation].
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[FR Doc. 2016-00559 Filed 1-13-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P