[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 1, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 10563-10564]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-04468]



[[Page 10563]]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 81

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2014-0464; FRL-9943-02-OAR]


EPA Responses to Certain State Designation Recommendations for 
the 2010 Sulfur Dioxide National Ambient Air Quality Standard: Notice 
of Availability and Public Comment Period

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of availability and public comment period.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA) has posted on its Internet Web site responses to certain 
state designation recommendations for the 2010 Sulfur Dioxide 
(SO2) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The EPA 
invites the public to review and provide input on its responses during 
the comment period specified in the DATES section. The EPA sent its 
responses directly to the states on or about February 16, 2016. The EPA 
intends to make final the designation determinations for the areas of 
the country addressed by these responses no later than July 2, 2016.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 31, 2016. Please 
refer to SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for additional information on the 
comment period.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2014-0464, at http://www.regulations.gov. 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, 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general questions concerning this 
action, please contact Rhea Jones, U.S. EPA, Office of Air Quality 
Planning and Standards, Air Quality Planning Division, C539-04, 
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, telephone (919) 541-2940, email at 
[email protected]. For questions regarding areas in EPA Region 1, 
please contact Leiran Biton, U.S. EPA, telephone (617) 918-1267, email 
at [email protected]. For questions regarding areas in EPA Region 2, 
please contact Henry Feingersh, U.S. EPA, telephone (212) 637-3382, 
email at [email protected]. For questions regarding areas in EPA 
Region 3, please contact Irene Shandruk, U.S. EPA, telephone (215) 814-
2166, email at [email protected]. For questions regarding areas in 
EPA Region 4, please contact Twunjala Bradley, U.S. EPA, telephone 
(404) 562-9352, email at [email protected]. For questions 
regarding areas in EPA Region 5, please contact John Summerhays, U.S. 
EPA, telephone (312) 886-6067, email at [email protected]. For 
questions regarding areas in EPA Region 6, please contact Dayana 
Medina, U.S. EPA, telephone (214) 665-7241, email at 
[email protected]. For questions regarding areas in EPA Region 7, 
please contact David Peter, U.S. EPA, telephone (913) 551-7397, email 
at [email protected]. For questions regarding areas in EPA Region 8, 
please contact Adam Clark, U.S. EPA, telephone (303) 312-7104, email at 
[email protected]. For questions regarding areas in EPA Region 9, 
please contact Gwen Yoshimura, U.S. EPA, telephone (415) 947-4134, 
email at [email protected]. For questions regarding areas in EPA 
Region 10, please contact John Chi, U.S. EPA, telephone (206) 553-1185, 
email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background and Purpose

    On June 2, 2010, the EPA Administrator signed a notice of final 
rulemaking that revised the primary SO2 NAAQS (75 FR 35520; 
June 22, 2010) after review of the existing two primary SO2 
standards promulgated on April 30, 1971 (36 FR 8187). The EPA 
established the revised primary SO2 NAAQS at 75 parts per 
billion (ppb) which is attained when the 3-year average of the annual 
99th percentile of 1-hour daily maximum concentrations does not exceed 
75 ppb.
    The process for designating areas following promulgation of a new 
or revised NAAQS is contained in the Clean Air Act (CAA) section 107(d) 
(42 U.S.C. 7407). After promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS, each 
governor or tribal leader has an opportunity to recommend air quality 
designations, including the appropriate boundaries for nonattainment 
areas, to the EPA. The EPA considers these recommendations as part of 
its duty to promulgate the formal area designations and boundaries for 
the new or revised NAAQS. By no later than 120 days prior to 
promulgating designations, the EPA is required to notify states and 
tribes, as appropriate, of any intended modifications to an area 
designation or boundary recommendation that the EPA deems necessary.
    The EPA completed an initial round of SO2 designations 
for certain areas of the country on July 25, 2013, designating 29 areas 
in 16 states as nonattainment. Pursuant to a March 2, 2015, court-
ordered schedule,\1\ the EPA must complete SO2 designations 
for the remaining areas of the country by three specific deadlines: 
July 2, 2016, December 31, 2017, and December 31, 2020. This current 
second round of designation addresses two groups of areas: (1) Areas 
that have newly monitored violations of the 2010 SO2 NAAQS, 
and (2) areas that contain any stationary sources that had not been 
announced as of March 2, 2015, for retirement and that according to the 
EPA's Air Markets Database emitted in 2012 either (i) more than 16,000 
tons of SO2, or (ii) more than 2,600 tons of SO2 
with an annual average emission rate of at least 0.45 pounds of 
SO2/mmBTU. The EPA has determined that the areas meeting 
these criteria are associated with 68 stationary sources and the island 
of Hawaii.
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    \1\ Sierra Club v. McCarthy, No. 3-13-cv-3953 (SI) (N.D. Cal. 
Mar. 2, 2015).
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    On or about February 16, 2016, the EPA notified affected states of 
its intended designation of certain specific areas as either 
nonattainment, unclassifiable/attainment, or unclassifiable for the 
2010 SO2 NAAQS. Those states now have an opportunity to 
demonstrate why they believe an intended modification by the EPA 
regarding those specified areas may be inappropriate. In 2015, the EPA 
encouraged these states to provide additional information for the EPA 
to consider in finalizing designations for these specified areas.
    The purpose of this notice of availability is to solicit input from 
interested parties other than states on

[[Page 10564]]

the EPA's recent responses to the state designation recommendations for 
the 2010 SO2 NAAQS. These responses, and their supporting 
technical analyses, can be found on the EPA's Internet Web site at 
http://www.epa.gov/so2designations and also in the public docket for 
SO2 designations at Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2014-0464. The 
CAA section 107(d) provides a process for air quality designations that 
involves recommendations by states and tribes to the EPA and responses 
from the EPA to those parties, prior to the EPA promulgating final area 
designations and boundaries. The EPA is not required under the CAA 
section 107(d) to seek public comment during the designation process, 
but is electing to do so for these areas under the 2010 SO2 
NAAQS in order to gather additional information for the EPA to consider 
before making final designations for the specific areas addressed in 
the EPA's recent responses to states. The EPA invites public input on 
its responses to states regarding these areas during the 30-day comment 
period provided in this notice of availability. In order to receive 
full consideration, input from the public must be submitted by March 
31, 2016. At this time, the EPA is not asking for public comments on 
other areas for which states and tribes have submitted designation 
recommendations, beyond those to which the EPA has provided the 
responses that are the subject of this proposed action. This notice of 
availability and opportunity for public comment does not affect any 
rights or obligations of any state, tribe or the EPA which might 
otherwise exist pursuant to the CAA section 107(d).
    Please refer to the ADDRESSES section above in this document for 
specific instructions on submitting comments and locating relevant 
public documents.
    In establishing nonattainment area boundaries for a particular 
area, the EPA is required to identify both the area that does not meet 
the standard and any nearby area contributing to the area that does not 
meet the standard. We are particularly interested in receiving 
comments, supported by relevant information, if you believe that a 
specific geographic area that the EPA is proposing to identify as a 
nonattainment area should not be categorized by the CAA section 107(d) 
criteria as nonattainment, or if you believe that a specific nearby 
area not proposed by the EPA to be identified as contributing to a 
nonattainment area should in fact be categorized as contributing to 
nonattainment using the CAA section 107(d) criteria. Please be as 
specific as possible in supporting your views.
     Describe any assumptions and provide any technical 
information and/or data that you used.
     Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns, and 
suggest alternatives.
     Explain your views as clearly as possible.
     Provide your input by the comment period deadline 
identified.
    The EPA intends to complete designations for the areas subject to 
this round no later than July 2, 2016. The EPA is not yet prepared to 
respond to state and tribal area designation recommendations, or seek 
public input thereon, for other areas that are not yet designated for 
the 2010 SO2 NAAQS. The EPA will address those areas in the 
last two rounds of designations scheduled for 2017 and 2020. Additional 
information on the EPA's intended approach for addressing designations 
for all areas can be found on the EPA's SO2 implementation 
Web site at http://www3.epa.gov/airquality/sulfurdioxide/implement.html. Please be advised that, in this action, the EPA is not 
proposing as a regulatory action and is not soliciting public comments 
on the intended approach for these other areas, regarding either 
designations or implementation.

II. Instructions for Submitting Public Comments and Internet Web Site 
for Rulemaking Information

A. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for the EPA?

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to the EPA 
through www.regulations.gov or email. Clearly mark the part or all of 
the information that you claim to be CBI. For CBI in a disk or CD ROM 
that you mail to the EPA, mark the outside of the disk or CD ROM as CBI 
and then identify electronically within the disk or CD ROM the specific 
information that is claimed as CBI. In addition to one complete version 
of the comment that includes information claimed as CBI, a copy of the 
comment that does not contain the information claimed as CBI must be 
submitted for inclusion in the public docket. Information so marked 
will not be disclosed except in accordance with procedures set forth in 
40 CFR part 2. Send or deliver information identified as CBI only to 
the following address: Tiffany Purifoy, OAQPS CBI Officer, U.S. EPA, 
Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Mail Code C404-02, 
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, telephone (919) 541-0878, email at 
[email protected], Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2014-0464.
    2. Tips for Preparing Your Comments. When submitting comments, 
remember to:
     Identify the rulemaking by docket number and other 
identifying information (subject heading, Federal Register date and 
page number).
     Follow directions.
     Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives 
and substitute language for your requested changes.

B. Where can I find additional information for this rulemaking?

    The EPA has also established a Web site for this rulemaking at 
http://www3.epa.gov/so2designations. The Web site includes the EPA's 
state and tribal designation recommendations, information supporting 
the EPA's preliminary designation decisions, as well as the rulemaking 
actions and other related information that the public may find useful.

    Dated: February 16, 2016.
Mary E. Henigin,
Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. 2016-04468 Filed 2-29-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P