[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 78 (Friday, April 22, 2016)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 23639-23640]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-09159]



[[Page 23639]]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R04-OAR-2015-0618; FRL-9945-22-Region 4]


Air Plan Approval; Tennessee: Knox County VOC Limits Revision for 
Permits

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Direct final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking direct 
final action to approve a portion of a revision to the Tennessee State 
Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted on March 14, 2014, by the State of 
Tennessee, through the Tennessee Department of Environmental 
Conservation (TDEC) on behalf of the Knox County Department of Air 
Quality Management (Knox County) to address changes to a Knox County 
regulation regarding permits. EPA has determined that Tennessee's 
requested SIP revision is consistent with the applicable provisions of 
the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act).

DATES: This direct final rule is effective June 21, 2016 without 
further notice, unless EPA receives adverse comment by May 23, 2016. If 
EPA receives such comments, it will publish a timely withdrawal of the 
direct final rule in the Federal Register informing the public that the 
rule will not take effect.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04-
OAR-2015-0618 at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 
instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot 
be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. 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. 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: Zuri Farngalo or D. Brad Akers, Air 
Regulatory Management Section, Air Planning and Implementation Branch, 
Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management Division, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street SW., Atlanta, Georgia 
30303-8960. Mr. Farngalo can be reached at (404) 562-9152 and via 
electronic mail at [email protected]. Mr. Akers can be reached at 
(404) 562-9089 and via electronic mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    On March 14, 2014, TDEC submitted to EPA several revisions to the 
Knox County portion of the Tennessee SIP. At this time, EPA is acting 
on one portion of the submittal: Section 25 of the Knox County Air 
Quality Management Regulations, Permits, has been revised to add 
regulations that streamline the permitting process for sources that 
have the potential to emit volatile organic compounds (VOC), and EPA is 
approving the incorporation of that revision into the Tennessee SIP. 
The submittal also included revisions to section 25.6, adding a permit 
exemption, and to section 26.5, adding a requirement that certain 
sources of oxides of nitrogen and VOC submit an annual emissions 
statement. The revision to section 25.6 was withdrawn from the 
submittal in an August 7, 2015, letter sent to EPA by TDEC on behalf of 
Knox County, a copy of which is included in the Docket for today's 
action. EPA approved the revision to section 26.5 on November 5, 2015. 
See 80 FR 68448. Therefore, today's final rule completes EPA's action 
with respect to the March 14, 2014, submittal.

II. Analysis of Tennessee's Submittal

    The portion of Tennessee's March 14, 2014, SIP submittal that EPA 
is approving today is the addition to the Knox County Air Quality 
Management Regulations of section 25.11, Limiting a Source's Potential 
to Emit of VOC by Recordkeeping, which sets forth recordkeeping and 
reporting requirements for a source that has the potential to emit 
above the major-source threshold but that prefers to be a synthetic 
minor source (i.e., to accept limits lower than the major-source 
threshold of 100 tons per year). Section 25.11 establishes a three-
tiered system of recordkeeping and reporting requirements, whereby 
sources that elect to set their limits at the highest threshold have 
the most stringent requirements and sources that opt for the lowest 
threshold have the least stringent requirements. These changes are 
consistent with ``Guidance for State Rules for Optional Federally-
Enforceable Emissions Limits Based on Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) 
Use'' and ``Potential to Emit (PTE) Guidance for Specific Source 
Categories,'' which are both EPA memoranda issued by the Office of Air 
Quality Planning Standards. EPA has reviewed Tennessee's requested 
changes to the Knox County Air Quality Management Regulations, and has 
concluded that the addition of Section 25.11 is consistent with the 
CAA.

III. Incorporation by Reference

    In this rule, EPA is finalizing regulatory text that includes 
incorporation by reference. In accordance with requirements of 1 CFR 
51.5, EPA is finalizing the incorporation by reference of Knox County 
Air Quality Management Regulations section 25.11, Limiting a Source's 
Potential to Emit of VOC by Recordkeeping. The EPA has made, and will 
continue to make, these documents generally available electronically 
through www.regulations.gov and/or in hard copy at the appropriate EPA 
office (see the ADDRESSES section of this preamble for more 
information).

IV. Final Action

    EPA is approving a portion of Tennessee's March 14, 2014, SIP 
revision addressing changes to a Knox County regulation regarding 
permits. EPA is publishing this rule without prior proposal because the 
Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no 
adverse comments. However, in the proposed rules section of this 
Federal Register publication, EPA is publishing a separate document 
that will serve as the proposal to approve the SIP revision should 
adverse comments be filed. This rule will be effective June 21, 2016 
without further notice unless the Agency receives adverse comments by 
May 23, 2016.
    If EPA receives such comments, then EPA will publish a document 
withdrawing the final rule and informing the public that the rule will 
not take effect. All public comments received will then be addressed in 
a subsequent final rule based on the proposed rule. EPA will not 
institute a second comment period. Parties interested in commenting 
should do so at this time. If no such comments are received, the public 
is advised that this rule will be effective on June 21, 2016 and no 
further action will be taken on the proposed rule.

[[Page 23640]]

V. 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. See 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 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, as 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).
    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 as specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 
FR 67249, November 9, 2000), nor will it impose substantial direct 
costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal law.
    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. EPA will submit a report containing this action 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 June 21, 2016. Filing a petition for 
reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect 
the finality of this action 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. Parties with objections to this direct final rule are 
encouraged to file a comment in response to the parallel notice of 
proposed rulemaking for this action published in the proposed rules 
section of today's Federal Register, rather than file an immediate 
petition for judicial review of this direct final rule, so that EPA can 
withdraw this direct final rule and address the comment in the proposed 
rulemaking. This action may not be challenged later in proceedings to 
enforce its requirements. See section 307(b)(2).

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by 
reference, Intergovernmental relations, Reporting and recordkeeping 
requirements, Volatile organic compounds.

    Dated: April 6, 2016.
Heather McTeer Toney,
Regional Administrator, Region 4.

    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 RR--Tennessee

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2. In Sec.  52.2220, table 3 in paragraph (c) is amended by revising 
the entry for ``Section 25.0'' to read as follows:


Sec.  52.2220  Identification of plan.

* * * * *
    (c) * * *

                                 Table 3--EPA Approved Knox County, Regulations
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                                                       State
      State section            Title/subject      effective date     EPA approval date          Explanation
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                                                  * * * * * * *
25.0....................  Permits...............       3/12/2014  4/22/2016 [Insert       ......................
                                                                   Federal Register
                                                                   citation].
 
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[FR Doc. 2016-09159 Filed 4-21-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P