[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 95 (Tuesday, May 17, 2016)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 30484-30486]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-11516]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R09-OAR-2016-0070; FRL-9945-24-Region 9]


Approval of California Air Plan Revisions, Eastern Kern Air 
Pollution Control District

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Direct final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking direct 
final action to approve revisions to the Eastern Kern Air Pollution 
Control District (EKAPCD) portion of the California State 
Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern administrative 
changes of a previously approved regulation and emissions of volatile 
organic compounds (VOCs) in aerospace assembly and coating operations 
and in metal, plastic and pleasure craft parts and products coating 
operations. We are approving local rules that regulate these activities 
under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act).

DATES: This rule is effective on July 18, 2016 without further notice, 
unless the EPA receives adverse comments by June 16, 2016. If we 
receive such comments, we will publish a timely withdrawal in the 
Federal Register to notify the public that this direct final rule will 
not take effect.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-
OAR-2016-0070 at http://www.regulations.gov, or via email to 
[email protected]. For comments submitted at Regulations.gov, 
follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, 
comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. For either 
manner of submission, 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 the person 
identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section. 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Vanessa Graham, EPA Region IX, (415) 
947-4120, [email protected].

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

Table of Contents

I. The State's Submittal
    A. What rules did the State submit?
    B. Are there other versions of these rules?
    C. What is the purpose of the submitted rules and rule 
revisions?
II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action
    A. How is the EPA evaluating the rules?
    B. Do the rules meet the evaluation criteria?
    C. EPA recommendations to further improve the rules and rule 
revisions?
    D. Public Comment and Final Action
III. Incorporation by Reference
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

I. The State's Submittal

A. What rules did the State submit?

    Table 1 lists the rules addressed by this action with the dates 
that they were adopted by the local air agency and submitted by the 
California Air Resources Board (CARB).

                                            Table 1--Submitted Rules
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Local agency               Rule #         Rule title         Adopted         Amended        Submitted
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EKAPCD........................           103.1  Inspection of     ..............        05/02/96        07/23/96
                                                 Public Records.
EKAPCD........................           410.4  Metal, Plastic,   ..............        03/13/14        07/25/14
                                                 and Pleasure
                                                 Craft Parts and
                                                 Products
                                                 Coating
                                                 Operations.
EKAPCD........................           410.8  Aerospace               03/13/14  ..............        07/25/14
                                                 Assembly and
                                                 Coating
                                                 Operations.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    On October 30, 1996, the EPA determined that the submittal for 
EKAPCD Rule 103.1 met the completeness criteria in 40 CFR part 51 
Appendix V, which must be met before formal EPA review. On September 
11, 2014, the EPA determined that the submittal for EKAPCD Rules 410.4 
and 410.8 met the completeness criteria as well.

B. Are there other versions of these rules?

    EKAPCD adopted an earlier version of Rule 103.1 on August 31, 1976, 
which CARB submitted to us on November 10,

[[Page 30485]]

1976. This rule was approved into the SIP on March 22, 1978 (43 FR 
11816). EKAPCD adopted revisions to the SIP-approved version of Rule 
103.1 on May 2, 1996, and CARB submitted the revised rule to us on July 
23, 1996.
    EKAPCD amended an earlier version of Rule 410.4 on March 7, 1996, 
and CARB submitted it to us on May 10, 1996. We approved the earlier 
version of 410.4 into the SIP on January 13, 2000 (65 FR 2046). EKAPCD 
adopted revisions to the SIP-approved version of Rule 410.4 on March 
13, 2014, and CARB submitted it to us on July 25, 2014.
    There are no previous versions of Rule 410.8 in the SIP. EKAPCD 
adopted Rule 410.8 on March 13, 2014, and submitted it to us on July 
25, 2014.
    While we can act on only the most recently submitted version, we 
have reviewed materials provided with previous submittals.

C. What is the purpose of the submitted rules and rule revisions?

    VOCs help produce ground-level ozone, smog and particulate matter 
(PM), which harm human health and the environment. Section 110(a) of 
the CAA requires States to submit regulations that control VOC 
emissions.
    Rule 103.1 supports some of the basic infrastructure SIP 
requirements described in section 110(a) of the CAA with respect to 
public records access. The submitted version of Rule 103.1 contains 
only minor typographical changes from the version that we previously 
approved into the SIP in 1978, and is identical in substance to the 
SIP-approved version.
    Rule 410.4 limits the VOC content and establishes related 
requirements for the coating of metal parts or products, large 
appliance parts or products, metal furniture, and plastic parts or 
products. EKAPCD revised the rule largely to be consistent with 
national guidance and with the rules of neighboring air districts.
    Rule 410.8 limits VOC emissions from aerospace primers, coatings, 
adhesives, maskants and lubricants, as well as from cleaning, 
stripping, storing and disposal of organic solvents and waste materials 
associated with the use of the abovementioned aerospace products. This 
rule also provides for administrative requirements including those for 
recordkeeping and measurement of VOC emissions.
    The EPA's technical support documents (TSDs) have more information 
about these rules.

II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action

A. How is the EPA evaluating the rules?

    SIP rules must be enforceable (see CAA section 110(a)(2)), must not 
interfere with applicable requirements concerning attainment and 
reasonable further progress or other CAA requirements (see CAA section 
110(l)), and must not modify certain SIP control requirements in 
nonattainment areas without ensuring equivalent or greater emissions 
reductions (see CAA section 193).
    Generally, SIP rules must require Reasonably Available Control 
Technology (RACT) for each category of sources covered by a Control 
Techniques Guidelines (CTG) document as well as each major source of 
VOCs in ozone nonattainment areas classified as moderate or above (see 
CAA sections 182(b)(2)). EKAPCD regulates an ozone nonattainment area 
classified as Marginal \1\ for the 2008 8-hour ozone National Ambient 
Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). In addition, EKAPCD is classified as 
Moderate for the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS (40 CFR 81.305). Since Rules 
410.4 and 410.8 regulate sources subject to a CTG in a nonattainment 
area, they must implement RACT.
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    \1\ See 80 FR 51992, August 27, 2015.
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    Guidance and policy documents that we used to evaluate 
enforceability, revision/relaxation and rule stringency requirements 
for the applicable criteria pollutants include the following:
    1. ``State Implementation Plans; General Preamble for the 
Implementation of Title I of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990,'' 
(57 FR 13498, April 16, 1992, and 57 FR 18070, April 28, 1992).
    2. ``Issues Relating to VOC Regulation Cutpoints, Deficiencies, and 
Deviations'' (``the Bluebook,'' U.S. EPA, May 25, 1988; revised January 
11, 1990).
    3. ``Guidance Document for Correcting Common VOC & Other Rule 
Deficiencies'' (``the Little Bluebook,'' EPA Region 9, August 21, 
2001).
    4. ``Control of Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Coating 
Operations at Aerospace Manufacturing and Rework Operations'' (EPA 453/
R-97-004, December 1997).
    5. Guidance Memorandum for ``Control Technique Guidelines for 
Miscellaneous Metal and Plastic Parts Coating'' (EPA 453/R-08-003, June 
2010).
    6. ``Control Technique Guidelines for Miscellaneous Metal and 
Plastic Parts Coating'' (EPA 453/R-08-003, September 2008).
    7. ``Guidance on Infrastructure State Implementation Plan (SIP) 
Elements under Clean Air Act Sections 110(a)(1) and 110(a)(2),'' USEPA 
Memorandum dated September 13, 2013.
    8. ``Review of State Regulation Recodifications,'' USEPA Memorandum 
dated February 12, 1990.

B. Do the rules meet the evaluation criteria?

    We believe these rules are consistent with the relevant policy and 
guidance regarding enforceability, RACT and SIP relaxations. The TSDs 
have more information on our evaluation.

C. EPA recommendations to further improve the rules and rule revisions?

    The TSDs describe additional rule revisions that we recommend for 
the next time the local agency modifies the rules but are not currently 
the basis for rule disapproval.

D. Public Comment and Final Action

    As authorized in section 110(k)(3) of the Act, the EPA is fully 
approving the submitted rules because we believe they fulfill all 
relevant requirements. We do not think anyone will object to this 
approval, so we are finalizing it without proposing it in advance. 
However, in the Proposed Rules section of this Federal Register, we are 
simultaneously proposing approval of the same submitted rules. If we 
receive adverse comments by June 16, 2016, we will publish a timely 
withdrawal in the Federal Register to notify the public that the direct 
final approval will not take effect and we will address the comments in 
a subsequent final action based on the proposal. If we do not receive 
timely adverse comments, the direct final approval will be effective 
without further notice on July 18, 2016. This will incorporate these 
rules into the federally enforceable SIP.
    Please note that if the EPA receives adverse comment on an 
amendment, paragraph, or section of this rule and if that provision may 
be severed from the remainder of the rule, the EPA may adopt as final 
those provisions of the rule that are not the subject of an adverse 
comment.

III. Incorporation by Reference

    In this rule, the EPA is finalizing regulatory text that includes 
incorporation by reference. In accordance with requirements of 1 CFR 
51.5, the EPA is finalizing the incorporation by reference of the 
EKAPCD rules described in the amendments to 40 CFR part 52 set forth 
below. The EPA has made, and will continue to make, these documents

[[Page 30486]]

available electronically through www.regulations.gov and in hard copy 
at the appropriate EPA office (see the ADDRESSES section of this 
preamble for more information).

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

    Under the Clean Air Act, 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 Clean Air Act. 
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 Clean Air Act; and
     does not provide the 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 the 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 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 Clean Air Act, petitions for 
judicial review of this action must be filed in the United States Court 
of Appeals for the appropriate circuit by July 18, 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 the 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, Ozone, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements, and Volatile organic compounds.

    Dated: April 4, 2016.
Jared Blumenfeld,
Regional Administrator, Region IX.

    Part 52, Chapter I, Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations is 
amended as follows:

PART 52 [AMENDED]

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

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

Subpart F--California

0
2. Section 52.220 is amended by adding paragraphs (c)(35)(xiii)(F), 
(c)(231)(i)(B)(8), (c)(239)(i)(C)(6), and (c)(447)(i)(D)(2) and (3) to 
read as follows:


Sec.  52.220  Identification of plan.

* * * * *
    (c) * * *
    (35) * * *
    (xiii) * * *
    (F) Previously approved on March 22, 1978, in paragraph 
(c)(35)(xiii)(A) of this section and now deleted with replacement in 
paragraph (c)(239)(i)(C)(6) of this section, Rule 103.1, ``Inspection 
of Public Records,'' adopted on August 31, 1976.
* * * * *
    (231) * * *
    (i) * * *
    (B) * * *
    (8) Previously approved on January 13, 2000, in paragraph 
(c)(231)(i)(B)(6) of this section and now deleted with replacement in 
paragraph (c)(447)(i)(D)(2) of this section, Rule 410.4, ``Surface 
Coating of Metal Parts and Products,'' amended on March 7, 1996.
* * * * *
    (239) * * *
    (i) * * *
    (C) * * *
    (6) Rule 103.1, Inspection of Public Records,'' amended on May 2, 
1996.
* * * * *
    (447) * * *
    (i) * * *
    (D) * * *
    (2) Rule 410.4, ``Metal, Plastic, and Pleasure Craft Parts and 
Products Coating Operations,'' amended on March 13, 2014.
    (3) Rule 410.8, ``Aerospace Assembly and Coating Operations,'' 
adopted on March 13, 2014.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 2016-11516 Filed 5-16-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P