[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 4 (Friday, January 5, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 679-680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-00029]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-R09-OAR-2017-0490; FRL-9972-80-Region 9]


Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets in Submitted 
PM2.5 Serious Area Plan for South Coast; California

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of adequacy.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or ``Agency'') is 
notifying the public that the Agency has found that the motor vehicle 
emissions budgets (MVEBs or ``budgets'') for the years 2017 and 2019 in 
the 2016 South Coast Serious Area Plan for the 2006 24-hour fine 
particulate matter (PM2.5) National Ambient Air Quality 
Standards (NAAQS) (``2016 PM2.5 Plan'' or ``Plan'') are 
adequate for transportation conformity purposes. The California Air 
Resources Board (CARB) submitted the 2016 PM2.5 Plan to the 
EPA on April 27, 2017, as a revision to the California State 
Implementation Plan (SIP). Upon the effective date of this notice of 
adequacy, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and 
the U.S. Department of Transportation must use the adequate budgets in 
future transportation conformity analyses.

DATES: This finding is effective January 22, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wienke Tax, EPA, Region IX, Air 
Division AIR-2, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-3901; 
(415) 947-4192 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever ``we,'' 
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA.
    Today's notice is simply an announcement of a finding that we have 
already made. EPA Region IX sent a letter to CARB on December 19, 2017, 
stating that the MVEBs in the 2016 PM2.5 Plan for the 
reasonable further progress (RFP) milestone year of 2017 and attainment 
year of 2019 are adequate. The finding is available at the EPA's 
conformity website: https://www.epa.gov/state-and-local-transportation/adequacy-review-state-implementation-plan-sip-submissions-conformity. 
We announced the availability of the Plan and related budgets on the 
EPA's conformity website on October 18, 2017. We received no comments 
in response to this announcement. The adequate budgets are provided in 
the following table:

              Adequate Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets in South Coast 2006 PM2.5 Serious Area Plan
                                          [Annual average tons per day]
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                                                                     Volatile                        Directly
                           Budget Year                                organic        Nitrogen      emitted PM2.5
                                                                     compounds        oxides
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2017............................................................              99             200              21
2019............................................................              83             169              20
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    Transportation conformity is required by CAA section 176(c). The 
EPA's Transportation Conformity Rule at 40 CFR part 93, subpart A 
requires that transportation plans, transportation improvement 
programs, and projects conform to SIPs and establishes the criteria and 
procedures for determining whether or not they do. Conformity to a SIP 
means that transportation activities will not produce new air quality 
violations, worsen existing violations, or delay timely attainment of 
the NAAQS.
    The criteria we use to determine whether a SIP's motor vehicle 
emission budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in 
40 CFR 93.118(e)(4), promulgated on August 15, 1997 (62 FR 43780, 
43781-43783). We further described our process for determining the 
adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in our July 1, 2004 final rule (69 FR 
40004, 40038), and we used the information in these resources in making 
our adequacy determination. Please note that an adequacy review is 
separate from the EPA's completeness review and should not be used to 
prejudge the EPA's ultimate action on the SIP. Even if we find a budget 
adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved.
    Consistent with the requirements set forth in the Fine Particulate 
Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards: State Implementation 
Plan Requirements, Final Rule (81 FR 58010, August 24, 2016) 
(``PM2.5 SIP Requirements Rule''), the 2016 PM2.5 
Plan contains RFP budgets for 2020, which is the year following the 
attainment year. As explained below, we are not taking action on the 
2020 budgets at this time.
    The Transportation Conformity Rule requires that control strategy 
SIPs, including the RFP plans and attainment plans required for Serious 
PM2.5 nonattainment areas,\1\ contain MVEBs for direct 
PM2.5 and PM2.5 precursors subject to 
transportation conformity analyses for each milestone year addressed in 
the control strategy.\2\

[[Page 680]]

Under the PM2.5 SIP Requirements Rule, Serious area 
PM2.5 attainment plans must define appropriate quantitative 
milestones and include projected RFP emission levels for direct 
PM2.5 and all PM2.5 plan precursors in each 
milestone year. For an area designated nonattainment for the 2006 
PM2.5 NAAQS before January 15, 2015, the attainment plan 
must contain quantitative milestones to be achieved no later than 3 
years after December 31, 2014, and every 3 years thereafter until the 
milestone date that falls within 3 years after the applicable 
attainment date (40 CFR 51.1013(a)(4)).\3\ As the EPA explained in the 
preamble to the PM2.5 SIP Requirements Rule, it is important 
to include a post-attainment year quantitative milestone to ensure 
that, if the area fails to attain by the attainment date, the EPA can 
continue to monitor the area's progress toward attainment while the 
state develops a new attainment plan (see 81 FR 58010, 58063-58064, 
August 24, 2016).
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    \1\ See 40 CFR 93.101 (defining ``control strategy 
implementation plan revision'').
    \2\ See 40 CFR 93.101 (defining ``motor vehicle emissions 
budget''), 93.102(b)(2)(iv) and (v) (establishing applicability of 
part 93 requirements to PM2.5 precursor pollutants) and 
93.118(a) (requiring that each transportation plan, TIP, or project 
not from a conforming transportation plan and TIP be consistent with 
the motor vehicle emissions budget(s) in the applicable 
implementation plan (or implementation plan submission)).
    \3\ See also 81 FR 58010, 58058 and 58063-58064 (August 24, 
2016).
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    Consistent with the requirements of 40 CFR 51.1013(a)(4), the 2016 
PM2.5 Plan identifies December 31, 2017, as the first 
quantitative milestone date (i.e., the date 3 years after December 31, 
2014). The second quantitative milestone date is December 31, 2020, and 
is also the last milestone date identified in the Plan because it falls 
within 3 years after the December 31, 2019 attainment date for the 
area.\4\ Although this post-attainment year quantitative milestone is a 
required element of the Serious area plan, it is not necessary to 
demonstrate transportation conformity for 2020 in the submitted SIP or 
to use the 2020 budgets in transportation conformity determinations 
until such time as the area fails to attain the 2006 PM2.5 
NAAQS. Therefore, the EPA is not taking action at this time on the 
submitted MVEBs for 2020 in the 2016 PM2.5 Plan. 
Additionally, the EPA has not yet started the adequacy process for the 
2020 budgets.
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    \4\ Under CAA section 188(c)(2), a Serious PM2.5 
nonattainment area must attain the PM2.5 NAAQS as 
expeditiously as practicable but no later than the end of the tenth 
calendar year after the area is designated as nonattainment. Because 
the South Coast area was designated as nonattainment for the 2006 
PM2.5 NAAQS effective December 14, 2009 (74 FR 58688, 
November 13, 2009), the latest permissible attainment date for the 
area is December 31, 2019.
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    If the EPA were to either find adequate or approve the post-
attainment milestone year MVEBs now, those budgets would have to be 
used in transportation conformity determinations that are made after 
the effective date of the adequacy finding or approval even if the 
South Coast area ultimately attains the PM2.5 NAAQS by the 
Serious area attainment date. This would mean that SCAG \5\ would be 
required to demonstrate conformity for the post-attainment date 
milestone year and all later years addressed in the conformity 
determination (e.g., the last year of the metropolitan transportation 
plan) to the post-attainment date RFP budgets rather than the budgets 
associated with the attainment year for the area (i.e., the budgets for 
2019). The EPA does not believe that it is necessary to demonstrate 
conformity using these post-attainment year budgets in areas that 
either the EPA anticipates will attain by the attainment date or in 
areas that attain by the attainment date. As discussed elsewhere in 
this notice, the EPA is announcing that it has found adequate the MVEBs 
for the first milestone year (2017) and the attainment year (2019) for 
the South Coast PM2.5 nonattainment area.
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    \5\ SCAG is the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the South 
Coast 2006 PM2.5 nonattainment area.
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    If and when the EPA determines that the South Coast area has failed 
to attain the 2006 PM2.5 NAAQS by the applicable attainment 
date, the EPA will begin the MVEB adequacy and approval processes for 
the post-attainment year (2020) budgets. If the EPA finds the 2020 
budgets adequate or approves them, those budgets will have to be used 
in subsequent transportation conformity determinations. The EPA 
believes that initiating the process to act on the submitted post-
attainment year MVEBs following a determination that the area has 
failed to attain by the Serious area attainment date ensures that 
transportation activities will not cause or contribute to new 
violations, increase the frequency or severity of any existing 
violations, or delay timely attainment or any required interim emission 
reductions or milestones in the South Coast PM2.5 
nonattainment area, consistent with the requirements of CAA section 
176(c)(1)(B).

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

    Dated: December 20, 2017.
Alexis Strauss,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. 2018-00029 Filed 1-4-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P