[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 62 (Friday, March 30, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 13719-13720]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-06441]



[[Page 13719]]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 81

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0548; FRL-9975-91-OAR]


EPA Response to the Designation Recommendation From Texas for the 
San Antonio Area for the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality 
Standards: 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 our public electronic docket and internet 
website the agency's response to the designation recommendation from 
the state of Texas for the eight counties in the San Antonio area for 
the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The 
response includes our intended designations for the area. The EPA 
invites the public to review and provide input on our intended 
designations during the comment period specified in the DATES section. 
The EPA sent its response directly to Texas on March 19, 2018. The EPA 
intends to make final designation determinations for the eight counties 
in the San Antonio area by July 17, 2018.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 30, 2018. Please 
refer to SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for additional information on the 
comment period.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2017-0548, at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 
instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot 
be edited or removed from http://www.regulations.gov. The EPA may 
publish any comment received to our 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 https://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general questions concerning this 
action, please contact Denise Scott, U.S. EPA, Office of Air Quality 
Planning and Standards, Air Quality Policy Division, C539-01, Research 
Triangle Park, NC 27709, telephone (919) 541-4280, email at 
[email protected]. The EPA Region 6 contact for this action is 
Carrie Paige, telephone (214) 665-6521, email at [email protected].
    The public may inspect the designation recommendation from Texas, 
the EPA's recent letter notifying Texas of our intended designations 
for the San Antonio area, and area-specific technical support 
information at the following location: EPA Region 6, 1445 Ross Avenue, 
Dallas, TX 75202, (214) 665-6691.
    The information can also be reviewed online at https://www.epa.gov/ozone-designations and in the public docket for these ozone 
designations at https://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2017-0548.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. What is the purpose of this action?

    The purpose of this notice of availability is to solicit input from 
interested parties other than Texas on the EPA's recent response to the 
designation recommendation from Texas for the San Antonio area for the 
2015 Ozone NAAQS. This response, and the supporting technical analyses, 
can be found at https://www.epa.gov/ozone-designations and in the 
public docket for these ozone designations at https://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0548.
    On October 1, 2015, the EPA Administrator signed a notice of final 
rulemaking that revised the primary and secondary ozone NAAQS (80 FR 
65292; October 26, 2015). The EPA established the revised primary and 
secondary ozone NAAQS at 0.070 parts per million (ppm). The 2015 Ozone 
NAAQS are met at an ambient air quality monitoring site when the 3-year 
average of the annual fourth highest daily maximum 8-hour average ozone 
concentration (i.e., the design value) is less than or equal to 0.070 
ppm. The revised standards will improve public health protection, 
particularly for at-risk groups including children, older adults, 
people of all ages who have lung diseases such as asthma, and people 
who are active outdoors, especially outdoor workers. They also will 
improve the health of trees, plants and ecosystems.
    After the EPA promulgates a new or revised NAAQS, the Clean Air Act 
(CAA) requires the EPA to designate all areas of the country as either 
``Nonattainment,'' ``Attainment,'' or ``Unclassifiable,'' for that 
NAAQS. The process for these initial designations is contained in CAA 
section 107(d)(1) (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, territories, and tribes, as appropriate, of any 
intended modifications to an area designation or boundary 
recommendation that the EPA deems necessary.
    On November 6, 2017, the EPA established initial air quality 
designations for most areas in the United States, including most areas 
of Indian country, for the 2015 primary and secondary ozone NAAQS (82 
FR 54232, November 16, 2017). In that action, the EPA designated 2,646 
counties, including Indian country located in those counties, two 
separate areas of Indian country, and five territories as Attainment/
Unclassifiable and three counties as Unclassifiable.
    On or about December 20, 2017, consistent with section 
107(d)(1)(b)(ii) of the CAA, the EPA notified affected states and 
tribes of the agency's intended designations for the remaining 
undesignated areas, except for eight counties in the San Antonio, 
Texas, area. States and tribes were provided an opportunity during the 
120-day process to provide additional information for the EPA to 
consider in making the final designation decisions. Although not 
required, the EPA also provided a public comment period on its intended 
designations for these areas.
    On January 19, 2018, the EPA sent a follow-up letter to the 
Governor of Texas requesting any additional information that the state 
would like the EPA to consider in designating the San Antonio area. In 
a letter dated February 28, 2018, the Governor of Texas provided his 
response on the appropriate designation for the San Antonio area.
    On March 19, 2018, the EPA notified the Governor of Texas of the 
agency's intended designations for the eight

[[Page 13720]]

counties in the San Antonio area. That action initiated the 120-day 
period process specific to the eight counties in the San Antonio area. 
The EPA plans to continue to work with the state in an effort to 
resolve any disagreement regarding the designation of the eight 
counties in the San Antonio area.
    Once designations take effect, they govern what subsequent 
regulatory actions states, tribes, and the EPA must take in order to 
improve or preserve air quality in each area.

II. Instructions for Submitting Public Comments and Internet Website 
for Rulemaking Information

A. Invitation To Comment

    The purpose of this notice is to solicit input from interested 
parties, other than Texas, on the EPA's recent response to the 
designation recommendation from Texas for the eight counties in the San 
Antonio area for the 2015 Ozone NAAQS. The response, and the supporting 
technical analysis, can be found at https://www.epa.gov/ozone-designations and in the public docket for these ozone designations at 
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0548. The EPA Docket Office can be 
contacted at (202) 566-1744, and is located at EPA Docket Center 
Reading Room, WJC West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20004. The hours of operation at the EPA Docket 
Center are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday.
    CAA section 107(d)(1) provides a process for air quality 
designations that involves recommendations by states, territories, 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)(1) to seek public comment 
during the designation process, but we are electing to do so with 
respect to the 2015 Ozone NAAQS in order to gather additional 
information for the EPA to consider before making final designations. 
The EPA invites public input on our response to Texas regarding the 
designations for the San Antonio area during the 30-day comment period 
provided in this notice. In order to receive full consideration, input 
from the public must be submitted to the docket by April 30, 2018. This 
notice and opportunity for public comment does not affect any rights or 
obligations of any state, or tribe, or of the EPA, which might 
otherwise exist pursuant to the CAA section 107(d).
    Please refer to the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section in this 
document for specific instructions on submitting comments and locating 
relevant public documents.
    In establishing Nonattainment area boundaries for a particular 
area, CAA section 107(d)(1)(A) requires the EPA to include within the 
boundaries both the area that does not meet the standard and any nearby 
area contributing to ambient air quality in the area that does not meet 
the NAAQS. We are particularly interested in receiving comments, 
supported by relevant information addressing the section 107(d)(1)(A) 
criteria, if you believe that a specific geographic area should not be 
categorized as Nonattainment, or if you believe that an area the EPA 
had indicated that it intends to designate as Attainment/Unclassifiable 
or Unclassifiable should in fact be categorized Nonattainment based on 
the presence of a violating monitor in the area or based on 
contribution to ambient air quality in a nearby areas. 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.

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

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit CBI information to the EPA through 
https://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 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 2. Send or deliver 
information identified as CBI only to the following address: 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-2017-0548.
    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.

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

    The EPA has also established a website for this rulemaking at 
https://www.epa.gov/ozone-designations. The website includes the state, 
territorial and tribal recommendations, the EPA's intended area 
designations, information supporting the EPA's preliminary designation 
decisions, the EPA's designation guidance for the 2015 Ozone NAAQS as 
well as the rulemaking actions and other related information that the 
public may find useful.

    Dated: March 19, 2018.
Panagiotis E. Tsirigotis,
Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. 2018-06441 Filed 3-29-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P