[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 56 (Friday, March 22, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 10748-10750]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-05415]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R09-OAR-2018-0802; FRL-9991-28-OAR]


Air Plan Approval; California; Antelope Valley Air Quality 
Management District

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to 
approve a revision to the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management 
District (AVAQMD) portion of the California State Implementation Plan 
(SIP). This revision concerns emissions of volatile organic compounds 
(VOCs) from solvent cleaning operations. We are proposing to approve a 
local rule to regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act 
(CAA or the Act). We are taking comments on this proposal and plan to 
follow with a final action.

DATES: Any comments must arrive by April 22, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-
OAR-2018-0802 at http://www.regulations.gov. For comments submitted at 
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

[[Page 10749]]

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://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Schwartz, EPA Region IX, 75 
Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, (415) 972-3286, 
[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 rule did the State submit?
    B. Are there other versions of this rule?
    C. What is the purpose of the submitted rule revision?
II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action
    A. How is the EPA evaluating the rule?
    B. Does the rule meet the evaluation criteria?
    C. EPA Recommendations To Further Improve the Rule
    D. Public Comment and Proposed Action
III. Incorporation by Reference
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

I. The State's Submittal

A. What rule did the State submit?

    Table 1 lists the rule addressed by this proposal with the dates 
that it was adopted by the local air agency and submitted by the 
California Air Resources Board (CARB).

                                             Table 1--Submitted Rule
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            Local agency                  Rule No.            Rule title            Amended         Submitted
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AVAQMD..............................            1171   Solvent Cleaning              8/21/2018       10/30/2018
                                                        Operations.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    On November 28, 2018, the EPA determined that the submittal for 
AVAQMD Rule 1171 met the completeness criteria in 40 CFR part 51 
Appendix V, which must be met before formal EPA review.

B. Are there other versions of this rule?

    We approved an earlier version of Rule 1171 into the SIP on May 24, 
2001 (66 FR 28666). The AVAQMD adopted revisions to the SIP-approved 
version on August 21, 2018, and CARB submitted them to us on October 
30, 2018.

C. What is the purpose of the rule revision?

    Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contribute to 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. The current SIP-approved Rule 
1171 establishes VOC content limits and workplace standards for all 
persons who use, store, and dispose of VOC-containing materials in 
solvent cleaning operations. Revisions to the SIP-approved rule include 
lower VOC content limits for most categories of solvent cleaning 
activities and the addition of alternative VOC composite partial 
pressure limits for all solvent cleaning activities covered by this 
rule; updates to definitions; the addition of more comprehensive 
recordkeeping requirements; revised test methods; and the removal of 
several exemptions.
    Additionally, on October 10, 2017 (82 FR 46923), the EPA partially 
conditionally approved AVAQMD's reasonably available control technology 
(RACT) demonstrations for the 1997 8-hr ozone National Ambient Air 
Quality Standards (NAAQS) and the 2008 8-hr ozone NAAQS (also referred 
to as the 2006 and 2015 RACT SIPs) with respect to Rule 1171, based on 
commitments from AVAQMD to revise and submit amendments to Rule 1171 
that remedy specific deficiencies. These deficiencies were identified 
in our December 15, 2016 proposed partial approval and partial 
disapproval (81 FR 90754) and referenced in our July 28, 2017 proposal 
(82 FR 35149). For Rule 1171, the deficiency identified was the need to 
incorporate work practices from the Control Techniques Guidelines, 
``Industrial Cleaning Solvents,'' September 2006. Revisions to Rule 
1171 on October 30, 2018, were submitted in part to correct this 
deficiency. The EPA's technical support document (TSD) has more 
information about this rule.

II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action

A. How is the EPA evaluating the rule?

    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 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 section 182(b)(2)). The AVAQMD regulates an 
ozone nonattainment area classified as Severe for the 1997 and 2008 8-
hour ozone NAAQS (40 CFR 81.305). Therefore, this rule must implement 
RACT. In addition, the rule was evaluated to ensure it met the 
commitment made by the AVAQMD that served as the basis for the partial 
conditional approval of the AVAQMD 2006 and 2015 RACT SIPs with respect 
to Rule 1171 (82 FR 46923).
    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); 57 FR 18070 (April 28, 1992).
    2. ``Issues Relating to VOC Regulation Cutpoints, Deficiencies, and 
Deviations,'' EPA, May 25, 1988 (the Bluebook, revised January 11, 
1990).
    3. ``Guidance Document for Correcting Common VOC & Other Rule 
Deficiencies,'' EPA Region 9, August 21, 2001 (the Little Bluebook).
    4. ``Control Techniques Guidelines: Industrial Cleaning Solvents,'' 
EPA-453/R-06-001, September 2006.

B. Does the rule meet the evaluation criteria?

    This rule is consistent with CAA requirements and relevant guidance 
regarding enforceability, RACT, and SIP revisions, and meets the 
District's commitment to remedy the Rule 1171 deficiency identified in 
the RACT SIP conditional approval (82 FR 46923). The TSD has more 
information on our evaluation.

[[Page 10750]]

C. EPA Recommendations To Further Improve the Rule

    The TSD describes additional rule revisions that we recommend for 
the next time the local agency modifies the rule.

D. Public Comment and Proposed Action

    As authorized in section 110(k)(3) of the Act, the EPA proposes to 
fully approve the submitted rule because it fulfills all relevant 
requirements. We will accept comments from the public on this proposal 
until April 22, 2019. If we take final action to approve the submitted 
rule, our final action will incorporate this rule into the federally 
enforceable SIP.

III. Incorporation by Reference

    In this rule, the EPA is proposing to include in a final EPA rule 
regulatory text that includes incorporation by reference. In accordance 
with requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is proposing to incorporate by 
reference the AVAQMD rule described in Table 1 of this preamble. The 
EPA has made, and will continue to make, these materials available 
through www.regulations.gov and at the EPA Region IX Office (please 
contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT 
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 proposed action merely proposes to approve state law 
as meeting federal requirements and does not impose additional 
requirements beyond those imposed by state law. For that reason, this 
proposed 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);
     Is not an Executive Order 13771 (82 FR 9339, February 2, 
2017) regulatory action because SIP approvals are exempted under 
Executive Order 12866;
     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 disproportionate human health or environmental effects with 
practical, appropriate, 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).

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

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

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

    Dated: March 11, 2019.
Deborah Jordan,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. 2019-05415 Filed 3-21-19; 8:45 am]
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