[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 95 (Thursday, May 16, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 22101-22103]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-10189]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 81
[EPA-R07-OAR-2019-0190; FRL-9993-27-Region 7]
Approval of Missouri Air Quality Implementation Plans;
Redesignation of the Missouri Portion of the St. Louis-St. Charles-
Farmington, MO-IL 2012 PM2.5 Unclassifiable Area
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to
approve a request from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources
(MoDNR) to redesignate the Missouri portion of the St. Louis-St.
Charles-Farmington, MO-IL fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
unclassifiable area (``St. Louis area'' or ``area'') to unclassifiable/
attainment for the 2012 annual fine particulate matter
(PM2.5) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The
Missouri portion of the St. Louis area comprises of the City of St.
Louis and the counties of Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles, and St.
Louis. The EPA now has sufficient data to determine that the St. Louis
area is in attainment of the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS. Therefore,
EPA is proposing to approve the state's December 11, 2018 request, and
redesignate the area to unclassifiable/attainment for the 2012
PM2.5 NAAQS based upon valid, quality-assured, and certified
ambient air monitoring data showing that the PM2.5 monitors
in the area are in compliance with the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS. The
EPA will address the Illinois portion of the St. Louis area in a
separate rulemaking action.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 17, 2019.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R07-
OAR-2019-0190, to https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments.
Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket ID
No. for this rulemaking. Comments received will be posted without
change to https://www.regulations.gov/, including any personal
information provided. For detailed instructions on sending comments and
additional information on the rulemaking process, see the ``Written
Comments'' heading of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this
document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lachala Kemp, Environmental Protection
Agency, Air Planning and Development Branch, 11201 Renner Boulevard,
Lenexa, Kansas 66219 at (913) 551-7214, or by email at
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document ``we,'' ``us,'' and
``our'' refer to EPA.
Table of Contents
I. Written Comments
II. What is being addressed in this document?
III. Background Information
IV. What are the criteria for redesignating an area from
unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment?
V. What is the EPA's rationale for proposing to redesignate the
area?
VI. Proposed Action
VII. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. Written Comments
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R07-OAR-2019-
0190, at https://www.regulations.gov. 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 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://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
II. What is being addressed in this document?
The EPA is proposing to approve MoDNR's request to change the
designation of the Missouri portion of the St. Louis area from
unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment for the 2012
PM2.5 NAAQS, based on quality-assured and certified
monitoring data for 2015-2017, and proposing to approve that the
Missouri portion of the St. Louis area has met the requirements for
redesignation under section 107(d)(3)(E) of the CAA.
III. Background Information
The Clean Air Act (CAA) establishes a process for air quality
management through the establishment and implementation of the NAAQS.
Upon promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS, section 107(d)(1)of the
CAA requires EPA to designate areas as attainment, nonattainment, or
unclassifiable. On December 14, 2012, the EPA promulgated a revised
primary annual PM2.5 NAAQS to provide increased protection
of public health and welfare from fine particle pollution (78 FR 3086,
January 15, 2013). In that action, the EPA revised the primary annual
PM2.5 standard, strengthening it from 15.0 micrograms per
cubic meter ([mu]g/m\3\) to 12.0 ([mu]g/m\3\), which is attained when
the three-year average of the annual arithmetic means does not exceed
12.0 ([mu]g/m\3\). The EPA
[[Page 22102]]
established the standard based on significant evidence and numerous
health studies demonstrating that serious health effects are associated
with exposures to particulate matter.
The process for designating areas following promulgation of a new
or revised NAAQS is contained in section 107(d)(1) of the CAA. On
December 18, 2014, the EPA designated the majority of areas across the
country as nonattainment, unclassifiable/attainment, or unclassifiable
\1\ for the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS based upon air quality
monitoring data from monitors for calendar years 2011-2013. See 80 FR
2206 (January 15, 2015).
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\1\ For the initial PM area designations in 2014 (for the 2012
annual PM2.5 NAAQS), EPA used a designation category of
``unclassifiable/attainment'' for areas that had monitors showing
attainment of the standard and were not contributing to nearby
violations and for areas that did not have monitors but for which
EPA had reason to believe were likely attaining the standard and not
contributing to nearby violations. EPA used the category
``unclassifiable'' for areas in which EPA could not determine, based
upon available information, whether or not the NAAQS was being met
and/or EPA had not determined the area to be contributing to nearby
violations. EPA reserves the ``attainment'' category for when EPA
redesignates a nonattainment area that has attained the relevant
NAAQS and has an approved maintenance plan.
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The EPA initially designated the bi-state St. Louis area as
unclassifiable based on ambient air quality data from 2011-2013. During
that time period, the EPA identified data completeness issues with the
ambient PM2.5 monitoring data in the state of Illinois.
Although all monitors in Missouri were attaining the standard at the
time of the initial designations, the lack of complete monitoring data
in Illinois prevented EPA from being able to determine whether
violations of the standard were occurring in the Illinois portion of
the St.Louis area or whether emission sources in Missouri were
contributing to any violations in Illinois. Therefore, the EPA
designated the entire St. Louis MO-IL area as unclassifiable for the
2012 PM2.5 NAAQS.
IV. What are the criteria for redesignating an area from unclassifiable
to unclassifiable/attainment?
Section 107(d)(3) of the CAA provides the framework for changing
the area designations for any NAAQS pollutants. Section 107(d)(3)(A)
provides that the Administrator may notify the Governor of any state
that the designation of an area should be revised ``on the basis of air
quality data, planning and control considerations, or any other air
quality-related considerations the Administrator deems appropriate.''
The CAA further provides in section 107(d)(3)(D) that even if the
Administrator has not notified a state Governor that a designation
should be revised, the Governor of any state may, on the Governor's own
motion, submit a request to revise the designation of any area, and the
Administrator must approve or deny the request.
When approving or denying a request to redesignate an area, EPA
bases its decision on the air quality data for the area as well as the
considerations provided under section 107(d)(3)(A).\2\ In keeping with
section 107(d)(1)(A), areas that are redesignated to unclassifiable/
attainment must meet the requirements for attainment areas and thus
must meet the relevant NAAQS. In addition, the area must not contribute
to ambient air quality in a nearby area that does not meet the NAAQS.
The relevant monitoring data must be collected and quality-assured in
accordance with 40 CFR part 58 and recorded in the EPA Air Quality
System (AQS) database. The designated monitors generally should have
remained at the same location for the duration of the monitoring period
upon which the redesignation request is based.\3\
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\2\ While CAA section 107(d)(3)(E) also lists specific
requirements for redesignations, those requirements only apply to
redesignations of nonattainment areas to attainment and therefore
are not applicable in the context of a redesignation of an area from
unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment.
\3\ See ``Procedures for Processing Requests to Redesignate
Areas to Attainment'', Memorandum from John Calcagni, Director, Air
Quality Management Division, September 4, 1992 (the ``Calcagni
Memorandum'').
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V. What is the EPA's rationale for proposing to redesignate the area?
To redesignate the area from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/
attainment for the 2012 primary annual PM2.5 NAAQS, the
three-year average of the annual arimethic means does not exceed 12.0
([mu]g/m\3\) at all monitoring sites in the area over the full three-
year period, as determined in accordance with 40 CFR 50.18 and appendix
N of part 50. The EPA reviewed PM2.5 monitoring data from
the monitors in the St. Louis area for the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS
for the three-year period from 2015-2017. As summarized in table 1, the
design values for the monitors in the area for the 2015-2017 are below
the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS. These data have been quality-assured,
certified, and recorded in AQS by Missouri and Illinois, and the
monitoring location has not changed during the monitoring period.
Table 1--Annual PM2.5 Design Values for the St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL Area
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Annual design values ([mu]g/
m\3\) 2015- 2017
State County Monitor AQS site ID --------------------------------- Design value
2015 2016 2017
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Missouri............................. St. Louis City......... Blair Street (FRM)..... 29-510-0085 10.4 8.5 7.9 8.9
Missouri............................. St. Louis City......... South Broadway......... 29-510-0007 11.1 8.1 7.8 9.0
Missouri............................. Jefferson.............. Arnold West............ 29-099-0019 11.6 8.3 8.2 9.3
Missouri............................. St. Louis County....... Ladue.................. 29-189-3001 10.3 8.7 9.4 9.5
Missouri............................. St. Louis City......... Forest Park............ 29-510-0094 9.2 8.7 8.3 8.7
Illinois............................. Madison................ Alton.................. 17-119-2009 9.0 8.8 8.7 8.8
Illinois............................. Madison................ Wood River............. 17-119-3007 9.1 8.7 8.3 8.7
Illinois............................. Madison................ Granite City........... 17-119-1007 10.4 9.1 9.6 9.7
Illinois............................. St. Clair.............. East St. Louis......... 17-163-0010 10.7 10.0 8.8 9.8
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The EPA is proposing to redesignate the Missouri portion of the St.
Louis area from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment because the
three-year design value meets the 2012 primary annual PM2.5
NAAQS.
VI. Proposed Action
The EPA is proposing to approve the MoDNR's December 11, 2018,
request to redesignate the Missouri's portion of the St. Louis area
from unclassifiable to
[[Page 22103]]
unclassifiable/attainment for the 2012 primary annual PM2.5
NAAQS. If finalized, approval of the redesignation request would change
the legal designation, found at 40 CFR part 81, of the City of St.
Louis and the counties of Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles, and St.
Louis from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment for the 2012
primary annual PM2.5 NAAQS.
VII. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
Under the CAA, a redesignation of an area to unclassifiable/
attainment is an action that affects the status of a geographical area
and does not impose any additional regulatory requirements on sources
beyond those imposed by state law. A redesignation to unclassifiable/
attainment does not create any new requirements. Accordingly, this
action merely proposes to redesignate an area to unclassifiable/
attainment and does not impose additional requirements. 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 the National Technology
Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTA) because this rulemaking does not
involve technical standards; 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).
This proposed action 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 proposed 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 81
Environmental protection, Air pollution control.
Dated: May 8, 2019.
Edward H. Chu,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 7.
For the reasons stated in the preamble, the EPA proposes to amend
40 CFR part 81 as set forth below:
PART 81--DESIGNATION OF AREAS FOR AIR QUALITY PLANNING PURPOSES
0
1. The authority citation for part 81 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Subpart C--Section 107 Attainment Status Designations
0
2. Section 81.326 is amended by revising the entry for ``St. Louis
Area, MO-IL'' in the table entitled ``Missouri--2012 Annual
PM2.5 NAAQS'' to read as follows:
Sec. 81.326 Missouri.
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Missouri--2012 Annual PM2.5 NAAQS
[Primary]
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Designation Classification
Designated area \1\ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date \2\ Type Date \2\ Type
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St. Louis Area MO-IL:
Franklin County................... [Date of Unclassifiable/
publication of the Attainment.
final rule in the
Federal Register],
[Federal Register
citation of the
final rule].
Jefferson County.................. [Date of Unclassifiable/
publication of the Attainmant.
final rule in the
Federal Register],
[Federal Register
citation of the
final rule].
St. Charles County................ [Date of Unclassifiable/
publication of the Attainmant.
final rule in the
Federal Register],
[Federal Register
citation of the
final rule].
St. Louis County.................. [Date of Unclassifiable/
publication of the Attainmant.
final rule in the
Federal Register],
[Federal Register
citation of the
final rule].
St. Louis City.................... [Date of Unclassifiable/
publication of the Attainmant.
final rule in the
Federal Register],
[Federal Register
citation of the
final rule].
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\1\ Includes areas of Indian country located in each county or area, except as otherwise specified.
\2\ This date is April 15, 2015, unless otherwise noted.
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[FR Doc. 2019-10189 Filed 5-15-19; 8:45 am]
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