[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 157 (Wednesday, August 14, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 40351-40353]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-17474]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 81

[EPA-R04-OAR-2019-0374; FRL-9998-31-Region 4]


Air Plan Approval and Air Quality Designation; FL; Redesignation 
of the Duval County Ozone Unclassifiable Area

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: On June 19, 2019, the State of Florida, through the Florida 
Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), submitted a request for 
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to redesignate the Duval 
County, Florida ozone unclassifiable area (hereinafter referred to as 
the ``Duval County Area'' or ``Area'') to attainment for the 2015 
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality 
standards (NAAQS). EPA now has sufficient data to determine that the 
Duval County Area is in attainment of the 2015 primary and secondary 8-
hour ozone NAAQS. Therefore, EPA is proposing to approve the State's 
request and redesignate the Area to attainment/unclassifiable for the 
2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS based upon valid, 
quality-assured, and certified ambient air monitoring data showing that 
the Area is in compliance with the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour 
ozone NAAQS.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 13, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04-
OAR-2019-0374 at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 
instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot 
be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. 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. 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 http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Madolyn Sanchez, Air Regulatory 
Management Section, Air Planning and Implementation Branch, Air and 
Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 
Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8960. Ms. Sanchez can be 
reached by telephone at (404) 562-9644 or via electronic mail at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    The Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) establishes a process for air 
quality management through the establishment and implementation of the 
NAAQS. After the promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS, EPA is 
required to designate areas, pursuant to section 107(d)(1) of the CAA, 
as attainment, nonattainment, or unclassifiable. On October 1, 2015, 
EPA published a final rule revising the primary and secondary 8-hour 
NAAQS for ozone to a level of 70 parts per billion (ppb), based on a 3-
year average of the annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour ozone 
concentrations. See 80 FR 65292 (October 26, 2015). EPA established the 
standards based on significant evidence and numerous health studies 
demonstrating that serious health effects are associated with exposures 
to ground-level ozone.
    The process for designating areas following promulgation of a new 
or revised NAAQS is contained in section 107(d)(1) of the CAA. On June 
4, 2018 (83 FR 25776), EPA published a final rule designating certain 
areas across the country, including the Duval Area, as nonattainment, 
unclassifiable, or attainment/unclassifiable \1\ for the 2015

[[Page 40352]]

primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS based upon air quality 
monitoring data from monitors for calendar years 2015-2017.\2\ The 
monitors in the Duval County Area had incomplete data for the 2015-2017 
timeframe. Therefore, EPA designated Duval County as unclassifiable for 
the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.
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    \1\ For the ozone initial area designations in 2018, EPA used a 
designation category of ``attainment/unclassifiable'' 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.
    \2\ This action, combined with final rules published on November 
16, 2017 (82 FR 54232) and July 25, 2018 (83 FR 35136), completed 
the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS designations for all areas.
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    As discussed in section III below, the monitors in the Duval County 
Area now have sufficient data to determine that the Area is attaining 
the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS. Therefore, on June 
19, 2019, Florida submitted a request for EPA to redesignate the Duval 
County Area to attainment for the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour 
ozone NAAQS.\3\
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    \3\ Although Florida requested redesignation of the Area to 
``attainment,'' EPA is proposing to redesignate the area to 
``attainment/unclassifiable'' because, as noted above, 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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II. What are the criteria for redesignating an area from unclassifiable 
to attainment/unclassifiable?

    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 Act 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).\4\ In keeping with 
section 107(d)(1)(A), areas that are redesignated to attainment/
unclassifiable 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.\5\
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    \4\ 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 attainment/unclassifiable.
    \5\ See Memorandum from John Calcagni, Director, EPA Air Quality 
Management Division, entitled ``Procedures for Processing Requests 
to Redesignate Areas to Attainment'' (September 4, 1992).
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III. What is EPA's rationale for proposing to redesignate the area?

    In order to redesignate the Area from unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable for the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS, 
the 3-year average of annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour ozone 
concentration values (i.e., design value) over the most recent 3-year 
period must be less than or equal to 70 ppb at all monitoring sites in 
the Area over the full 3-year period, as determined in accordance with 
40 CFR 50.19 and Appendix U of Part 50. EPA reviewed ozone monitoring 
data from the monitoring stations in the Duval County Area for the 2015 
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS for the 3-year period from 
2016-2018. These data have been quality-assured, certified, and 
recorded in AQS by Florida, and the monitoring locations have not 
changed during the monitoring period. As summarized in Table 1, the 
design values for all of the monitors in the Area for the 2016-2018 
period are well below the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone 
NAAQS.

 Table 1--2015 8-Hour Ozone Design Values for the Monitors in the Duval
                        County Area for 2016-2018
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                                                               2016-2018
                                                                 Ozone
          AQS site No.                    Site name             design
                                                                 value
                                                                 (ppb)
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12-031-0077....................  Sheffield Elementary.......          58
12-031-0100....................  Mayo Clinic................          60
12-031-0106....................  Cisco Drive................          61
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    Because the 3-year design values, based on complete, valid, 
certified, and quality-assured data, demonstrate that the Area meets 
the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone standards, EPA is proposing 
to redesignate the Duval County Area from unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable for the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.

IV. Proposed Action

    EPA is proposing to approve Florida's June 19, 2019, redesignation 
request and to redesignate the Duval County Area from unclassifiable to 
attainment/unclassifiable for the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour 
ozone NAAQS. If finalized, approval of the redesignation request would 
change the legal designation, found at 40 CFR part 81, of Duval County 
from unclassifiable to attainment/unclassifiable for the 2015 primary 
and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.

V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

    Under the CAA, redesignation of an area to attainment/
unclassifiable 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 
attainment/unclassifiable does not create any new requirements. 
Accordingly, this proposed action merely proposes to redesignate an 
area to attainment/unclassifiable 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 redesignations 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

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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 CAA; and
     Will not have disproportionate human health or 
environmental effects under Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 
16, 1994).
    This proposed action does not 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, this 
proposed action does not have tribal implications as specified by 
Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000), nor will it 
impose substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal 
law.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 81

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control.

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

    Dated: August 5, 2019.
Mary S. Walker,
Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. 2019-17474 Filed 8-13-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P