[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 166 (Tuesday, August 27, 2019)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 44699-44701]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-18335]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R09-OAR-2019-0365; FRL-9998-83-Region 9]
Air Plan Approval; Nevada; Revisions to Clark County Ozone
Maintenance Plan
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Final rule.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final
action to conditionally approve a revision to the State of Nevada's
state implementation plan (SIP) for Clark County. The revision consists
of an update to certain elements of the maintenance plan for the Clark
County air quality planning area for the 1997 8-hour ozone national
ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), including the emissions
inventories, maintenance demonstration, and motor vehicle emissions
budgets. The EPA is conditionally approving the SIP revision because
the SIP it continues to provide for maintenance of the 1997 ozone
NAAQS; upon fulfillment of certain commitments, it will not interfere
with attainment or reasonable further progress of the other NAAQS; and
the budgets meet the applicable transportation conformity requirements.
The approval is conditional because it is based on commitments to
submit an additional SIP revision to reduce the safety margin
allocations for the budgets within one year of this final conditional
approval.
DATES: This rule is effective on September 26, 2019.
ADDRESSES: The EPA has established a docket for this action under
Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-2019-0365, at https://www.regulations.gov.
All documents in the docket are listed on the https://www.regulations.gov website. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., Confidential Business
Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted
by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is
not placed on the internet and will be publicly available only in hard
copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available through
https://www.regulations.gov, or please contact the person identified in
the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section for additional availability
information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karina O'Connor, Air Planning Office
(AIR-2), EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105.
By phone at (775) 434-8176 or by email at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever ``we,''
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean the EPA. This supplementary
information section is arranged as follows:
Table of Contents
I. Summary of the Proposed Action
II. Public Comments
III. Final Action
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. Summary of the Proposed Action
On July 11, 2019 (84 FR 33035), under section 110(k)(4) of the
Clean Air Act (CAA or ``Act''), the EPA proposed to conditionally
approve a SIP revision titled ``Revision to Motor Vehicle Emissions
Budgets in Ozone Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan: Clark
County, Nevada'' (October 2018) (herein, referred to as the ``2018
Ozone Maintenance Plan Revision''), submitted by the Nevada Division of
Environmental Protection (NDEP) on October 31, 2018. The 2018 Ozone
Maintenance Plan Revision updates certain elements of the maintenance
plan for Clark County for the 1997 ozone NAAQS, including the
attainment inventory, the maintenance demonstration and the motor
vehicle emissions budgets (``budgets''). The updated budgets replace
Clark County's existing budgets for the 1997 ozone NAAQS, and the
previously-approved budgets will no longer be applicable for
transportation conformity purposes on the publication date of this
final conditional approval in the Federal Register.\1\ We proposed a
conditional approval based on commitments from NDEP and the Clark
County Department of Air Quality (DAQ) to submit a SIP revision within
one year of final
[[Page 44700]]
conditional approval.\2\ The purpose of the future SIP revision is to
reduce the safety margin allocations in the budgets to ensure that the
2018 Ozone Maintenance Plan Revision, when revised to reduce the safety
margin allocations, will not interfere with reasonable further progress
or attainment of the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS.
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\1\ 40 CFR 93.118(f)(2)(v).
\2\ Letter dated June 14, 2019, from Jodi Bechtel, Assistant
Director, Clark County DAQ, to Greg Lovato, Administrator, NDEP; and
letter dated June 21, 2019, from Greg Lovato, Administrator, NDEP,
to Elizabeth Adams, Director, Air Division, EPA Region IX.
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For more information on the background for this action, including a
description of the ozone NAAQS, the ozone area designations for Clark
County, the 2011 Ozone Maintenance Plan and the EPA's MOVES emissions
model, and the rationale for conditional approval of the 2018 Ozone
Maintenance Plan Revision, please see our July 11, 2019 proposed rule.
II. Public Comments
The public comment period on the proposed rule opened on July 11,
2019, the date of its publication in the Federal Register, and closed
on August 12, 2019. During this period, the EPA received no comments.
III. Final Action
For the reasons discussed in our July 11, 2019 proposed rule and
summarized above, the EPA is taking final action under CAA section
110(k)(4) to conditionally approve the 2018 Ozone Maintenance Plan
Revision submitted by NDEP on October 31, 2018, as a revision of the
Clark County portion of the Nevada SIP. In so doing, we find that the
2011 Ozone Maintenance Plan, as revised by the updated attainment
inventory and maintenance demonstration in the 2018 Ozone Maintenance
Plan Revision, continues to provide for maintenance of the 1997 ozone
NAAQS, and upon fulfillment of the commitments made by NDEP and Clark
County DAQ to reduce the safety margin allocations for the budgets,
will not interfere with reasonable further progress or attainment of
the other NAAQS in Clark County. In conditionally approving the 2018
Ozone Maintenance Plan Revision, the EPA is also finding adequate and
conditionally approving the updated oxides of nitrogen (NOX)
and volatile organic compound (VOC) budgets for 2008, 2015, and 2022
for the 1997 ozone NAAQS (shown in Table 1) based on our conclusion
that the updated budgets meet the applicable transportation conformity
requirements.
Table 1--Ozone Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets
[Average summer weekday, tons per day]
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2018 Ozone
maintenance plan
Year revision
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NO VOC
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2008.............................................. 89.50 42.46
2015.............................................. 90.92 53.94
2022.............................................. 86.74 52.96
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Source: 2018 Ozone Maintenance Plan Revision, Table 3-1.
The approval of the 2018 Ozone Maintenance Plan Revision is
conditional because it is based on commitments from NDEP and the Clark
County DAQ to submit a SIP revision within one year of final
conditional approval.\3\ The purpose of the future SIP revision is to
reduce the safety margin allocations to the budgets to ensure that the
2018 Ozone Maintenance Plan Revision, when revised to reduce the safety
margin allocations, will not interfere with reasonable further progress
or attainment of the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS.
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\3\ Id.
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Lastly, the revised budgets in Table 1 replace the existing
approved budgets from the 2011 Ozone Maintenance Plan; the Regional
Transportation Commission and the U.S. Department of Transportation
must use these revised budgets for future transportation conformity
determinations.
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 action merely proposes to approve conditionally a
state plan as meeting Federal requirements and does not impose
additional requirements beyond those imposed by state law. For that
reason, this 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, this 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).
The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally
provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating
the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule,
to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the
United States. The EPA will submit a report containing this action and
other required information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of
Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States prior
to publication of the rule in the Federal Register. A major rule cannot
take effect until 60 days after it is published in the Federal
Register. This action is not a
[[Page 44701]]
``major rule'' as defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2).
Under section 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act, petitions for
judicial review of this action must be filed in the United States Court
of Appeals for the appropriate circuit by October 28, 2019. Filing a
petition for reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule
does not affect the finality of this action for the purposes of
judicial review nor does it extend the time within which a petition for
judicial review may be filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness
of such rule or action. This action may not be challenged later in
proceedings to enforce its requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).)
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by
reference, Intergovernmental regulations, Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone,
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Volatile organic compounds.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: August 15, 2019.
Deborah Jordan,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX.
Chapter I, title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended
as follows:
PART 52--APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS
0
1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Subpart DD--Nevada
0
2. In Sec. 52.1470(e), the table is amended by adding an entry for
``Revision to Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets in Ozone Redesignation
Request and Maintenance Plan: Clark County, Nevada (October 2018)''
after the entry for ``Ozone Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan,
Clark County, Nevada (March 2011)'' to read as follows:
Sec. 52.1470 Identification of plan.
* * * * *
(e) * * *
EPA-Approved Nevada Nonregulatory and Quasi-Regulatory Measures
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Applicable State
Name of SIP provision geographic or submittal EPA approval date Explanation
nonattainment area date
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Air Quality Implementation Plan for the State of Nevada \1\
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* * * * * * *
Revision to Motor Vehicle Clark County, 10/31/18 [INSERT Federal Conditional
Emissions Budgets in Ozone Nevada: That Register approval of
Redesignation Request and portion of Clark CITATION], 8/27/ revised emission
Maintenance Plan: Clark County, County that lies 2019. inventory and
Nevada (October 2018). in hydrogeographic budgets. Includes
areas 164A, 164B, a State commitment
165, 166, 167, to revise the
212, 213, 214, budgets within one
216, 217, and 218, year.
but excluding the
Moapa River Indian
Reservation and
the Fort Mohave
Indian Reservation.
* * * * * * *
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* * * * * * *
\1\ The organization of this table generally follows from the organization of the State of Nevada's original
1972 SIP, which was divided into 12 sections. Nonattainment and maintenance plans, among other types of plans,
are listed under Section 5 (Control Strategy). Lead SIPs and Small Business Stationary Source Technical and
Environmental Compliance Assistance SIPs are listed after Section 12 followed by nonregulatory or quasi-
regulatory statutory provisions approved into the SIP. Regulatory statutory provisions are listed in 40 CFR
52.1470(c).
0
3. Add Sec. 52.1475 to read as follows:
Sec. 52.1475 Identification of plan--conditional approval.
(a) The EPA is conditionally approving the SIP revision titled
``Revision to Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets in Ozone Redesignation
Request and Maintenance Plan: Clark County, Nevada (October 2018).''
The conditional approval is based on a commitment from the Clark County
Department of Air Quality (DAQ) in a letter dated June 14, 2019, and a
commitment from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP)
dated June 21, 2019, to submit certain revised motor vehicle emissions
budgets as a SIP revision to the EPA within one year of the effective
date of the final conditional approval. If the Clark County DAQ or NDEP
fail to meet their commitments within one year of the effective date of
the final conditional approval, the conditional approval is treated as
a disapproval.
(b) [Reserved]
[FR Doc. 2019-18335 Filed 8-26-19; 8:45 am]
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