[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 172 (Thursday, September 3, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 54952-54954]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-18112]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R09-OAR-2020-0121; FRL-10013-57-Region 9]


Air Plan Approval; California; South Coast Air Quality Management 
District; Ventura County Air Pollution Control District

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to 
approve revisions to the South Coast Air Quality Management District 
(SCAQMD) and the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (VCAPCD) 
portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These 
revisions concern emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from 
the use and application of industrial adhesives. We are proposing to 
approve local rules 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 October 5, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-
OAR-2020-0121 at https://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

[[Page 54953]]

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, 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 https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets. If you need assistance in a language other than English or if 
you are a person with disabilities who needs a reasonable accommodation 
at no cost to you, please contact the person identified in the FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Arnold Lazarus, EPA Region IX, 75 
Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105. By phone: (415) 972-3024 or by 
email at [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 rules did the State submit?
    B. Are there other versions of these rules?
    C. What is the purpose of the submitted rule revisions?
II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action
    A. How is the EPA evaluating the rules?
    B. Do the rules meet the evaluation criteria?
    C. The EPA's Recommendations to Further Improve the Rules
    D. Public Comment and Proposed Action
III. Incorporation by Reference
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

I. The State's Submittal

A. What rules did the State submit?

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

                                            Table 1--Submitted Rules
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Local agency           Rule No.             Rule title                 Adopted              Submitted
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCAQMD..................            1168  Adhesive and Sealant        October 6, 2017.....  May 23, 2018.
                                           Applications.
VCAPCD..................           74.20  Adhesives and Sealants....  October 9, 2018.....  January 31, 2019.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    On July 31, 2019, the submittal for VCAPCD Rule 74.20 was deemed 
complete by operation of law pursuant to the criteria in 40 CFR part 51 
Appendix V and on November 23, 2018, the submittal for SCAQMD Rule 1168 
was deemed complete by operation of law pursuant to the criteria in 40 
CFR part 51 Appendix V, which must be met before formal EPA review 
under 40 CFR 51.103.

B. Are there other versions of these rules?

    We approved an earlier version of SCAQMD Rule 1168 into the SIP on 
December 21, 2009 (74 FR 67821).
    We approved an earlier version of VCAPCD Rule 74.20 into the SIP on 
August 30, 2013 (78 FR 53680).

C. What is the purpose of the submitted rule revisions?

    Emissions of VOCs contribute to the production of ground-level 
ozone, smog and particulate matter, which harm human health and the 
environment. Section 110(a) of the CAA requires states to submit 
regulations that control VOC emissions by limiting VOC content in 
adhesives and sealants. The EPA's technical support documents (TSDs), 
which are in the docket for today's rulemaking, have more information 
about these rules.

II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action

A. How is the EPA evaluating the rules?

    Rules in the SIP 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 reasonably available control 
technology (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 SCAQMD regulates an ozone nonattainment 
area classified as ``Extreme'' for the for the 1997, 2008, and 2015 8-
hour ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) (40 CFR 
81.305), and the VCAPCD regulates an ozone nonattainment area 
classified as ``Serious'' for the 1997, 2008, and 2015 8-hour ozone 
NAAQS (40 CFR 81.305). Therefore SCAQMD Rule 1168 and VCAPCD Rule 74.20 
must implement RACT.
    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 for Miscellaneous Industrial 
Adhesives,'' EPA-453/R-08-005, September 2008.

B. Do the rules meet the evaluation criteria?

    These rules meet CAA requirements and are consistent with relevant 
guidance regarding enforceability, RACT, and SIP revisions. The TSDs 
have more information on our evaluation.

C. EPA Recommendations To Further Improve the Rules

    The VCAPCD TSD includes recommendations for the next time the 
agency modifies their rules. Regarding SCAQMD Rule 1168, we have not 
identified any further recommendations at this time.

D. Public Comment and Proposed Action

    As authorized in section 110(k)(3) of the Act, the EPA proposes to 
fully approve these submitted rules because they fulfill all relevant 
requirements. We will accept comments from the public on this proposal 
until October 5, 2020. If we take final action to approve the submitted 
rules, our final action will incorporate these rules into the federally 
enforceable SIP and replace the previously approved versions of these 
rules.

III. Incorporation by Reference

    In these rules, the EPA is proposing to include in a final EPA rule 
regulatory text that includes incorporation by

[[Page 54954]]

reference. In accordance with requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is 
proposing to incorporate by reference the VCAPCD and SCAQMD rules 
described in Table 1 of this preamble. The EPA has made, and will 
continue to make, these materials available through https://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 rules do 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, Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, 
Particulate matter, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Volatile 
organic compounds.

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

    Dated: August 13, 2020.
John Busterud,
Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. 2020-18112 Filed 9-2-20; 8:45 am]
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