81 FR 70677 - Proposed Settlement Agreement, Clean Air Act Citizen Suit

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 198 (October 13, 2016)

In accordance with section 113(g) of the Clean Air Act, as amended (``CAA''), notice is hereby given of a proposed settlement agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by Air Alliance Houston, Community In-Power and Development Association, Inc., Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy (``Petitioners''), in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit: Air Alliance Houston, et al. v. EPA, Case No. 15-1210. On July 10, 2015, Petitioners filed a petition for review challenging a final action issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (``EPA'') entitled ``New and Revised Emission Factors for Flares and Other Refinery Process Units and Determination for No Changes to VOC Emission Factors for Tanks and Wastewater Treatment Systems.'' 80 FR 26925 (May 11, 2015) (``Emission Factor Action''). Under the terms of the proposed settlement agreement, if EPA performs specified actions by December 16, 2016, the Petitioners will dismiss their lawsuit.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 198 (Thursday, October 13, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70677-70678]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-24782]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-9954-11-OGC]


Proposed Settlement Agreement, Clean Air Act Citizen Suit

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of proposed settlement agreement; request for public 
comment.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with section 113(g) of the Clean Air Act, as 
amended (``CAA''), notice is hereby given of a proposed settlement 
agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by Air Alliance Houston, Community 
In-Power and Development Association, Inc., Louisiana Bucket Brigade, 
and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy (``Petitioners''), in the 
United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit: Air Alliance 
Houston, et al. v. EPA, Case No. 15-1210. On July 10, 2015, Petitioners 
filed a petition for review challenging a final action issued by the 
United States Environmental Protection Agency (``EPA'') entitled ``New 
and Revised Emission Factors for Flares and Other Refinery Process 
Units and Determination for No Changes to VOC Emission Factors for 
Tanks and Wastewater Treatment Systems.'' 80 FR 26925 (May 11, 2015) 
(``Emission Factor Action''). Under the terms of the proposed 
settlement agreement, if EPA performs specified actions by December 16, 
2016, the Petitioners will dismiss their lawsuit.

DATES: Written comments on the proposed settlement agreement must be 
received by November 14, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID number EPA-HQ-
OGC-2016-0582, online at www.regulations.gov. For comments submitted at 
www.regulations.gov, follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from 
www.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, 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://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Susan Stahle, Air and Radiation Law 
Office (2344A), Office of General Counsel, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20460; 
telephone: (202) 564-1272; fax number (202) 564-5603; email address: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Additional Information About the Proposed Settlement Agreement

    On May 1, 2013, Petitioners filed a lawsuit against EPA alleging 
that the EPA had failed to review and, if necessary, revise emissions 
factors at least once every three years as required in CAA section 130. 
Air Alliance Houston, et al. v. McCarthy, No. 1:13-cv-00621-KBJ 
(D.D.C.). In that lawsuit, the Petitioners sought to compel EPA to 
review the volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions factors for 
industrial flares (``flares''), liquid storage tanks (``tanks''), and 
wastewater collection, treatment and storage systems (``wastewater 
treatment systems''), and, if necessary, revise those emission factors. 
EPA entered into a consent decree with the Petitioners to settle that 
lawsuit. Under the terms of the consent decree, on April 20, 2015, EPA 
finalized a new VOC emissions factor for flares and finalized a 
determination that it was not necessary to revise the VOC emissions 
factors for tanks and wastewater treatment systems, and posted these 
actions on its AP-42 Web site (``the Emission Factor Action''). AP-42 
is a guidance document that contains emissions factors and process 
information for more than 200 air pollution source categories.
    On July 10, 2015, the Petitioners filed a petition for review in 
the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking judicial review of EPA's 
Emission Factor Action posted on its Web site on April 20, 2015, which 
was taken in response to the consent decree described above. 
Petitioners have challenged the Emission Factor Action by raising the 
following five issues: (1) The total hydrocarbon (``THC'') emissions 
factor for flares used in Section 13.5 of EPA's official Compilation of 
Air Pollutant Emission Factors known as ``AP-42''; (2) the minimum heat 
value of the gas in the combustion zone of the flare test data used to 
develop the VOC emissions factors in Section 13.5 of AP-42; (3) the 
average destruction efficiency of the flare test data used to develop 
the VOC emissions factor in Section 13.5 of AP-42; (4) the molecular 
weights used in the calculation of the VOC emissions factor in Section 
13.5 of AP-42; and (5) the source classification codes (``SCCs'') 
associated with the flare emissions factors in Section 13.5 of AP-42.
    The proposed settlement agreement would settle Petitioners' lawsuit 
in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging, 
under CAA section 307(b)(1), the Emission Factor Action. Under the 
terms of the proposed settlement agreement, if EPA performs specified 
actions by December 16, 2016, the Petitioners will dismiss their 
lawsuit. Consistent with EPA practice and the terms of the settlement 
agreement, EPA will post any actions it takes on its AP-42 Web site at 
https://www.epa.gov/air-emissions-factors-and-quantification/ap-42-compilation-air-emission-factors. The proposed settlement agreement 
also provides for each party to bear its own litigation costs.

[[Page 70678]]

    For a period of 30 days following the date of publication of this 
notice, the Agency will receive written comments relating to the 
proposed settlement agreement from persons who were not named as 
parties or intervenors to the litigation in question. EPA or the 
Department of Justice may withdraw or withhold consent to the proposed 
settlement agreement if the comments disclose facts or considerations 
that indicate that such consent is inappropriate, improper, inadequate, 
or inconsistent with the requirements of the Act. Unless EPA or the 
Department of Justice determines that consent to the agreement should 
be withdrawn, the terms of the agreement will be affirmed.

II. Additional Information About Commenting on the Proposed Settlement 
Agreement

A. How can I get a copy of the proposed settlement agreement?

    The official public docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-
HQ-OGC-2016-0582 contains a copy of the proposed settlement agreement. 
The official public docket is available for public viewing at the 
Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket in the EPA Docket 
Center, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, 
DC. The EPA Docket Center Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 
4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The 
telephone number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the 
telephone number for the OEI Docket is (202) 566-1752.
    An electronic version of the public docket is available through 
www.regulations.gov. You may use the www.regulations.gov to submit or 
view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the 
official public docket, and to access those documents in the public 
docket that are available electronically. Once in the system, key in 
the appropriate docket identification number then select ``search''.
    It is important to note that EPA's policy is that public comments, 
whether submitted electronically or in paper, will be made available 
for public viewing online at www.regulations.gov without change, unless 
the comment contains copyrighted material, CBI, or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Information claimed as CBI 
and other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute is not 
included in the official public docket or in the electronic public 
docket. EPA's policy is that copyrighted material, including 
copyrighted material contained in a public comment, will not be placed 
in EPA's electronic public docket but will be available only in 
printed, paper form in the official public docket. Although not all 
docket materials may be available electronically, you may still access 
any of the publicly available docket materials through the EPA Docket 
Center.

B. How and to whom do I submit comments?

    You may submit comments as provided in the ADDRESSES section. 
Please ensure that your comments are submitted within the specified 
comment period. Comments received after the close of the comment period 
will be marked ``late.'' EPA is not required to consider these late 
comments.
    If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you 
include your name, mailing address, and an email address or other 
contact information in the body of your comment and with any disk or 
CD-ROM you submit. This ensures that you can be identified as the 
submitter of the comment and allows EPA to contact you in case EPA 
cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties or needs further 
information on the substance of your comment. Any identifying or 
contact information provided in the body of a comment will be included 
as part of the comment that is placed in the official public docket, 
and made available in EPA's electronic public docket. If EPA cannot 
read your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you 
for clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment.
    Use of the www.regulations.gov Web site to submit comments to EPA 
electronically is EPA's preferred method for receiving comments. The 
electronic public docket system is an ``anonymous access'' system, 
which means EPA will not know your identity, email address, or other 
contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. 
In contrast to EPA's electronic public docket, EPA's electronic mail 
(email) system is not an ``anonymous access'' system. If you send an 
email comment directly to the Docket without going through 
www.regulations.gov, your email address is automatically captured and 
included as part of the comment that is placed in the official public 
docket, and made available in EPA's electronic public docket.

    Dated: October 6, 2016.
Gautam Srinivasan,
Acting Associate General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2016-24782 Filed 10-12-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P