83 FR 25422 - Air Plan Approval and Air Quality Designation; AL; Redesignation of the Etowah County Unclassifiable Area
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 106 (June 1, 2018)
Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 106 (June 1, 2018)
| Page Range | 25422-25424 | |
| FR Document | 2018-11835 |
[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 106 (Friday, June 1, 2018)] [Proposed Rules] [Pages 25422-25424] From the Federal Register Online [www.thefederalregister.org] [FR Doc No: 2018-11835] ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 40 CFR Part 81 [EPA-R04-OAR-2018-0173; FRL- 9978-90--Region 4] Air Plan Approval and Air Quality Designation; AL; Redesignation of the Etowah County Unclassifiable Area AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Proposed rule. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: On March 22, 2018, the State of Alabama, through the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), submitted a request for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to redesignate the Etowah County, Alabama fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ) unclassifiable area (hereinafter referred to as the ``Etowah County Area'' or ``Area'') to attainment for the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). EPA now has sufficient data to determine that the Etowah County Area is in attainment of the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. Therefore, EPA is proposing to approve [[Page 25423]] the State's request and redesignate the Area to unclassifiable/ attainment for the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS based upon valid, quality-assured, and certified ambient air monitoring data showing that the PM2.5 monitor in the Area is in compliance with the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. DATES: Comments must be received on or before July 2, 2018. ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04- OAR-2018-0173 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, Pesticides and Toxics Management 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 September 21, 2006, EPA revised the primary and secondary 24-hour NAAQS for PM2.5 at a level of 35 micrograms per cubic meter ([micro]g/ m\3\), based on a 3-year average of the annual 98th percentile of 24- hour PM2.5 concentrations. See 71 FR 61144 (October 17, 2006). EPA established the standards 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 October 8, 2009, EPA designated areas across the country as nonattainment, unclassifiable, or unclassifiable/attainment \1\ for the 2006 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS based upon air quality monitoring data from these monitors for calendar years 2006-2008. See 74 FR 58688. The monitor in the Etowah County Area had incomplete data for the 2006- 2008 timeframe. Therefore, EPA designated Etowah County as unclassifiable for the 2006 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. Id. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ For the initial PM area designations in 2009 (for the 2006 24-hour 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As discussed in section III, below, the monitor in the Etowah County Area now has sufficient data to determine that the Etowah County Area is in attainment of the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. Therefore, on March 22, 2018, Alabama submitted a request for EPA to redesignate Area to attainment for these NAAQS.\2\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \2\ Although Alabama requested redesignation of the Area to ``attainment,'' EPA is proposing to redesignate the area to ``unclassifiable/attainment'' 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. 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 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).\3\ 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.\4\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \3\ 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. \4\ See Memorandum from John Calcagni, Director, EPA Air Quality Management Division, entitled ``Procedures for Processing Requests to Redesignate Areas to Attainment'' (September 4, 1992). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- III. What is EPA's rationale for proposing to redesignate the Area? In order to redesignate the Area from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment for the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS, the 3-year average of annual 98th percentile 24-hour concentration values (i.e., design value) over the most recent 3-year period must be less than or equal to 35 [micro]g/m\3\ at all monitoring sites in the Area over the full 3-year period, as determined in accordance with 40 CFR 50.18 and Appendix N of Part 50. EPA reviewed PM2.5 monitoring data from the monitoring station in the Etowah County Area for the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS for the 3-year period from 2014-2016. These data have been quality-assured, certified, and recorded in AQS by Alabama, and the monitoring location has not changed during the monitoring period. As summarized in Table 1, the design value for the monitor in the Area [[Page 25424]] for the 2014-2016 period is well below the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. Table 1--2006 24-Hour PM2.5 Design Value for the Monitor in the Etowah County Area for 2014-2016 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2014-2016 Local site name Monitoring site design value ([mu]g/m\3\) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Etowah County, AL.............. 01-055-0010............ 17 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Because the 3-year design value, based on valid, quality-assured data, demonstrates that the Area meets the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 standards, EPA is proposing to redesignate the Etowah County Area from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment for this NAAQS. IV. Proposed Action EPA is proposing to approve Alabama's March 22, 2018, redesignation request and to redesignate the Etowah County Area from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment for the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. If finalized, approval of the redesignation request would change the legal designation, found at 40 CFR part 81, of Etowah County from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment for the 2006 primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews Under the CAA, 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 proposed 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 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 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 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 County, the 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. 40 CFR Part 81 Environmental protection, Air pollution control. Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq. Dated: May 18, 2018. Onis ``Trey'' Glenn, III, Regional Administrator, Region 4. [FR Doc. 2018-11835 Filed 5-31-18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
![25424 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 106 / Friday, June 1, 2018 / Proposed Rules
for the 2014–2016 period is well below the 2006 primary and secondary 24-
hour PM2.5 NAAQS.
TABLE 1—2006 24-HOUR PM2.5 DESIGN VALUE FOR THE MONITOR IN THE ETOWAH COUNTY AREA FOR 2014–2016
2014–2016
Local site name Monitoring site design value
(μg/m3)
Etowah County, AL ..................................................................... 01–055–0010 ............................................................................. 17
Because the 3-year design value, merely proposes to redesignate an area • Is not a significant regulatory action
based on valid, quality-assured data, to unclassifiable/attainment and does subject to Executive Order 13211 (66 FR
demonstrates that the Area meets the not impose additional requirements. For 28355, May 22, 2001);
2006 primary and secondary 24-hour that reason, this proposed action: • Is not subject to requirements of
PM2.5 standards, EPA is proposing to • Is not a significant regulatory action Section 12(d) of the National
redesignate the Etowah County Area subject to review by the Office of Technology Transfer and Advancement
from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/ Management and Budget under Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) because
attainment for this NAAQS. Executive Orders 12866 (58 FR 51735, application of those requirements would
October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, be inconsistent with the CAA; and
IV. Proposed Action
January 21, 2011);
• Will not have disproportionate
EPA is proposing to approve • Is not an Executive Order 13771 (82
Alabama’s March 22, 2018, human health or environmental effects
FR 9339, February 2, 2017) regulatory
redesignation request and to redesignate under Executive Order 12898 (59 FR
action because redesignations are
the Etowah County Area from 7629, February 16, 1994).
exempted under Executive Order 12866;
unclassifiable to unclassifiable/ • Does not impose an information This action is not approved to apply
attainment for the 2006 primary and collection burden under the provisions on any Indian reservation land or in any
secondary 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS. If of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 other area where EPA or an Indian tribe
finalized, approval of the redesignation U.S.C. 3501 et seq.); has demonstrated that a tribe has
request would change the legal • Is certified as not having a jurisdiction. In those areas of Indian
designation, found at 40 CFR part 81, of significant economic impact on a County, the action does not have tribal
Etowah County from unclassifiable to substantial number of small entities implications as specified by Executive
unclassifiable/attainment for the 2006 under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9,
primary and secondary 24-hour PM2.5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.); 2000), nor will it impose substantial
NAAQS. • Does not contain any unfunded direct costs on tribal governments or
mandate or significantly or uniquely preempt tribal law.
V. Statutory and Executive Order
Reviews affect small governments, as described 40 CFR Part 81
in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
Under the CAA, redesignation of an of 1995 (Pub. L. 104–4); Environmental protection, Air
area to unclassifiable/attainment is an • Does not have Federalism pollution control.
action that affects the status of a implications as specified in Executive Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
geographical area and does not impose Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10,
any additional regulatory requirements Dated: May 18, 2018.
1999);
Onis ‘‘Trey’’ Glenn, III,
on sources beyond those imposed by • Is not an economically significant
state law. A redesignation to regulatory action based on health or Regional Administrator, Region 4.
unclassifiable/attainment does not safety risks subject to Executive Order [FR Doc. 2018–11835 Filed 5–31–18; 8:45 am]
create any new requirements. 13045 (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997); BILLING CODE 6560–50–P
Accordingly, this proposed action
daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with PROPOSALS
VerDate Sep<11>2014 16:09 May 31, 2018 Jkt 244001 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 4702 Sfmt 9990 E:\FR\FM\01JNP1.SGM 01JNP1](https://thefederalregister.org/doc/83_FR_25528/page/3.svg)
Document Created: 2018-06-01 01:29:51
Document Modified: 2018-06-01 01:29:51
| Category | Regulatory Information | |
| Collection | Federal Register | |
| sudoc Class | AE 2.7: GS 4.107: AE 2.106: | |
| Publisher | Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration | |
| Section | Proposed Rules | |
| Action | Proposed rule. | |
| Dates | Comments must be received on or before July 2, 2018. | |
| Contact | Madolyn Sanchez, Air Regulatory Management Section, Air Planning and Implementation Branch, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management 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] | |
| FR Citation | 83 FR 25422 | |
| CFR Associated | Environmental Protection and Air Pollution Control |
2024 Federal Register | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy
USC | CFR | eCFR