Air Plan Approval; Washington: General Regulations for Air Pollution Sources, Southwest Clean Air Agency Jurisdiction

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve revisions to the Washington State Implementation Plan (SIP) that were submitted by the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) in coordination with Southwest Clean Air Agency (SWCAA) on December 20, 2016. In the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015, the EPA approved numerous revisions to Ecology's general air quality regulations. However, our approval of the updated Ecology regulations applied only to geographic areas where Ecology, and not a local air agency, has jurisdiction, and statewide to source categories over which Ecology has sole jurisdiction. Under the Washington Clean Air Act, local clean air agencies may adopt equally stringent or more stringent requirements in lieu of Ecology's general air quality regulations, if they so choose. Therefore, the EPA stated that we would evaluate the general air quality regulations as they apply to local jurisdictions in separate, future actions. If finalized, this proposed action would approve the submitted SWCAA general air quality regulations to replace or supplement the corresponding Ecology regulations for sources in SWCAA's jurisdiction, including implementation of the minor new source review and nonattainment new source review permitting programs. This action would also approve a limited subset of Ecology regulations, for which there are no corresponding SWCAA corollaries, to apply in SWCAA's jurisdiction.