[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 237 (Friday, December 10, 1999)] [Notices] [Page 69266] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 99-32077] ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [AZ-020-NOA; FRL-6506-8] Adequacy Status of the Maricopa County, Arizona Submitted PM-10 Attainment Plan for Transportation Conformity Purposes
Agency
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Action
Notice of Inadequacy Determination.
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Summary
In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that we have found that the submitted Maricopa County (Phoenix, Arizona) serious area particulate matter (PM-10) attainment plan is inadequate for transportation conformity purposes. As a result of our finding, the Maricopa Association of Governments and the Federal Highway Administration cannot use the PM-10 motor vehicle emissions budget from the submitted plan for future conformity determinations.
Dates
This determination is effective December 27, 1999.
For Further Information Contact
The finding is available at EPA's conformity website: www.epa.gov/oms/traq, (once there, click on the ``Conformity'' button, then look for ``Adequacy Review of SIP Submissions for Conformity''). You may also contact Karina O'Connor, U.S. EPA, Region IX, Air Division AIR-2, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105; (415) 744-1247 or oconnor.karina@epa.gov.
www.epa.gov/oms/traqSupplementary Information
Background:
This notice announces our finding that the MAG 1999 Serious Area Particulate Plan for PM-10 for the Maricopa County Nonattainment Area, submitted by the Arizona on July 8, 1999, is inadequate for transportation conformity purposes. EPA Region IX made this finding in a letter to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Maricopa Association of Governments on December 1, 1999. We are also announcing this finding on our conformity website: www.epa.gov/ oms/traq, (once there, click on the ``Conformity'' button, then look for ``Adequacy Review of SIP Submissions for Conformity''). Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act. Our conformity rule requires that transportation plans, programs, and projects conform to state air quality implementation plans (SIPs) and establishes the criteria and procedures for determining whether or not they do. Conformity to a SIP means that transportation activities will not produce new air quality violations, worsen existing violations, or delay timely attainment of the national ambient air quality standards. The criteria by which we determine whether a SIP's motor vehicle emission budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in 40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). One of these criterion is that the plan provide for attainment of the relevant ambient air quality standard by the applicable Clean Air Act attainment date. We have preliminarily determined that the Maricopa County PM-10 plan does not provide for attainment of the PM-10 standards and therefore, cannot be found adequate. This inadequacy finding is separate from and does not affect our August 4, 1999 finding that the plan is complete under section 110(k)(1) of the Clean Air Act. We have described our process for determining the adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in guidance (May 14, 1999 memo titled ``Conformity Guidance on Implementation of March 2, 1999 Conformity Court Decision''). We followed this guidance in making our inadequacy determination on the Maricopa County PM-10 plan.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671 q.
Date December 1, 1999. Alexis Strauss, Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX. [FR Doc. 99-32077 Filed 12-9-99; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560-50-U