[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 189 (Thursday, September 29, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Page 60492]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-25080]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-R05-OAR-2011-0468; FRL-9473-1]
Adequacy Status of the Ohio Portion of the Huntington/Ashland
Submitted Annual Fine Particulate Matter Maintenance Plan for
Transportation Conformity Purposes
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of adequacy.
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SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that we have made
insignificance findings through the transportation conformity adequacy
process, under the Clean Air Act, for directly emitted fine particulate
matter (PM2.5) and oxides of nitrogen (NOX) in
the Ohio portion of the Huntington/Ashland WV-KY-OH area. Ohio
submitted the insignificance findings with the redesignation and
maintenance plan submittal on May 4, 2011. As a result of our findings,
the Ohio portion of the Huntington/Ashland area is no longer required
to perform a regional emissions analysis for either directly emitted
PM2.5 or NOX as part of future PM2.5
conformity determinations for the 1997 annual PM2.5 air
quality standard.
DATES: These findings are effective October 14, 2011.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patricia Morris, Environmental
Scientist, Control Strategies Section, Air Programs Branch, Air and
Radiation Division, United States Environmental Protection Agency,
Region 5, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604, (312)
353-8656, [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever ``we'',
``us'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA.
Background
Today's notice is simply an announcement of findings that we have
already made. On August 11, 2011, EPA Region 5 sent a letter to the
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency stating that we have made
insignificance findings, through the adequacy process, for
PM2.5 and NOX for the Ohio portion of the
Huntington/Ashland area, as the state had requested in its
redesignation and maintenance plan submittal. Receipt of the submittal
was announced on EPA's transportation conformity Web site. No comments
were received. The findings letter is available at EPA's conformity web
site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm.
Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the
Clean Air Act. EPA's conformity rule requires that transportation
plans, programs, and projects conform to state air quality
implementation plans and establishes the criteria and procedures for
determining whether or not they conform. Conformity to a State
Implementation Plan (SIP) indicates 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 transportation conformity purposes
are outlined in 40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). We have described our process for
determining the adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in our July 1, 2004
preamble, starting at 69 FR 40038, and we used the information in these
resources in making our adequacy determination. Please note that an
adequacy review is separate from EPA's completeness review, and it
should not be used to prejudge EPA's ultimate approval of the SIP. Even
if we find a budget adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved.
The findings are available at EPA's transportation conformity Web
site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q.
Dated: September 19, 2011.
Susan Hedman,
Regional Administrator, Region 5.
[FR Doc. 2011-25080 Filed 9-28-11; 8:45 am]
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