[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 145 (Friday, July 27, 2012)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 44146-44149]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18094]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R03-OAR-2012-0272; FRL-9702-6]
Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans;
Maryland; Control of Iron and Steel Production Installations; Sintering
Plants
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Direct final rule.
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SUMMARY: EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the
Maryland State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the Maryland
Department of the Environment (MDE) on June 30, 2009. The revisions
amend the visible emissions requirements of the Maryland SIP's
regulation for the Control of Iron and Steel Production Installations
only as they apply to sintering plants. The sintering plant located at
the Sparrows Point steelmaking facility (Sparrows Point) is the only
sintering plant located in the State of Maryland. The revisions exempt
the sintering plant from the visible emissions section of the
regulation for the Control of Iron and Steel Production Installations
contingent upon the source's two wet scrubbers, used to control
emissions of particulate matter, continuously monitoring compliance
with specified pressure drop and flow rate operating parameters. EPA is
approving these revisions because they provide for a continuous means
of determining compliance with the applicable SIP emission rate for
particulate matter from the sintering plant located at Sparrows Point,
and because that emission rate has been demonstrated to protect and
maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for
PM10 (particulate matter consisting of particles with an
aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 micrometers). EPA is
approving these revisions in accordance with the requirements of the
Clean Air Act (CAA).
DATES: This rule is effective on September 25, 2012 without further
notice, unless EPA receives adverse written comment by August 27, 2012.
If EPA receives such comments, it will publish a timely withdrawal of
the direct final rule in the Federal Register and inform the public
that the rule will not take effect.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID Number EPA-
R03-OAR-2012-0272 by one of the following methods:
A. www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for
submitting comments.
B. Email: [email protected].
C. Mail: EPA-R03-OAR-2012-0272, Marcia L. Spink, Associate Director
for Policy & Science, Air Protection Division, Mailcode 3AP00, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1650 Arch Street,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103.
D. Hand Delivery: At the previously-listed EPA Region III address.
Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of
operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of
boxed information.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R03-OAR-
2012-0272. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included
in the public docket without change, and may be made available online
at www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided,
unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is
restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to
be CBI or otherwise protected through www.regulations.gov or email. The
www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system, which
means EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless you
provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an email comment
directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov, your email
address will be automatically captured and included as part of the
comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the
Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you
include your name and other contact information in the body of your
comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. 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. Electronic
files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of
encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses.
Docket: All documents in the electronic docket are listed in the
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, i.e., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such
as copyrighted material, is not placed on the Internet and will be
publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket
materials are available either electronically in www.regulations.gov or
in hard copy during normal business hours at the Air Protection
Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1650 Arch
Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Copies of the State submittal
are available at the Maryland Department of the Environment, 1800
Washington Boulevard, Suite 705, Baltimore, Maryland 21230.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marcia L. Spink, Associate Director
for Policy & Science, Air Protection Division (215) 814-2104, or by
email at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
On June 30, 2009, MDE submitted formal revisions (09-02)
to its SIP. The SIP revisions consist of amendments to Regulation .03
Visible Emissions under (Code of Maryland administrative regulations)
COMAR 26.11.10 Control of Iron and Steel Production Installations as
they apply only to sintering plants. There is only one sintering plant
located in Maryland. The one sintering plant affected by this
regulation is located at Sparrows Point. Its particulate matter
emissions are controlled by two wet (water) scrubbers each equipped
with two fans. Under the current Maryland SIP, this sintering plant is
subject to visible emissions and particulate matter standards. The
current SIP requires that after demonstrating compliance with the
applicable SIP particulate matter emission rate for sintering plants, a
person may not cause or permit the discharge of visible fugitive
emissions into the outdoor atmosphere, other than water in an
uncombined form, which is greater than 10 percent opacity as averaged
over any consecutive 6-minute period. The sintering plant's applicable
SIP emission rate for particulate matter
[[Page 44147]]
is 0.03 grains per dry standard cubic foot (gr/dscf).
The visible emissions standards for sintering plants found in
Regulation .03 Visible Emissions under COMAR 26.11.10 Control of Iron
and Steel Production Installations was originally established to allow
the use of a Method 9 observation test as additional means of
determining compliance, in addition to stack testing, with the
sintering plant's applicable SIP particulate matter emission rate of
.03 gr/dscf. In 2007, MDE amended Regulation .03 Visible Emissions
under COMAR 26.11.10 to exempt the sintering plant at Sparrows Point
from the visible emissions requirement and to establish open-ended
requirements for the scrubbers' flow rates and pressure drops. Under
the 2007 version of the regulation, MDE intended to establish specific
flow rate and pressure drop parameters during a future stack test and
to include them in the Title V permit for the sintering plant located
at Sparrows Point. Upon further consideration, the MDE concurred with
EPA that the SIP must stand on its own to protect the NAAQS, and that
such open-ended requirements were not appropriate for inclusion in the
SIP. Therefore, effective as of June 29, 2009, MDE again amended
Regulation .03 under COMAR 26.11.10 to require that the two scrubbers
of the sintering plant located at Sparrows Point meet specific flow
rate and pressure drop parameters at all times under defined specific
operating scenarios. During a stack test that demonstrated compliance
with the SIP's applicable particulate matter emission rate of .03 gr/
dscf, the flow rates and pressure drops of the two scrubbers were
continuously monitored. Specific flow rate (in gallons per minute) and
pressure drop (in inches of water) parameters for the scrubbers,
established from the parameters monitored during the complying stack
test, are now specified in the amended version of Regulation .03 under
COMAR 26.11.10. Therefore, under the 2009 amended version of the
regulation, the sintering plant at Sparrows Point is exempt from the
visible emissions requirement of Regulation .03 under COMAR 26.11.10
when demonstrating compliance with the SIP's applicable particulate
matter emission limit of 0.03 gr/dscf by continuously monitoring the
flow rate and pressure drop parameters of the scrubbers and by
providing that monitoring data to MDE. This monitoring data must
demonstrate that the scrubbers are meeting the flow rate and pressure
drop parameters which are now specifically included in the amended
version of Regulation .03 under COMAR 26.11.10. Under Regulation .03 of
COMAR 26.11.10, the exemption from the visible emissions requirement is
contingent upon the sintering plant scrubbers operating in compliance
with the conditions of subsection D. of the regulation which specifies
the pressure drop and flow rate parameters established as previously
described. The regulation also requires stack testing to be performed
every 2.5 years.
Modeling has been performed in support of this SIP revision to
demonstrate that the SIP's 0.03 gr/dscf applicable emission rate for
particulate matter is protective of the NAAQS for PM10, and
that protection is not dependent upon the visible emissions standard. A
description of the modeling analyses conducted by MDE and the results
are included in MDE's June 30, 2009 SIP revision submittal which is in
the docket of this rulemaking. No SIP particulate matter emission rate
relaxations are being approved as part of this SIP revision.
II. Summary of SIP Revision
Regulation .03 Visible Emissions under COMAR 26.11.10, at
subsection A. General, (2) Exceptions, paragraph (f) has been amended
to exempt visible emissions from sintering plant scrubbers that are in
compliance with the conditions of subsection D. of the regulation.
Regulation .03 under COMAR 26.11.10 has been amended to revise
subsection D. to require:
(1) The owner or operator of the sintering plant shall ensure
continuous compliance with the .03 gr/dscf applicable particulate
matter emission rate by maintaining the hourly average scrubber
pressure drop and water flow rate to each of the two scrubbers
(referred to as Scrubber North and Scrubber South) as follows:
(2) Scrubber Operating Conditions and Requirements.
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Pressure drop (inches of Water flow rate (gallons per
water) minute)
Operating conditions ---------------------------------------------------------------
North South North South
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2 scrubbers each with 2 fans.................... 33 39 3,796 3,718
2 scrubbers each with a wind box fan............ 23 32 3,679 3,705
North scrubber with 2 fans and South scrubber 33 32 3,710 3,818
with a wind box fan............................
South scrubber with 2 fans and North scrubber 32 33 3,818 3,710
with a wind box fan............................
North scrubber with 2 fans...................... 33 .............. 3,488 ..............
South scrubber with 2 fans...................... .............. 33 .............. 3,488
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(3) One or more of the scrubbers be in operation while the
sintering plant is in operation.
(4) Compliance with the 0.03 gr/dscf emission limit requirement for
particulate matter is achieved if at any time the hourly block average
of scrubber pressure drop and flow rate are not less than the values in
D(2) of this regulation.
(5) The scrubber pressure drop and flow rate shall be monitored by
a continuous monitoring system and the monitoring system data made
available to MDE upon request.
(6) Stack Testing Requirements.
(a) The affected sintering plant shall be stack tested for
particulate matter not less than once each 2.5 years. During a
compliance stack test, the scrubber pressure drop and flow rate shall
be recorded as hourly block averages.
(b) If the scrubber pressure drop and water flow rate determined
during a compliance stack test differ from the values in D(2) of this
regulation, the owner or operator may request that MDE change to the
values in D(2) of this regulation to reflect the revised values.
(c) Upon receiving such a request, the MDE may propose amending the
regulation to include the revised values. Any amendment shall be
submitted to the EPA as a SIP revision.
EPA has determined that these revisions to Regulation .03 Visible
Emissions under COMAR 26.11.10 Control of Iron and Steel Production
Installations as they apply to the sintering plant located at Sparrows
Point are approvable because they provide for a continuous means of
determining compliance with SIP's applicable particulate matter
emission limit of 0.03 gr/dscf which has been demonstrated to protect
and maintain the NAAQS for PM10.
[[Page 44148]]
III. Final Action
EPA is approving the SIP revisions to Regulation .03 Visible
Emissions under COMAR 26.11.10 submitted by MDE on June 30, 2009. EPA
is publishing this rule without prior proposal because the Agency views
this as a noncontroversial amendment and anticipates no adverse
comment. However, in the ``Proposed Rules'' section of today's Federal
Register, EPA is publishing a separate document that will serve as the
proposal to approve the SIP revision if adverse comments are filed.
This rule will be effective on September 25, 2012 without further
notice unless EPA receives adverse comment by August 27, 2012. If EPA
receives adverse comment, EPA will publish a timely withdrawal in the
Federal Register informing the public that the rule will not take
effect. EPA will address all public comments in a subsequent final rule
based on the proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment
period on this action. Any parties interested in commenting must do so
at this time.
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
A. General Requirements
Under the CAA, the Administrator is required to approve a SIP
submission that complies with the provisions of the CAA and applicable
Federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a). Thus, in
reviewing SIP submissions, EPA's role is to approve state choices,
provided that they meet the criteria of the CAA. Accordingly, this
action merely approves state law as meeting Federal requirements and
does not impose additional requirements beyond those imposed by state
law. For that reason, this action:
Is not a ``significant regulatory action'' subject to
review by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Order
12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993);
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
Does not provide EPA with the discretionary authority to
address, as appropriate, disproportionate human health or environmental
effects, using practicable and legally permissible methods, under
Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994).
In addition, this rule does not have tribal implications as
specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000),
because the SIP is not approved to apply in Indian country located in
the state, and EPA notes that it will not impose substantial direct
costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal law.
B. Submission to Congress and the Comptroller General
The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally
provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating
the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule,
to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the
United States. EPA will submit a report containing this action and
other required information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of
Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States prior
to publication of the rule in the Federal Register. A major rule cannot
take effect until 60 days after it is published in the Federal
Register. This action is not a ``major rule'' as defined by 5 U.S.C.
804(2).
C. Petitions for Judicial Review
Under section 307(b)(1) of the CAA, petitions for judicial review
of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for
the appropriate circuit by September 25, 2012. Filing a petition for
reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect
the finality of this action for the purposes of judicial review nor
does it extend the time within which a petition for judicial review may
be filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness of such rule or
action. Parties with objections to this direct final rule are
encouraged to file a comment in response to the parallel notice of
proposed rulemaking for this action published in the proposed rules
section of today's Federal Register, rather than file an immediate
petition for judicial review of this direct final rule, so that EPA can
withdraw this direct final rule and address the comment in the proposed
rulemaking. This action to approve a revision to Regulation .03 Visible
Emissions under COMAR 26.11.10 Control of Iron and Steel Production
Installations as they apply to sintering plants may not be challenged
later in proceedings to enforce its requirements. (See section
307(b)(2).)
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by
reference, Particulate matter.
Dated: July 10, 2012.
W.C. Early,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region III.
Therefore, 40 CFR part 52 is amended as follows:
PART 52--[AMENDED]
0
1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
0
2. In Sec. 52.1070, the table in paragraph (c) is amended by revising
the entry for COMAR 26.11.10.03 to read as follows:
Sec. 52.1070 Identification of plan.
* * * * *
(c) * * *
[[Page 44149]]
EPA-Approved Regulations, Technical Memoranda, and Statutes in the Maryland SIP
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State Additional explanation/
Code of Maryland administrative Title/subject effective EPA approval date citation at 40 CFR
regulations (COMAR) citation date 52.1100
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26.11.10 Control of Iron and Steel Production Installations
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26.11.10.03..................... Visible Emissions.. 6/29/09 7/27/2012 [Insert Revised paragraphs A.
page number where and D. of 26.11.10.03
the document for Sintering Plants.
begins].
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[FR Doc. 2012-18094 Filed 7-26-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P