[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 234 (Thursday, December 5, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73188-73189]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-29090]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-R09-OAR-2013-0762; FRL-9903-85-Region-9]
Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Emissions Budget in Submitted
State Implementation Plan; Maricopa County PM-10 Nonattainment Area,
Arizona
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of adequacy.
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SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that the Agency
has found that the motor vehicle emissions budget (MVEB) for
particulate matter less than ten microns (PM-10) for the year 2012 in
the Five Percent Plan for PM-10 for the Maricopa County Nonattainment
Area (May 2012) (``Five Percent Plan'') is adequate for transportation
conformity purposes. The Five Percent Plan for PM-10 in the Maricopa
County Nonattainment Area was submitted to EPA on May 25, 2012 by the
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) as a revision to the
Arizona State Implementation Plan (SIP). As a result of our adequacy
findings, the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and the U.S.
Department of Transportation must use the MVEB for future conformity
determinations.
DATES: Effective December 20, 2013.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Greg Nudd, U.S. EPA, Region IX, Air
Division AIR-2, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-3901,
(415) 947-4107 or [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever ``we,''
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA.
Today's notice announces that we have found that the MVEB in the
submitted Five Percent Plan for PM-10 in the Maricopa County
Nonattainment Area for the year 2012 is adequate. The adequate MVEB is
54.9 metric tons per day of PM-10. More information regarding our
finding can be found in our letter to MAG and ADEQ dated November 22,
2013.
[[Page 73189]]
Receipt of the MVEB in Five Percent Plan for PM-10 for the Maricopa
County Nonattainment Area was announced on EPA's transportation
conformity Web site on September 12, 2013. We received no comments in
response to the adequacy review posting. The adequacy finding is
available at EPA's transportation conformity Web site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm.
Transportation conformity is required by Clean Air Act section
176(c). EPA's conformity rule requires that transportation plans,
transportation improvement programs, and transportation projects
conform to SIPs and establishes the criteria and procedures for
determining whether or not they do conform. 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 MVEB is adequate
for conformity purposes are outlined in 40 CFR 93.118(e)(4), which was
promulgated in a final rule published on August 15, 1997 (62 FR 43780,
43781-43783). We have further described our process for determining the
adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in a final rule published on July 1,
2004 (69 FR 40004, 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 review of the SIP, and should
not be used to predict EPA's action for the SIP.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: November 26, 2013.
Jared Blumenfeld,
Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. 2013-29090 Filed 12-4-13; 8:45 am]
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