[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 9 (Thursday, January 14, 2016)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 1884-1887]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00559]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R06-OAR-2015-0647; FRL-9941-21-Region 6]
Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Arkansas;
Crittenden County Base Year Emission Inventory
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Direct final rule.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a
revision to the Arkansas State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted to
meet the Clean Air Act (CAA) emissions inventory (EI) requirement for
the Crittenden County ozone nonattainment area. EPA is approving the
SIP revision because it
[[Page 1885]]
satisfies the CAA EI requirement for Crittenden County under the 2008
8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The
inventory includes emissions data for Nitrogen Oxides (NOX)
and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). EPA is approving the revisions
pursuant to section 110 and part D of the CAA and EPA's regulations.
DATES: This rule is effective on March 14, 2016 without further notice,
unless the EPA receives relevant adverse comment by March 14, 2016. If
the EPA receives such comment, the EPA will publish a timely withdrawal
in the Federal Register informing the public that this rule will not
take effect.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket No. EPA-R06-OAR-
2015-0647, at http://www.regulations.gov or via email to
[email protected]. Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from
Regulations.gov. The EPA may publish any comment received to its public
docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose
disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio,
video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written
comment is considered the official comment and should include
discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA will generally not
consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary
submission (i.e. on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For
additional submission methods, please contact Mr. Colin Schwartz, 214-
665-7262, [email protected]. For the full EPA public comment
policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general
guidance on making effective comments, please visit http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
Docket: The index to the docket for this action is available
electronically at www.regulations.gov and in hard copy at EPA Region 6,
1445 Ross Avenue, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas. While all documents in the
docket are listed in the index, some information may be publicly
available only at the hard copy location (e.g., copyrighted material),
and some may not be publicly available at either location (e.g., CBI).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Colin Schwartz, 214-665-7262,
[email protected]. To inspect the hard copy materials, please
schedule an appointment with Mr. Schwartz or Mr. Bill Deese at 214-665-
7253.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document ``we,'' ``us,'' and
``our'' means the EPA.
I. Background
A. The 2008 Ozone NAAQS and Emissions Inventory Requirement
On March 12, 2008, the EPA revised the eight-hour ozone NAAQS from
0.08 parts per million (ppm) to 0.075 ppm. (73 FR 16436, March 27,
2008). The EPA designated Crittenden County as a nonattainment area for
the 2008 ozone NAAQS (77 FR 30088, May 21, 2012).\1\
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\1\ On October 1, 2015, the EPA strengthened the ozone standard
to 0.070 ppm (80 FR 65292, October 26, 2015). The EPA has not made
designations under this new standard and the emission inventory
under evaluation in this rulemaking does not address that standard.
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CAA sections 172(c)(3) and 182(a)(1) require states to develop and
submit as a SIP revision an emissions inventory for all areas
designated as nonattainment for the ozone NAAQS. 42 U.S.C. 172(c) and
182(a). An emissions inventory is an estimation of actual emissions of
air pollutants in an area. Ground-level ozone, O3, is a gas
that is formed by the reaction of VOCs and NOX in the
atmosphere in the presence of sunlight. These precursor emissions are
emitted by many types of pollution sources, including power plants and
industrial emissions sources, on-road and non-road motor vehicles and
engines, and smaller sources, collectively referred to as area sources.
The EIs provide data for a variety of air quality planning tasks
including establishing baseline emission levels, calculating federally
required emission reduction targets, emission inputs into air quality
simulation models, and tracking emissions over time. The total EI of
VOC and NOX for an area are summarized from the estimates
developed for four general categories of emissions sources: Point,
area, mobile, and biogenic. The EPA's 2008 ozone standard SIP
requirements rule recommends that states use 2011 as a base year to
address EI requirements (80 FR 12264, 34190, March 6, 2015).
B. Arkansas' Submittal
On August 28, 2015, Arkansas submitted to the EPA the SIP revision
addressing the emissions inventory requirement for Crittenden County
under the 2008 ozone NAAQS. The inventory includes estimates of 2011
NOX and VOC emissions in tons per year. The 2011 Base Year
Inventory is the starting point for calculating the reductions
necessary to meet the requirements of the CAA. Sections 172 (c)(3) and
182(b)(1) of the CAA require that nonattainment plan provisions include
an inventory of actual emissions from all sources of relevant
pollutants in the nonattainment area. The inventory includes all area,
point, non-road mobile, and on-road mobile source emissions in the
Crittenden County ozone nonattainment area. The inventory also includes
a description of the methods used to estimate emissions. A copy of the
submittal is available in the electronic docket for this action.
C. What criteria must be met for the EPA to approve this SIP revision?
Section 182(a)(1) of the CAA requires states with nonattainment
areas to submit a comprehensive and accurate inventory of ozone
precursor emissions from all sources within two years of the effective
date of designation, which was July 20, 2012. Also, Section 172(c)(3)
requires that such an inventory shall include a comprehensive accurate,
current inventory of actual emissions from all sources of the relevant
pollutant or pollutants in such area, including such periodic revisions
as the Administrator may determine necessary to assure that the
requirements of this part are met.
II. The EPA's Evaluation
EPA reviewed the revision for consistency with the requirements of
EPA regulations. A summary of EPA's analysis is provided below. For a
full discussion of our evaluation, please see our Technical Support
Document (TSD).
Sections 172(c)(3) and 182(a)(1) of the CAA require an inventory of
actual emissions from all sources of relevant pollutants in the
nonattainment area. The 2011 base year emission inventory data include
all point, area, and non-road and on-road mobile sources in Crittenden
County. Point source emissions were entered through the State and Local
Emissions Inventory System (SLEIS) and area sources were developed in
accordance with the federal Air Emissions Reporting Requirements (AERR)
rule. Non-road mobile sources utilized the National Mobile Inventory
Model (NMIM) while the on-road sources used the Motor Vehicle Emissions
Simulator (MOVES2010b). The EPA has determined that the inventory was
developed in accordance with CAA guidelines and that the revised 2011
base year emission inventory is approvable. The submittal meets the
goal of reaching attainment by reducing O3 forming
precursors. Table 1 lists the emissions inventory for the Crittenden
County area. For more detail on how the
[[Page 1886]]
emissions inventories were estimated and evaluated, see the TSD.
Table 1--Base Year Emissions Inventory, 2011 Data
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Ozone season Ozone season Ozone season
Category daily NOX Annual NOX daily VOC Annual VOC daily CO Annual CO
Units Tons/day Tons/year Tons/day Tons/year Tons/day Tons/year
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Point................................................... 0.0017 .063 .051 186.84 0.004 1.58
Area.................................................... 8.70 3,165.17 24.90 8,868.94 20.32 7,375.56
Non-road Mobile......................................... 2.11 582.63 3.66 881.35 13.78 3,476.63
On-road Mobile.......................................... 6.80 2,542 2.42 845 23.13 9,051
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Total............................................... 17.61 6,290.43 31.49 10,782.13 57.234 19,904.77
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III. Final Action
We are approving revisions to the Arkansas SIP that pertain to the
2008 ozone SIP emissions inventory for Crittenden County, as are listed
in Table 1.
The EPA is publishing this rule without prior proposal because we
view this as a non-controversial amendment and anticipate no adverse
comments. However, in the proposed rules section of this Federal
Register publication, we are publishing a separate document that will
serve as the proposal to approve the SIP revision if relevant adverse
comments are received. This rule will be effective on March 14, 2016
without further notice unless we receive relevant adverse comment by
February 16, 2016. If we receive relevant adverse comments, we will
publish a timely withdrawal in the Federal Register informing the
public that the rule will not take effect. We will address all public
comments in a subsequent final rule based on the proposed rule. We will
not institute a second comment period on this action. Any parties
interested in commenting must do so now. Please note that if we receive
relevant adverse comment on an amendment, paragraph, or section of this
rule and if that provision may be severed from the remainder of the
rule, we may adopt as final those provisions of the rule that are not
the subject of an adverse comment.
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
Under the CAA, the Administrator is required to approve a SIP
submission that complies with the provisions of the Act and applicable
Federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a). Thus, in
reviewing SIP submissions, the 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 Orders
12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, January 21,
2011);
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, 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, the SIP is not approved to apply on any Indian reservation
land or in any other area where EPA or an Indian tribe has demonstrated
that a tribe has jurisdiction. In those areas of Indian country, the
rule does not have tribal implications and will not impose substantial
direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal law as specified
by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000).
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. The EPA will submit a report containing this rule 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).
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 March 14, 2016. Filing a petition for
reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect
the finality of this rule 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.
This action may not be challenged later in proceedings to enforce its
requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).)
Samuel Coleman was designated the Acting Regional Administrator on
December 30, 2015 through the order of succession outlined in Regional
Order R6-1110.1, a copy of which is included in the docket for this
action.
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by
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reference, Ozone, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Volatile
Organic Compounds.
Dated: December 30, 2015.
Samuel Coleman,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 6.
40 CFR part 52 is amended as follows:
PART 52--APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS
0
1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Subpart E--Arkansas
0
2. In Sec. 52.170(e), the third table titled ``EPA-Approved
Nonregulatory Provisions and Quasi-Regulatory Measures'' is amended by
adding an entry for ``Crittenden County Base Year Emission Inventory
for the 2008 Ozone Standard'' to the end of the table.
The addition reads as follows:
Sec. 52.170 Identification of plan.
* * * * *
(e) * * *
EPA-Approved Nonregulatory Provisions and Quasi-Regulatory Measures in the Arkansas SIP
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Applicable State
geographic or submittal/
Name of SIP provision nonattainment effective EPA approval date Explanation
area date
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* * * * * * *
Crittenden County Base Year Crittenden County 8/28/2015 1/13/2016 [Insert ............................
Emission Inventory for the Federal Register
2008 Ozone Standard. citation].
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[FR Doc. 2016-00559 Filed 1-13-16; 8:45 am]
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