[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 107 (Tuesday, June 3, 2008)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 31614-31616]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-12240]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R05-OAR-2007-1097; FRL-8572-6]
Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans;
MN; Maintenance Plan Update for Dakota County Lead Area
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Direct final rule.
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SUMMARY: EPA is approving an update to the lead maintenance plan for
Dakota County, Minnesota. This plan update demonstrates that Dakota
County will maintain attainment of the lead National Ambient Air
Quality Standard (NAAQS) through 2014. Minnesota has verified that the
emission limits adopted to demonstrate modeled attainment continue to
be met, that there are no new significant sources of lead or increases
in background emissions, and that the state has in place a
comprehensive program to identify sources of violations and address any
violation through enforcement and implementation of a contingency plan.
DATES: This direct final rule will be effective August 4, 2008, unless
EPA receives adverse comments by July 3, 2008. If adverse comments are
received, EPA will publish a timely withdrawal of the direct final rule
in the Federal Register informing the public that the rule will not
take effect.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R05-
OAR-2007-1097, by one of the following methods:
1. www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for
submitting comments.
2. E-mail: [email protected].
3. Fax: (312) 886-5824.
4. Mail: Doug Aburano, Acting Chief, Criteria Pollutant Section,
Air Programs Branch (AR-18J), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 77
West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604.
5. Hand Delivery: Doug Aburano, Acting Chief, Criteria Pollutant
Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J), U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604. Such
deliveries are only accepted during the Regional Office normal hours of
operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of
boxed information. The Regional Office official hours of business are
Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. excluding Federal
holidays.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R05-OAR-
2007-1097. 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 e-mail.
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 e-
mail comment directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov
your e-mail 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 docket are listed in the
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Environmental Protection
Agency, Region 5, Air and Radiation Division, 77 West Jackson
Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604. This Facility is open from 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. We
recommend that you telephone Kathleen D'Agostino, Environmental
Engineer, at (312) 886-1767 before visiting the Region 5 office.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen D'Agostino, Environmental
Engineer, Criteria Pollutant Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J),
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, 77 West Jackson Boulevard,
Chicago, Illinois 60604, (312) 886-1767, [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document whenever ``we,''
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA. This supplementary information
section is arranged as follows:
I. What Is the Background of This Action?
II. What Has Minnesota Submitted?
III. What Is EPA's Analysis of the Submittal?
IV. What Action Is EPA Taking?
V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. What Is the Background of This Action?
On January 6, 1992, EPA designated Dakota County, Minnesota as
nonattainment for the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for
lead. On June 22, 1993, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA)
submitted a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision containing an
administrative order for the Gopher Smelting and Refining Company (now
known as Gopher Resources Corporation) as well as air modeling and
monitoring data demonstrating attainment of the NAAQS in the area. The
State also requested that EPA redesignate the area to attainment and
included a maintenance plan, as required by section 175A of the Clean
Air Act (CAA), which demonstrated maintenance of the standard for a ten
year period. As part of this maintenance plan, Minnesota included
contingency measures to be implemented by the
[[Page 31615]]
Gopher facility within 30 days should a violation of the lead NAAQS
occur. EPA approved the redesignation of Dakota County to attainment
for lead on October 18, 1994 (59 FR 52431).
Under section 175A(b) of the CAA, 8 years after an area is
redesignated to attainment, the state is required to submit a revision
to the SIP demonstrating maintenance of the NAAQS for ten years after
the expiration of the initial ten year period.
II. What Has Minnesota Submitted?
On November 18, 2002, the MPCA submitted a SIP revision for the
Gopher Resources Corporation facility and an update to the lead
maintenance plan for Dakota County. The maintenance plan revision was
intended to meet the requirement of section 175A(b) of the CAA.
However, among other things, the revisions to the SIP for Gopher
Resources Corporation removed contingency measures from the maintenance
plan.
On November 19, 2007, MPCA withdrew the SIP revision for the Gopher
Resources Corporation facility, clarified that the contingency measures
contained in the administrative order currently in the SIP remain in
the maintenance plan, and requested that EPA act on the maintenance
plan update.
III. What Is EPA's Analysis of the Submittal?
The SIP for the Dakota County lead area identified only one major
source of lead emissions, the facility now known as Gopher Resources
Corporation. There are no new sources of lead in or near the area which
could be anticipated to jeopardize attainment in the area.
The administrative order issued to the facility now known as Gopher
Resources remains in effect. This administrative order contains
emissions limits and procedures which have been demonstrated, through
modeling, to result in attainment of the NAAQS. In addition, since
December 23, 1997, the facility has been complying with the
requirements of the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air
Pollutants (NESHAP) for secondary lead smelting (40 CFR 63, subpart X).
To the extent that the NESHAP requirements are more stringent than the
requirements contained in the SIP, the area would be expected to
experience improvements in air quality.
Because there are no new major sources of lead emissions in the
area and Gopher Resources Corporation now must also comply with the
NESHAP for secondary lead smelting, the modeling originally submitted
with the attainment SIP for Dakota County could be considered to
provide a conservative representation of the current air quality status
of the area.
In the event of future growth in the area, any new lead source will
be subject to MPCA permitting requirements. New facilities with the
potential to emit lead of more than 0.5 tons per year must go through
the MPCA's permitting process before construction can begin. In
addition, MPCA has the authority to require any source, even one with a
potential to emit less than 0.5 tons per year, to obtain a permit in
order to ensure compliance with the lead NAAQS.
To verify the attainment status of the area, MPCA has committed to
continue ambient lead monitoring for the area, in accordance with 40
CFR part 58. Should a violation of the lead NAAQS be monitored in the
area, the administrative order requires the Gopher Resource Corporation
facility to implement the specified contingency measures within 30
days, without further action from Minnesota or EPA.
EPA believes that the MPCA has adequately demonstrated that the
lead NAAQS will continue to be maintained in Dakota County through the
additional 10 year maintenance period, as required under section
175A(b) of the CAA.
IV. What Action Is EPA Taking?
EPA is approving Minnesota's plan for maintaining the lead NAAQS in
the Dakota County area through 2012. We are publishing this action
without prior proposal because we view this as a noncontroversial
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 state
plan if relevant adverse written comments are filed. This rule will be
effective August 4, 2008 without further notice unless we receive
relevant adverse written comments by July 3, 2008. If we receive such
comments, we will withdraw this action before the effective date by
publishing a subsequent document that will withdraw the final action.
All public comments received will then be addressed in a subsequent
final rule based on the proposed action. The EPA will not institute a
second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this
action should do so at this time. If we do not receive any comments,
this action will be effective August 4, 2008.
V. 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, 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.
[[Page 31616]]
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).
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 August 4, 2008. 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. This action 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, Intergovernmental relations, Lead.
Dated: May 12, 2008.
Bharat Mathur,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 5.
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For the reasons stated in the preamble, part 52, chapter I, of title 40
of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows:
PART 52--[AMENDED]
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1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Subpart Y--Minnesota
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2. In Sec. 52.1220 the table in paragraph (e) is amended by adding an
entry for ``Lead Maintenance Plan'' to read as follows:
Sec. 52.1220 Identification of plan.
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(e) * * *
EPA-Approved Minnesota Nonregulatory Provisions
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State submittal
Name of nonregulatory SIP Applicable geographic date/effective EPA approved date Comments
provision nonattainment area date
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* * * * * * *
Lead Maintenance Plan.......... Dakota County......... 11/18/2002 and 11/ 8/4/2008, [Insert Maintenance plan
19/2007. page number update.
where the
document begins].
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[FR Doc. E8-12240 Filed 6-2-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P