[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 104 (Wednesday, May 30, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 24714-24716]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-11567]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 81
[EPA-R04-OAR-2017-0390; FRL-9978-59-Region 4]
Air Plan Approval and Air Quality Designation; KY; Redesignation
of the Kentucky Portion of the Louisville Unclassifiable Area
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: On May 4, 2018, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, through the
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Division for Air Quality
(KDAQ), submitted a request for the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to redesignate the portion of Kentucky that is within the bi-
state Louisville, KY-IN fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
unclassifiable area (hereinafter referred to as the ``bi-state
Louisville Area'' or ``Area'') to unclassifiable/attainment for the
2012 primary annual PM2.5 national ambient air quality
standard (NAAQS). The bi-state Louisville Area consists of Jefferson
County and a portion of Bullitt County in Kentucky as well as Clark and
Floyd Counties in Indiana. EPA now has sufficient data to determine
that the bi-state Louisville Area is in attainment of the 2012 primary
annual PM2.5 NAAQS. Therefore, EPA is proposing to approve
Kentucky's request and redesignate the Area to unclassifiable/
attainment for the 2012 primary annual PM2.5 NAAQS based
upon complete, quality-assured, and certified ambient air monitoring
data showing that the PM2.5 monitors in the bi-state
Louisville Area are in compliance with the 2012 primary annual
PM2.5 NAAQS.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 29, 2018.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04-
OAR-2017-0390 at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot
be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. 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. 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, 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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Madolyn Sanchez, Air Regulatory
Management Section, in the Air Planning and Implementation Branch, Air,
Pesticides and Toxics Management Division, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, Georgia
30303-8960. Madolyn Sanchez may be reached by phone at (404) 562-9644
or via electronic mail at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) establishes a process for air
quality management through the establishment and implementation of the
NAAQS. After the promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS, EPA is
required to designate areas, pursuant to section 107(d)(1) of the CAA,
as attainment, nonattainment, or unclassifiable. On December 14, 2012,
EPA revised the primary annual NAAQS for PM2.5 at a level of
12 micrograms per cubic meter
[[Page 24715]]
([mu]g/m\3\), based on a 3-year average of annual mean PM2.5
concentrations. See 78 FR 3085 (January 15, 2013). EPA established the
standard based on significant evidence and numerous health studies
demonstrating that serious health effects are associated with exposures
to particulate matter.
The process for designating areas following promulgation of a new
or revised NAAQS is contained in section 107(d)(1) of the CAA. On
December 18, 2014, EPA designated the majority of areas across the
country as nonattainment, unclassifiable/attainment, or unclassifiable
\1\ for the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS based upon air quality
monitoring data from monitors for calendar years 2011-2013. See 80 FR
2206 (January 15, 2015). EPA's January 15, 2015, rulemaking also
described a process by which EPA would evaluate any complete, quality-
assured, certified air quality monitoring data from 2014 that a state
submitted for consideration before February 27, 2015. EPA stated that
it would evaluate whether, with the inclusion of certified 2014 data,
the 3-year design value for 2012-2014 suggests that a change in the
initial designation would be appropriate for an area. If EPA agreed
that a change in the initial designation would be appropriate, EPA
would withdraw the designation announced in the January 15, 2015,
document for such area before the effective date and issue another
designation reflecting the inclusion of 2014 data.
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\1\ For the initial PM area designations in 2014 (for the 2012
annual PM2.5 NAAQS), EPA used a designation category of
``unclassifiable/attainment'' for areas that had monitors showing
attainment of the standard and were not contributing to nearby
violations and for areas that did not have monitors but for which
EPA had reason to believe were likely attaining the standard and not
contributing to nearby violations. EPA used the category
``unclassifiable'' for areas in which EPA could not determine, based
upon available information, whether or not the NAAQS was being met
and/or EPA had not determined the area to be contributing to nearby
violations. EPA reserves the ``attainment'' category for when EPA
redesignates a nonattainment area that has attained the relevant
NAAQS and has an approved maintenance plan.
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In a follow-up designation action published on April 7, 2015 (80 FR
18535), EPA designated five areas as unclassifiable/attainment in
Georgia, including two neighboring counties in the bordering states of
Alabama and South Carolina, that were initially deferred in EPA's
January 15, 2015, rulemaking. In the same action, EPA changed the
designations for one area in Ohio, two areas in Pennsylvania, and one
bi-state area with portions in Kentucky and Ohio from nonattainment to
unclassifiable/attainment. The bi-state Louisville Area was changed
from nonattainment to unclassifiable.
EPA initially designated the bi-state Louisville Area as
nonattainment in its January 15, 2015, rulemaking based on ambient air
quality data collected from 2011-2013. In that time period, a monitor
in Clark County, Indiana, showed a violation of the 2012
PM2.5 NAAQS. Per its policy, EPA explained that it would
change the designation for the Area if data showed that the monitor in
Clark County, Indiana, met the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS for the
design value period 2012-2014, and Indiana elected to early certify
2014 ambient air quality data. Indiana submitted complete, quality-
assured, and certified 2014 data from the ambient air quality monitor
in Clark County, Indiana, by the prescribed deadline of February 27,
2015, showing that the monitor was attaining the NAAQS. However, as
noted in the final technical support document (TSD) for the Area
included in the docket for the January 15, 2015, rulemaking,\2\ EPA
explained that because air quality data in the Jefferson County,
Kentucky portion of the Area were invalid due to issues with the
collection and analysis of PM2.5 filter-based samples, EPA
could only change the designation to unclassifiable. Therefore, EPA
changed the designation of the Area from nonattainment to
unclassifiable in the action published on April 15, 2015.
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\2\ Available in the January 15, 2015, rulemaking docket as
document number EPA-HQ-OAR-2012-0918-0322.
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II. What are the criteria for redesignating an area from unclassifiable
to unclassifiable/attainment?
Section 107(d)(3) of the CAA provides the framework for changing
the area designations for any NAAQS pollutants. Section 107(d)(3)(A)
provides that the Administrator may notify the Governor of any state
that the designation of an area should be revised ``on the basis of air
quality data, planning and control considerations, or any other air
quality-related considerations the Administrator deems appropriate.''
The Act further provides in section 107(d)(3)(D) that even if the
Administrator has not notified a state Governor that a designation
should be revised, the Governor of any state may, on the Governor's own
motion, submit a request to revise the designation of any area, and the
Administrator must approve or deny the request.
When approving or denying a request to redesignate an area, EPA
bases its decision on the air quality data for the area as well as the
considerations under section 107(d)(3)(A).\3\ In keeping with section
107(d)(1)(A), areas that are redesignated to unclassifiable/attainment
must meet the requirements for attainment areas and thus must meet the
relevant NAAQS. In addition, the area must not contribute to ambient
air quality in a nearby area that does not meet the NAAQS. The relevant
monitoring data must be collected and quality-assured in accordance
with 40 CFR part 58 and recorded in the EPA Air Quality System (AQS)
database. The designated monitors generally should have remained at the
same location for the duration of the monitoring period.\4\
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\3\ While CAA section 107(d)(3)(E) also lists specific
requirements for redesignations, those requirements only apply to
redesignations of nonattainment areas to attainment and therefore
are not applicable in the context of a redesignation of an area from
unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment.
\4\ See Memorandum from John Calcagni, Director, EPA Air Quality
Management Division, entitled ``Procedures for Processing Requests
to Redesignate Areas to Attainment'' (September 4, 1992).
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III. What is EPA's rationale for proposing to redesignate the area?
In order to redesignate the Area from unclassifiable to
unclassifiable/attainment for the 2012 primary annual PM2.5
NAAQS, the 3-year average of annual arithmetic mean concentrations
(i.e., design value) over the most recent 3-year period must be less
than or equal to 12.0 [micro]g/m\3\ at all monitoring sites in the Area
over the full 3-year period, as determined in accordance with 40 CFR
50.18 and Appendix N of Part 50. EPA reviewed PM2.5
monitoring data from monitoring stations in the bi-state Louisville
Area for the 2012 primary annual PM2.5 NAAQS for the 3-year
period from 2014-2016. These data have been quality-assured, certified,
and recorded in AQS by Kentucky and Indiana, and the monitoring
locations have not changed during the monitoring period. As summarized
in Table 1, the design values for all monitors in the Area for the
2014-2016 period are below the 2012 primary annual PM2.5
NAAQS.
Table 1--2012 Annual PM2.5 Design Values for Monitors in the Bi-State
Louisville Area for 2014-2016
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2014-2016
design
County Monitoring value
site ([mu]g/m3)
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Clark County, IN.............................. 180190006 10.6
180190008 8.7
Floyd County, IN.............................. 180431004 9.3
[[Page 24716]]
Jefferson County, KY.......................... 211110043 10.4
211110051 10.3
211110067 9.5
211110075 10.4
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Because the 3-year design values, based on complete, quality-
assured data, demonstrate that the Area meets the 2012 primary annual
PM2.5 standard, EPA is proposing to redesignate the Kentucky
portion of the Louisville Area from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/
attainment for this NAAQS.\5\
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\5\ The State of Indiana has not yet submitted a redesignation
request for its portion of the Louisville Area.
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IV. Proposed Action
EPA is proposing to approve Kentucky's May 4, 2018, request to
redesignate the Kentucky portion of the bi-state Louisville Area from
unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment for the 2012 primary annual
PM2.5 NAAQS. If finalized, approval of the redesignation
request would change the legal designation, found at 40 CFR part 81, of
the portion of Bullitt County located in the Area and Jefferson County,
Kentucky, from unclassifiable to unclassifiable/attainment for the 2012
primary annual PM2.5 NAAQS.
V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
Under the CAA, redesignation of an area to unclassifiable/
attainment is an action that affects the status of a geographical area
and does not impose any additional regulatory requirements on sources
beyond those imposed by state law. A redesignation to unclassifiable/
attainment does not in and of itself create any new requirements.
Accordingly, this proposed action merely proposes to redesignate an
area to unclassifiable/attainment and does not impose additional
requirements. For that reason, this proposed 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);
Is not an Executive Order 13771 (82 FR 9339, February 2,
2017) regulatory action because redesignations are exempted under
Executive Order 12866;
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
Will not have disproportionate human health or
environmental effects under Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February
16, 1994).
The proposed action 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 as specified by
Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000), nor will it
impose substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal
law.
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 81
Environmental protection, Air pollution control.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401, et seq.
Dated: May 15, 2018.
Onis ``Trey'' Glenn, III,
Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. 2018-11567 Filed 5-29-18; 8:45 am]
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