[Federal Register: June 1, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 105)]
[Notices]
[Page 31181-31182]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr01jn06-53]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[R08-OAR-2006-MT-0163; FRL-8177-5]
Adequacy Determination for the Missoula, MT Carbon Monoxide
Maintenance State Implementation Plan for Transportation Conformity
Purposes; State of Montana
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of adequacy.
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SUMMARY: In this document, EPA is notifying the public that we have
found that the motor vehicle emissions budgets in the Missoula, Montana
Carbon Monoxide Maintenance Plan, that was submitted by Montana
Governor Brian Schweitzer with a letter signed May 27, 2005, are
adequate for transportation conformity purposes. 40 CFR 93.118(e)(2)
requires that EPA declare an implementation plan submission's motor
vehicle emissions budgets adequate for conformity purposes prior to the
budgets being used to satisfy the conformity requirements of 40 CFR
part 93. As a result of our finding, the Missoula City-County, the
Montana Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of
Transportation are required to use the motor vehicle emissions budgets
from this submitted maintenance plan for future transportation
conformity determinations.
DATES: This finding is effective June 16, 2006.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeffrey Kimes, Air & Radiation Program
(8P-AR), United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8, 999
18th Street, Suite 300, Denver, Colorado 80202-2466, (303) 312-6445,
kimes.jeffrey@epa.gov.
The letter documenting our finding is available at EPA's conformity
Web site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/ transp/conform / adequacy.htm.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document ``we'', ``us'', or
``our'' are used to mean EPA.
This action is simply an announcement of a finding that we have
already made. We sent a letter to the State of Montana, Department of
Environmental Quality on May 4, 2006, stating that the motor vehicle
emission
[[Page 31182]]
budgets in the submitted Missoula, Montana Carbon Monoxide Maintenance
Plan are adequate. This finding has also been announced on our
conformity Web site at http://www.epa.gov/ otaq/transp/conform/
adequacy.htm.
Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the
Clean Air Act. Our conformity rule requires that transportation plans,
programs, and projects conform to SIPs and establishes the criteria and
procedures for determining whether or not they demonstrate conformity.
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 motor vehicle
emission budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in
40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). Please note that an adequacy review is separate
from our completeness review, and it also should not be used to
prejudge our ultimate approval of the SIP. Even if we find a budget
adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved, and vice versa.
The process for determining the adequacy of a transportation
conformity budget is described at 40 CFR 93.118(f).
For the reader's ease, we have excerpted the motor vehicle emission
budget from the Missoula, Montana Carbon Monoxide Maintenance Plan and
they are as follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emission budget
Year (ton per day)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2005............................................... 44.86
2010............................................... 43.22
2021............................................... 42.67
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40 CFR 93.118(e)(1) requires that upon a finding of adequacy these
budgets must be used in transportation conformity determinations unless
the maintenance plan is later disapproved by EPA.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: May 18, 2006.
Robert E. Roberts,
Regional Administrator, Region 8.
[FR Doc. E6-8464 Filed 5-31-06; 8:45 am]
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