[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 55 (Tuesday, March 22, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 15892-15895]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-6664]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R04-OAR-2011-0055-201107; FRL-9285-1]
Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans and
Designations of Areas for Air Quality Planning Purposes; Georgia:
Macon; Determination of Attaining Data for the 1997 Annual Fine
Particulate Standards
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to determine that the Macon, Georgia, fine
particulate matter (PM2.5) nonattainment area (hereafter
referred to as ``the Macon Area'' or ``the Area'') has attained the
1997 annual average PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality
Standards (NAAQS). The Macon Area is comprised of Bibb County in its
entirety and a portion of Monroe County. This proposed determination of
attainment is based upon complete, quality-assured and certified
ambient air monitoring data for the 2007-2009 period showing that the
Area has monitored attainment of the 1997 annual PM2.5
NAAQS. If EPA finalizes this proposed determination of attainment, the
requirements for the Area to submit an attainment demonstration and
associated reasonably available control measures (RACM), a reasonable
further progress (RFP) plan, contingency measures, and other planning
State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions related to attainment of the
standard shall be suspended so long as the Area continues to attain the
annual PM2.5 NAAQS.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 21, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04-
OAR-2011-0055, by one of the following methods:
[[Page 15893]]
1. http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for
submitting comments.
2. E-mail: [email protected].
3. Fax: (404) 562-9040.
4. Mail: EPA-R04-OAR-2011-0055, Regulatory Development Section, Air
Planning Branch, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management Division, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street, SW.,
Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8960.
5. Hand Delivery: Lynorae Benjamin, Chief, Regulatory Development
Section, Air Planning Branch, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management
Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth
Street, SW., Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8960. 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-R04-OAR-
2011-0055. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at
http://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 through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail, information that you consider to be CBI
or otherwise protected. The http://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 http://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. For additional information about EPA's public
docket visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
Docket: All documents in the electronic docket are listed in the
http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, i.e., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such
as copyrighted material, is not placed on the Internet and will be
publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket
materials are available either electronically in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Regulatory Development
Section, Air Planning Branch, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management
Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth
Street, SW., Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8960. EPA requests that if at all
possible, you contact the person listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT section to schedule your inspection. The Regional Office's
official hours of business are Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 4:30,
excluding Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joel Huey or Sara Waterson, Regulatory
Development Section, Air Planning Branch, Air, Pesticides and Toxics
Management Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61
Forsyth Street, SW., Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8960. Mr. Huey may be
reached by phone at (404) 562-9104 or via electronic mail at
[email protected]. Ms. Waterson may be reached by phone at (404) 562-
9061 or via electronic mail at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. What action is EPA taking?
II. What is the background for this action?
III. Does the Macon area meet the annual PM2.5 NAAQS?
A. Criteria
B. Macon Area Air Quality
IV. What is the effect of this action?
V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. What action is EPA taking?
EPA is proposing to determine that the Macon Area (comprised of
Bibb County in its entirety and a portion of Monroe County) has
attaining data for the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS.\1\ The
proposal is based upon complete, quality-assured and certified ambient
air monitoring data for the 2007-2009 monitoring period that shows the
Area has monitored attainment of the 1997 annual PM2.5
NAAQS.
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\1\ ``1997 Annual NAAQS'' refers to both the primary and
secondary standards, which are identical.
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II. What is the background for this action?
On July 18, 1997 (62 FR 36852), EPA established an annual
PM2.5 NAAQS at 15.0 micrograms per cubic meter ([mu]g/m\3\)
based on a 3-year average of annual mean PM2.5
concentrations. At that time, EPA also established a 24-hour NAAQS of
65 [mu]g/m\3\. See 40 CFR 50.7. On January 5, 2005 (70 FR 944), EPA
published its air quality designations and classifications for the 1997
PM2.5 NAAQS based upon air quality monitoring data from
those monitors for calendar years 2001-2003. These designations became
effective on April 5, 2005. The Macon Area was designated nonattainment
for the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS. See 40 CFR 81.311.
On October 17, 2006 (71 FR 61144), EPA retained the 1997 annual
PM2.5 NAAQS at 15.0 [mu]g/m\3\ based on a 3-year average of
annual mean PM2.5 concentrations and promulgated a 24-hour
NAAQS of 35 [mu]g/m\3\ based on a 3-year average of the 98th percentile
of 24-hour concentrations. On November 13, 2009, EPA designated the
Macon Area as attainment for the 2006 24-hour NAAQS (74 FR 58688). In
that action, EPA also clarified the designations for the NAAQS
promulgated in 1997, stating that the Macon Area was designated as
nonattainment for the annual NAAQS but attainment for the 24-hour
NAAQS. Thus, today's action does not address attainment of either the
1997 or the 2006 24-hour NAAQS.
In response to legal challenges of the annual NAAQS promulgated in
2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
(DC Circuit) remanded this NAAQS to EPA for further consideration. See
American Farm Bureau Federation and National Pork Producers Council, et
al. v. EPA, 559 F.3d 512 (DC Cir. 2009). However, given that the 1997
and 2006 annual NAAQS are essentially identical, attainment of the 1997
annual NAAQS would also indicate attainment of the remanded 2006 annual
NAAQS.
On April 25, 2007 (72 FR 20664), EPA promulgated its
PM2.5 Implementation Rule, codified at 40 CFR part 51,
subpart Z, in which the Agency provided guidance for State and Tribal
plans to implement the 1997 PM2.5 NAAQS. This rule, at 40
CFR 51.1004(c), specifies some of the regulatory consequences of
attaining the NAAQS, as discussed below.
[[Page 15894]]
III. Does the Macon area meet the annual PM2.5 NAAQS?
A. Criteria
Today's rulemaking assesses whether the Macon Area is attaining the
1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS. The Macon Area is comprised of Bibb
County in its entirety and a portion of Monroe County.
Under EPA regulations at 40 CFR 50.7, the annual primary and
secondary PM2.5 NAAQS are met when the annual arithmetic
mean concentration, as determined in accordance with 40 CFR part 50,
Appendix N, is less than or equal to 15.0 [micro]g/m\3\ at all relevant
monitoring sites in the subject Area.
B. Macon Area Air Quality
EPA has reviewed the ambient air monitoring data for the Macon Area
in accordance with the provisions of 40 CFR part 50, Appendix N. All
data considered have been quality-assured, certified, and recorded in
EPA's Air Quality System (AQS) database. This review addresses air
quality data collected in the 3-year period from 2007-2009.
The following table provides the annual average concentrations
averaged over 2007-2009 at the sites in the Macon Area with at least 75
percent complete data in each quarter of each of those 3 years. The
Macon-Allied Chemical monitor (13-021-0007) did not meet 75 percent
completeness for the first quarter of 2008 and the Macon SE monitor
(13-021-0012) did not meet 75 percent completeness for the second and
fourth quarters of 2008 and third quarter of 2009. The 3-year average
annual concentrations for 2007-2009 on this table without data
substitution are 13.7 [micro]g/m\3\ for Macon Allied and 12.0 [micro]g/
m\3\ for Macon SE. The 3-year average annual concentrations for 2007-
2009 on this table with data substitution are 14.9 [micro]g/m\3\ for
Macon Allied and 13.3 [micro]g/m\3\ for Macon SE. The data substitution
procedures were separately applied to each site. The complete procedure
for the maximum value data substitution test can be found in the EPA
guidance document ``Guideline on Data Handling Conventions for the PM
NAAQS,'' dated April 1999.
Additionally, EPA and Georgia Environmental Protection Division
believe an error occurred in the handling of the filter collected on
February 4, 2009, and thus the data from the filter's analysis are
invalid. A discussion on the sample invalidation can be found in the
technical support document for this proposed rulemaking.
Table 1--Annual Average Concentrations in the Macon Area
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Annual average Annual average
concentration concentration
Site name Site number ([mu]g/m\3\) ([mu]g/m\3\) with
without data data
substitution substitution
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Macon Allied........................................... 13-021-0007 \2\ 13.7 \3\ 14.9
Macon SE............................................... 13-021-0012 12.0 \4\ 13.3
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The Macon Area is meeting the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS
both with and without data substitution. The official design value is
the value without data substitution. EPA is now proposing to make the
determination that the Macon Area is now meeting the 1997 annual
PM2.5 NAAQS.
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\2\ Macon Allied design value considers co-located data where
primary data are not available.
\3\ Macon Allied design value considers data substitution of
58.1 [mu]g/m\3\ for all missing data in 1st quarter of 2008.
\4\ Macon SE Annual Mean considers data substitution for second
and fourth quarters of 2008 and 3rd quarter of 2009.
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Determinations of attainment are based on the most recent three
years of complete, quality-assured data. EPA also considers additional
quality-assured data to the extent those data are available. In
accordance with Appendix N and standard EPA practice, EPA's review of
the data was centered on the three most recent years of complete data,
2007-2009. Appendix N does not explicitly provide for comparisons to
the NAAQS involving partial years of data, because various seasons of
the year reflect various influences on PM2.5 concentrations,
and a partial year's data may not be representative of values that
would be determined from a full year's data set. Nevertheless, EPA
examined data that are available to date. For the Area, the available
data for 2010 in the AQS database are below the NAAQS for both sites;
however, not all of the 2010 data have been reported and they are not
yet certified. Based on 2010 data in AQS available through the third
quarter of 2010, the Macon Allied site has a preliminary 2008-2010
design value of 13.0 [mu]g/m\3\ and the Macon SE site has a preliminary
2008-2010 design value of 11.6 [mu]g/m\3\, and thus are consistent with
continued attainment. The complete 2008--2010 design values are
expected to be below 15.0 [mu]g/m\3\. On the basis of this review, EPA
is proposing to determine that the Macon Area has attained the 1997
annual PM2.5 NAAQS and is soliciting public comments on its
proposed determination.
IV. What is the effect of this action?
If this proposed determination of attainment is made final, the
requirements for the Macon Area to submit an attainment demonstration
and associated RACM, an RFP plan, contingency measures, and any other
planning SIPs related to attainment of the 1997 annual PM2.5
NAAQS would be suspended for so long as the Area continues to attain
the PM2.5 NAAQS. See 40 CFR 51.1004(c). Notably, as
described below, any such determination would not be equivalent to the
redesignation of the Area to attainment for the annual PM2.5
NAAQS.
If this proposed rulemaking is finalized and EPA subsequently
determines, after notice and comment rulemaking in the Federal
Register, that the Area has violated the annual PM2.5 NAAQS,
the basis for the suspension of the specific requirements would no
longer exist for the Macon Area, and the Area would thereafter have to
address the applicable requirements. See 40 CFR 51.1004(c).
Finalizing this proposed action would not constitute a
redesignation of the Area to attainment of the annual PM2.5
NAAQS under section 107(d)(3) of the Clean Air Act (CAA). Further,
finalizing this proposed action does not involve approving maintenance
plans for the Area as required under section 175A of the CAA, nor would
it find that the Area has met all other requirements for redesignation.
Even if EPA finalizes the proposed action, the designation status of
the Macon Area would remain nonattainment for the 1997 annual
PM2.5 NAAQS until such time as EPA determines that the Area
meets the CAA requirements for redesignation to attainment and takes
action to redesignate the Area.
This action is only a proposed determination of attainment that the
Macon Area has attained the 1997
[[Page 15895]]
annual PM2.5 NAAQS. Today's action does not address the 24-
hour PM2.5 NAAQS.
If the Macon Area continues to monitor attainment of the annual
PM2.5 NAAQS, the requirements for the Macon Area to submit
an attainment demonstration and associated RACM, a RFP plan,
contingency measures, and any other planning SIPs related to attainment
of the annual PM2.5 NAAQS will remain suspended.
V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
This action proposes to make a determination of attainment based on
air quality, and would, if finalized, result in the suspension of
certain Federal requirements, and it would not impose additional
requirements beyond those imposed by State law. For that reason, this
proposed 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 proposed 1997 annual average PM2.5 NAAQS data
determination for the Macon Area 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.
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Particulate
matter, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: March 10, 2011.
A. Stanley Meiburg,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. 2011-6664 Filed 3-21-11; 8:45 am]
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