Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; United States Virgin Islands; Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan, 64414-64422 [2012-25806]
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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 204 / Monday, October 22, 2012 / Rules and Regulations
(2) Persons or vessels desiring to enter
into or passage through the zone must
request permission from the Captain of
the Port Mobile or a designated
representative. They may be contacted
on VHF-FM channels 16 or by telephone
at 251–441–5976.
(3) If permission is granted, all
persons and vessels shall comply with
the instructions of the Captain of the
Port or designated representative.
(d) Informational Broadcasts. The
Captain of the Port or a designated
representative will inform the public
through broadcast notices to mariners of
the enforcement period for the safety
zone as well as any changes in the
planned schedule.
Dated: September 21, 2012.
D.J. Rose,
Captain, U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the
Port Mobile.
[FR Doc. 2012–25981 Filed 10–19–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9110–04–P
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA–R02–OAR–2012–0457, FRL–9742–6]
Approval and Promulgation of Air
Quality Implementation Plans; United
States Virgin Islands; Regional Haze
Federal Implementation Plan
Table of Contents
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Final rule.
AGENCY:
EPA is promulgating a
Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) to
address regional haze in the Territory of
the United States Virgin Islands. EPA
determined that the FIP meets the
requirements of the Clean Air Act and
EPA’s rules concerning reasonable
progress towards the national goal of
preventing any future and remedying
any existing man-made impairment of
visibility in mandatory Class I areas
(also referred to as the ‘‘regional haze
program’’). The FIP protects and
improves visibility levels in the Virgin
Islands Class I area, namely the Virgin
Islands National Park on the island of
St. John. The FIP for the Virgin Islands
addresses reasonable progress toward
improving visibility and evaluation of
Best Available Retrofit Technology.
DATES: This rule is effective on
November 21, 2012.
ADDRESSES: EPA has established a
docket for this action under Docket ID
No. EPA–R02–OAR–2012–0457. All
documents in the docket are listed on
the www.regulations.gov Web site.
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SUMMARY:
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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, is not placed on
the Internet and will be publicly
available only in hard copy form.
Publicly available docket materials are
available either electronically through
www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at
the Environmental Protection Agency,
Region II Office, Air Programs Branch,
290 Broadway, 25th Floor, New York,
New York 10007–1866. This Docket
Facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding
legal holidays. The Docket telephone
number is 212–637–4249.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Robert F. Kelly, Air Planning Section,
Air Programs Branch, EPA Region 2, 290
Broadway, New York, New York 10007–
1866. The telephone number is 212–
637–4249. Mr. Kelly can also be reached
via electronic mail at kelly.bob@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Throughout this document, wherever
‘‘Agency,’’ ‘‘we,’’ ‘‘us,’’ or ‘‘our’’ is used,
we mean the EPA. In most cases in this
document, where we use the term
‘‘state’’ when discussing requirements
or recommendations under the Clean
Air Act or Agency guidance, this
includes the Territory of the Virgin
Islands.
I. What action is EPA taking?
II. What comments did EPA receive on its
proposal and what were EPA’s
responses?
III. What are EPA’s conclusions?
VI. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. What action is EPA taking?
EPA is promulgating a Federal
Implementation Plan (FIP) to address
regional haze in the U.S. Virgin Islands
under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the
Act) sections 301(a) and 110(c)(1). The
FIP ensures that the Virgin Islands will
make reasonable progress toward the
national goal of no man-made
contribution to visibility impairment.
The FIP also includes Best Available
Retrofit Technology (BART)
determinations for sources in the Virgin
Islands that may be subject to BART.
For additional details on EPA’s
analysis and the basis for the Virgin
Islands regional haze FIP, the reader is
referred to the June 25, 2012 proposal
(77 FR 37842). EPA’s regional haze FIP
for the Virgin Islands, all accompanying
documents, and the full text of the
public comments are included in the
Docket (EPA–R02–OAR–2012–0457)
and available at www.regulations.gov.
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EPA’s Authority To Promulgate a FIP
The Act requires each state to develop
plans to meet various air quality
requirements, including protection of
visibility. (CAA sections 110(a), 169A,
and 169B). The plans developed by a
state or territory are referred to as State
Implementation Plans or SIPs. A state
must submit its SIPs and SIP revisions
to EPA for approval. Once approved, a
SIP is federally enforceable, that is it is
enforceable by EPA and citizens under
the Act. If a state fails to make a
required SIP submittal or if we find that
a state’s required submittal is
incomplete or unapprovable, then EPA
must promulgate a FIP to fill this
regulatory gap. (CAA section 110(c)(1)).
EPA made a finding of failure to
submit on January 15, 2009 (74 FR
2392), determining that the U.S. Virgin
Islands failed to submit a SIP that
addressed any of the regional haze SIP
requirements of 40 CFR 51.308. Under
section 110(c) of the Act, whenever EPA
finds that a state has failed to make a
required submission, the Agency is
required to promulgate a FIP.
Specifically, section 110(c) provides:
• The Administrator shall promulgate
a Federal implementation plan at any
time within 2 years after the
Administrator—
Æ Finds that a state has failed to
make a required submission or finds
that the plan or plan revision submitted
by the state does not satisfy the
minimum criteria established under
[section 110(k)(1)(A)], or
Æ disapproves a state
implementation plan submission in
whole or in part, unless the state
corrects the deficiency, and the
Administrator approves the plan or plan
revision, before the Administrator
promulgates such Federal
implementation plan.
Section 302(y) defines the term
‘‘Federal implementation plan’’ in
pertinent part, as:
[A] plan (or portion thereof) promulgated
by the Administrator to fill all or a portion
of a gap or otherwise correct all or a portion
of an inadequacy in a State implementation
plan, and which includes enforceable
emission limitations or other control
measures, means or techniques (including
economic incentives, such as marketable
permits or auctions or emissions allowances)
* * *
Thus, because EPA determined that
the Virgin Islands failed to submit a
regional haze SIP, the Agency is
promulgating a regional haze FIP at 40
CFR 52.2781(d). The Virgin Islands
Department of Planning and Natural
Resources has indicated that the
Government of the Virgin Islands agrees
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with EPA’s moving forward to prepare
this FIP.
If the Virgin Islands at any time
decide to submit a SIP revision to
incorporate provisions that would be
approvable as a SIP revision for a
regional haze plan, EPA would welcome
that submittal. If EPA were to approve
such a SIP revision, after public notice
and comment, the SIP provisions would
replace EPA’s FIP.
II. What comments did EPA receive on
its proposal and what were EPA’s
responses?
EPA received comments from the
National Park Service (NPS), which
serves as the Federal Land Manager
(FLM) for the Virgin Islands National
Park, and from HOVENSA, L.L.C.
(HOVENSA). EPA also received one
comment from a private citizen in
support of EPA’s proposal. A summary
of the comments and EPA’s responses
are provided below.
Comment: A private citizen supported
EPA’s actions to reduce regional haze in
the area, including the restriction of
sulfur in ferry and cruise-ship fuel, the
federal motor vehicle control program,
and emissions reductions from
HOVENSA, including the use of Best
Available Retrofit Technology (BART).
The NPS also supported EPA’s
determination that expected emissions
reductions from marine vessels under
the North American Emissions Control
Area and the HOVENSA Consent Decree
are appropriate to include in the long
term strategy for regional haze.
Response: EPA acknowledges the
support and is including these
emissions reductions as part of the FIP.
Comment: NPS supported EPA’s
determination that sources outside the
island of St. John are major contributors
to visibility impairment at the Virgin
Islands National Park.
Response: EPA acknowledges the
support for the visibility analysis.
Comment: NPS commented that it
expected EPA’s proposal to include a
more rigorous technical analysis of local
anthropogenic contributions to regional
haze in the Virgin Islands.
Response: EPA disagrees with the
NPS’s characterization of the analysis
conducted for the FIP. We identified
potential contributors to visibility
impairment from the IMPROVE
monitoring data, as well as other
suggestions from the FLM, local
citizens, and the Virgin Islands
government. In addition to analyzing
the IMPROVE data, we investigated
possible sources of coarse particles that
were hard to identify due to the
overwhelming impact of coarse particles
from Saharan dust. EPA commissioned
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a thorough inventory of all source
categories on St. John. EPA also used
inventories from new source review
applications to identify the larger point
sources on St. Thomas and St. Croix that
may impact the Class I area on St. John.
We investigated fuel usage, electric
generation and open burning
information for potential sources on
Tortola, the nearest island of the British
Virgin Islands. Finally, we used back
trajectory analyses and dispersion
modeling to determine whether
emissions from a major source in Puerto
Rico could have an impact on visibility
in St. John.
Comment: NPS commented that
coarse mass could be due to transport or
local sources, natural and
anthropogenic, but EPA made little
effort to distinguish source
contributions.
Response: EPA disagrees. The FIP
includes EPA’s numerous efforts to
address local anthropogenic sources of
coarse mass. Saharan dust is mostly in
the coarse mass (2.5 microns to 10
microns) range of particles. Coarse mass
particles can also be produced by
human sources, such as quarrying
operations, wind-blown dirt from
unpaved roads, and dirt on paved and
unpaved roads re-entrained by vehicles.
Ordinarily, coarse particles do not travel
the long distances that fine particles
travel because of their larger size and
larger mass and because they tend to be
emitted near the ground. One exception
to this rule is the coarse dust from the
Sahara Desert, which is lofted
thousands of feet into the atmosphere by
strong trade winds. This dust is carried
by the trade winds for long distances,
across the Atlantic Ocean, remaining
aloft and mixing down into the surface
air over the Caribbean islands.
(Prospero, 1999. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
USA. 96:3396–3404.)
EPA conducted an effort to find
sources of particle emissions on St. John
(as well as other pollutants that
contribute to reduced visibility),
knowing that coarse particle emissions
on St. John could be contributing to the
obstruction of visibility in the Virgin
Islands National Park, and because
coarse particles from ground-level
sources on other islands are not likely
to be transported to St. John. EPA also
developed an emission inventory for St.
John which identified emissions from
construction activities, re-entrained dirt
from traffic, and a concrete mixing
facility on St. John, all of which were
included in the modeling to determine
which human sources contribute the
most to reducing visibility in the Virgin
Islands National Park. EPA discussed
the results of the modeling in the June
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25, 2012 proposal (77 FR 37842). Air
modeling ranks construction and road
dust as the two anthropogenic source
categories with the highest impact on
visibility at the IMPROVE monitor on
St. John.
Comment: NPS believes there are
episodes of elevated sulfate that could
be due to industry or marine traffic or
due to atmospheric transport of
emissions from other islands or the U.S.
mainland. NPS also suggested that
episodes of elevated organic carbon are
due to vegetative burning.
Response: In the June 25, 2012
proposal, EPA noted that local sulfur
dioxide emissions are not the only
source of sulfate on St. John. Sulfates
likely come from other islands outside
the U.S. Virgin Islands, and EPA
included sources from the British Virgin
Islands and Puerto Rico in the modeling
analysis. Modeling predicts that sulfate
averages from five to eleven percent of
the anthropogenic contribution to
visibility obstruction and can be as high
as twenty-five percent. However,
emissions from sources in the Caribbean
upwind of the Virgin Islands cannot be
reduced by actions taken by EPA or the
U.S. Virgin Islands government.
Based on trajectory analyses,
emissions from sources in North
America may be transported to the
Virgin Islands on rare occasions.
However, there are many Class I areas
in the United States that are closer to
these sources than the Virgin Islands.
Mainland sources were not considered
in the modeling for the Virgin Islands
FIP because state regional haze SIPs (or
FIPs) will inevitable mandate stronger
controls based on the sources’ larger
impacts on mainland Class I areas.
As for organic carbon, the IMPROVE
data show a few periods of time when
carbon is a major component
responsible for reducing visibility. Most
of these events occur after major
windstorms or hurricanes when fallen
trees and other vegetation are burned
due to the lack of space on the island
to landfill the debris.
In summary, EPA did in fact include
the various source categories suggested
by the NPS comment in our analysis
and in the modeling conducted in
support of the FIP.
Comment: NPS commented that the
back trajectory analysis identified
possible source areas for each pollutant
species, but EPA’s analysis was not
comprehensive. NPS believes sources
on nearby islands as well as long range
transport are potential contributors to
haze at St. John.
Response: Back trajectory analysis for
the top four days with the largest impact
for each of the measured species
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provides the best opportunity to find if
consistent locations (and the sources
located there) are upwind of St. John on
the days when each species has the
largest impact on visibility. As we
expected, most days have trajectories
from the east, the predominant direction
of the wind in the tropics trade wind
regime, as seen in the wind roses in the
FIP. Days where a source has high
contributions toward reducing visibility
should show up as the source region in
the trajectory analysis. For example,
days when coarse particulates were
highest had trajectories that began in or
near the Sahara Desert. Days when
coarse particulates were lower and
another species was large, on the other
hand, mostly had trajectories from other
locations. Thus, EPA determined that
looking at roughly 30 days when
different species dominated would
reveal the sources of the various species
that impact visibility on St. John.
However, there was no consistent
source region or regions in the U.S.
Virgin Islands for these high impact
days for products of combustion, like
sulfates and nitrates. While some days’
trajectories passed over St. Thomas and
St. Croix, showing that sources there
can be responsible for emissions that
interfere with visibility, most of the
trajectories on days with high sulfate
and nitrate concentrations did not pass
over St. Thomas or St. Croix. Many
trajectories passed over other islands
where EPA does not have jurisdiction to
require emission controls. EPA’s
modeling showed a similar pattern of
combustion sources impacting St. John
on a limited (but still significant)
number of days. The impacts were
frequent enough to warrant EPA to
evaluate sources such as HOVENSA and
other point sources in St. Thomas and
St. Croix to determine if reasonable
controls were available to improve
visibility.
In response to the concerns of the
Virgin Islands Government that sources
upwind might affect St. John, EPA
considered combustion emissions from
Puerto Rico and fuel oil combustion and
agricultural burning on Tortola in its
modeling.
Also, a few trajectories show that
some days with worse visibility may
result from sulfates, nitrates, and carbon
that originate in North America. It
should be noted that significant
reductions have occurred in sulfate,
nitrate and carbon emissions from
sources in the United States due to acid
rain control programs, ozone and
particulate matter state implementation
plans and regional haze plans. Future
emission reductions that will result
from these programs are likely to further
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reduce visibility impacts from North
America.
Comment: NPS commented that it is
unclear why EPA did not include
emissions from St. Thomas and St.
Croix and recommends EPA develop a
complete inventory for the Virgin
Islands. NPS commented that EPA’s
proposal indicated that additional point
sources were considered, but the
emissions were not presented.
Response: EPA disagrees that
emissions from St. Thomas and St.
Croix were not included and disagrees
that information on other point sources
was not presented. This information
was only summarized in the June 25,
2012 proposal. Complete information
for point sources on St. Thomas, St.
Croix, and St. John is in the modeling
analysis performed for EPA. A detailed
emission inventory for St. John is in the
supporting documentation contained in
the Docket for the proposal (See:
DEVELOPMENT OF 2002 REGIONAL
HAZE AREA, POINT, NONROAD
MOBILE, AND ONROAD MOBILE
SOURCE EMISSION INVENTORIES
FOR ST. JOHN, VIRGIN ISLANDS in the
Appendices.) The point source
inventories were developed in order to
determine compliance with EPA’s
ambient air quality standards for sulfur
dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and
particulate matter. Emissions of these
pollutants are important in assessing
human-made obstruction to visibility.
The emissions from the significant
sources in these inventories are more
likely to be transported across the sea to
St. John than emissions from other area
or mobile emission source categories
that are emitted near the ground. EPA
also used modeling to evaluate the
potential impact of sources in Puerto
Rico on St. John. The results showed
that a major source on Puerto Rico
would not impact visibility on St. John,
so emissions from Puerto Rico were not
investigated further for inclusion in the
FIP.
As stated in the June 25, 2012
proposal, rather than use a full
statewide inventory to judge reasonable
progress, we focused on the inventory
for the island of St. John, where the
Class I area is located, and other major
point sources located in the Virgin
Islands. Our analysis indicates that most
emissions outside of St. John, other than
major point sources, do not significantly
impair visibility at the Virgin Islands
National Park due to the prevailing
winds. Prevailing winds at St. John are
from the east, as shown in the wind
roses contained in the FIP. St. Thomas
and St. Croix are located west and
south, respectively, of St. John.
Therefore, these trade winds tend to
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transport pollution from St. Thomas and
St. Croix away from the Class I area. In
addition, modeling performed to
estimate the visibility impact of
currently operating individual sources
of pollution indicates that, with the
exception of HOVENSA, even very large
sources in the Virgin Islands have
relatively small visibility impacts on
Virgin Islands National Park.
Comment: NPS commented that EPA
should add marine traffic between
neighboring islands to the inventory.
Response: The impact of marine
traffic at St. John was included in the
inventory. EPA reasonably chose not to
include emissions from marine traffic
between other neighboring islands,
because modeling did not predict a large
impact of the ship emissions on St.
John.
Comment: NPS commented that EPA
should have used 2009 MM5
meteorological model outputs in its
modeling. HOVENSA also commented
that the use of a small set of overwater
buoy data, combined with upper air
sounding data from San Juan, Puerto
Rico and the airport station at St.
Thomas, was insufficient to satisfy
EPA’s own recommendations to use
available prognostic data in
combination with observational data.
Response: EPA chose to use four years
of local meteorological data because
only a single year of data was available
for MM5. While using a gridded,
prognostic data model to simulate
meteorological conditions is likely to
produce a more accurate wind field in
most circumstances, this would have
been difficult with just a single year of
MM5 data. Using four years of data from
local weather sites, on the other hand,
provided EPA with a robust calculation
of impacts from anthropogenic
emissions in the Virgin Islands.
Moreover, the use of interpolated
weather data from a few sites is more
likely to be accurate in the Virgin
Islands than it would in the continental
United States because there is less
terrain across the modeling domain to
disrupt wind flow and wind direction
and speed is more consistent in the
tropics.
Comment: NPS commented that EPA
should not use the 98th percentile
impact averaged over four years as a
threshold.
Response: EPA agrees and modified
the FIP to highlight the highest of the
98th percentile impacts for each source
or source category. As a result of this
change, the impact EPA will use for
evaluating potential control strategies
and for comparing sources’ impacts will
be higher than when EPA used a fouryear average in the proposal.
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In our proposal, we evaluated the
impacts of the sources based on the
average of the 98th percentile visibility
impacts. Our guidance recommends
using the highest 98th percentile value,
not the average of the 98th percentile
values. Both of these values are listed in
the following table. Nonetheless, using
the highest of the 98th percentile
impacts did not change any of our
analyses for potential controls on these
sources or source categories.
TABLE 1—IMPACT OF ANTHROPOGENIC SOURCES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO REGIONAL HAZE IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS, BASED
ON FOUR YEARS OF MODELING FROM 2007 TO 2010
[In deciviews (dv)]
Highest of four years’
98th
percentile impact
Source or source category
All Sources (w/o FIP) .....................................................................................................................
All Sources after FIP reductions ....................................................................................................
St. John Construction (total of all activities) ..................................................................................
HOVENSA—all units operating .....................................................................................................
St. John Road Dust .......................................................................................................................
St. Croix Other (w/o WAPA, HOVENSA) ......................................................................................
St. John Point Sources—generators .............................................................................................
St. Thomas—all sources (inc. WAPA) ...........................................................................................
St. John Open Burning ..................................................................................................................
St. Croix WAPA—all units .............................................................................................................
BVI Oil Combustion .......................................................................................................................
St. John Non-road Combustion Emissions ....................................................................................
St. John Marine ..............................................................................................................................
Estimated BVI Open Burning Source ............................................................................................
St. John On-road Vehicle Tailpipe Emissions ...............................................................................
St. John Residential Hot Water Heating ........................................................................................
Sample Puerto Rico Power Plant ..................................................................................................
Other Source Categories (These are included in the sources or source categories listed
above):
HOVENSA BART eligible stacks only ....................................................................................
St. Thomas WAPA—all units ..................................................................................................
St. Thomas WAPA BART eligible stacks only .......................................................................
St. Croix WAPA BART eligible stacks only ............................................................................
St. John Marine with reductions .............................................................................................
Average of four years’
98th
percentile impact
10.07 dv* .....................
9.67 .............................
(0.40 reduction) ...........
5.72 dv ........................
3.34 .............................
2.71 .............................
1.13 .............................
1.05 .............................
0.62 .............................
0.58 .............................
0.48 .............................
0.46** ..........................
0.26 .............................
0.25 .............................
0.16** ..........................
0.12 .............................
0.01 .............................
0.00** ..........................
8.15 dv*.
7.79
(0.36 reduction).
4.36 dv.
2.49
2.19
0.82
0.60
0.38
0.42
0.35
**
0.22
0.12
**
0.11
0.01
**
2.60 dv ........................
0.21 .............................
0.09 .............................
0.12 .............................
0.04 .............................
(0.21 reduction) ...........
1.91 dv
0.12
0.06
0.09
0.02
(0.10 reduction).
* Individual impacts from each source will not add up to the total for ‘‘All Sources’’, since the impacts from each source may be on different
days and times than the impact for ‘‘All Sources’’ together.
** Modeling from 2009 only.
BVI refers to the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.
WAPA refers to the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority.
EPA has revised Table 8 of the June
25, 2012 proposal to include the highest
of the 98th percentile impacts for EPA’s
BART analysis:
REVISION TO TABLE 8—INDIVIDUAL BART-ELIGIBLE SOURCE VISIBILITY IMPACTS ON VIRGIN ISLANDS CLASS I AREA
Maximum 4-year
98th percentile
visibility impact
(deciviews)
Class I area and locations of modeling receptor
VI WAPA ....................................................................
St. Thomas .................................................................
VI WAPA ....................................................................
St. Croix .....................................................................
HOVENSA ..................................................................
St. Croix .....................................................................
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St. John .....................................................................
Hassel Island, St. Thomas ........................................
St. John .....................................................................
Hassel Island, St. Thomas ........................................
St. John .....................................................................
Hassel Island, St. Thomas ........................................
The changes to the impacts for VI
WAPA St. Thomas and VI WAPA St.
Croix are not high enough to cause or
contribute to a significant impact on
visibility in the Virgin Islands National
Park. Thus, neither source is eligible for
further analysis for BART controls.
Comment: NPS commented that EPA
should use the first high results to
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determine impact of sources and do a
comparison to the twenty percent best
days.
Response: EPA used four years of
modeling data and using the first high
over four years’ worth of days would be
overly conservative. A comparison to
the twenty percent best visibility days is
often not helpful because many sources
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0.09
0.09
0.12
0.13
2.60
3.12
Subject to
BART?
No.
No.
Yes.
did not have any impact on the twenty
percent best visibility days. (For more
information, see the tables from the
modeling report. The number of days
when the source had an impact is noted
in parentheses.)
Furthermore, EPA’s BART Guidelines
call for the use of the 98th percentile
(essentially the 8th highest day) rather
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than the maximum modeled daily
impact. The BART Guidelines further
state that while ‘‘the use of the 98th
percentile of modeled visibility values
would appear to exclude roughly 7 days
per year from consideration, in our
judgment, this approach will effectively
capture the sources that contribute to
visibility impairment in a Class I area,
while minimizing the likelihood that
the highest modeled visibility impacts
might be caused by unusual
meteorology or conservative
assumptions in the model.’’ See 70 FR
39104, 39121 (July 6, 2005).
Comment: NPS commented that EPA
should have used the latest CALPOST
processor.
Response: The processor used by EPA
is the one in the Federal Land Managers’
Air Quality Related Values Work Group
(FLAG) guidance that was in effect
when EPA began the modeling in 2010.
Comment: The NPS agrees with EPA
that as long as HOVENSA retains its air
quality permits, the Consent Decree
should remain in place. NPS
commented that if the refinery is to
restart, an emissions control analysis
should be conducted prior to restart.
Response: EPA appreciates the FLM’s
agreement that the HOVENSA Consent
Decree should remain in place and that
an analysis of reasonable control
measures should be conducted when
HOVENSA notifies EPA that they will
resume refinery operations. In response
to comments submitted to EPA by
HOVENSA, we are modifying the
HOVENSA notification requirement to
clarify that upon notification to EPA
that HOVENSA will restart refinery
operations, HOVENSA will provide
emission unit information to EPA in
order for EPA to assess whether
additional control measures are
warranted to meet the regional haze
requirements.
Comment: NPS commented that it is
difficult to conclude that there will be
a 0.16 deciview improvement in
visibility due to the expected emissions
reductions from marine sources and
HOVENSA. EPA should determine the
reason for the increasing trends in
sulfate’s contribution to visibility
impairment.
Response: The emission reductions
leading to a 0.16 deciview improvement
over the worst twenty percent visibility
days are based on emission control
strategies that have been adopted and
will be implemented, so EPA is
confident that these emission reductions
will lead to improvements in visibility,
especially on the days with the largest
degradation due to anthropogenic
sources. On the 98th percentile days,
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the improvement is as large as 0.53
deciviews.
EPA disagrees that an analysis of the
increasing trends in sulfate’s
contribution to visibility impairment is
required to be part of the FIP.
Concentrations vary from year to year
and some of the variability may be due
to imprecision in the sampling and
analysis of the particles that obstruct
visibility. EPA will evaluate changes in
sulfate, and all other contributing
factors to visibility impairment, as part
of the five-year review.
Comment: The FLMs want EPA to
more substantively involve them in
future discussions for regional haze in
the Virgin Islands.
Response: EPA understands that it is
important to increase FLM involvement
in technical issues related to regional
haze in the Virgin Islands, especially via
informal sharing of new information
and improvements in the FIP.
Comment: HOVENSA stated that
EPA’s regional haze rules indicate that
the states should consider whether it is
reasonable to aim for attainment of the
national goal, and that the 2064 target
date and the resulting glidepath are not
in any way binding.
Response: EPA acknowledges that the
2064 target date and the glidepath for
meeting the goal are not directly
enforceable. In our June 25, 2012
proposal, we indicated in Table 6 that
while a 1.48 deciview improvement is
needed to reach the uniform rate of
progress goal for 2018, EPA’s proposed
FIP is only projecting a 2018
improvement of 0.16 deciviews (the
Reasonable Progress Goal).
Comment: HOVENSA commented
that EPA has no rational basis for
applying the Regional Haze Rule (RHR)
to the Virgin Islands because there are
no U.S. possessions that can impact
visibility in the Virgin Islands. EPA’s
RHR declares that regional haze is from
sources over a wide geographic area.
Response: EPA disagrees. The
requirement to submit a regional haze
SIP applies to all 50 states, the District
of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. The
RHR (64 FR 35714, July 1, 1999)
specifically states that ‘‘Hawaii, Alaska,
and the Virgin Islands would be subject
to the regional haze provisions because
of the potential for emissions from
sources within their borders to
contribute to regional haze impairment
in Class I areas also located within their
own jurisdiction’’ (64 FR 35720).
Therefore, sources in the Virgin
Islands that impact the Virgin Islands
National Park are not exempted from the
Clean Air Act’s regional haze
requirements to protect visibility in
Class I areas.
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Comment: HOVENSA objected to
EPA’s proposal for the facility to
provide a reasonable control measures
study, consistent with the RHR, should
HOVENSA resume operation of the
refinery process units. HOVENSA asked
EPA to remove this requirement from
the final FIP.
Response: EPA proposed the
requirement for HOVENSA to submit an
analysis of reasonable control measures
in the event that HOVENSA resumes
operation of any refinery process units
as an alternative to requiring such an
analysis at this time. While refinery
operations are currently idled,
HOVENSA has retained its air permits
and has not surrendered them to EPA.
Therefore, EPA cannot rely on the idling
of HOVENSA’s refinery operations as an
enforceable emission reduction for
meeting the regional haze requirements.
As we stated in our June 25, 2012
proposal (77 FR 37856), while there is
uncertainty at this time regarding future
operations at HOVENSA, the Consent
Decree, which is enforceable by EPA,
contains emission reductions and
emission limitation requirements. These
Consent Decree requirements allow us
to project that, should HOVENSA
resume operating as a refinery, its
permitted emissions of sulfur dioxide
will be lower than they were prior to
entry of the Consent Decree.
Because the facility is in an idled state
and HOVENSA has not provided any
possible future refinery operating
scenarios, EPA determined that it was
not practical to require HOVENSA to
perform an analysis of reasonable
control measures at this time. In
addition, EPA believed that should
refinery operation resume, HOVENSA
may decide to operate certain emission
units and pollution control equipment
but not others, compared to emission
units that operated before the refinery
operations were idled. Nevertheless, in
response to HOVENSA’s comments,
EPA agrees that resuming operations at
HOVENSA does not need to wait for
HOVENSA to first provide an analysis
of reasonable control measures. So, we
are modifying the notification
requirement to clarify that upon
notification to EPA that HOVENSA will
restart refinery operations, HOVENSA
will provide emission unit information
to EPA in order for EPA to assess if
additional control measures are
warranted to meet the regional haze
requirements.
Comment: HOVENSA stated that
EPA’s FIP should reflect the
determination that HOVENSA’s
compliance with the terms of the
Consent Decree satisfies its regional
haze obligations during the first
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planning period of the program and that
any changes to the refinery’s
compliance obligations would be
evaluated as part of the five year review.
Response: HOVENSA’s comment
specifically says that HOVENSA’s
compliance with the terms of the
Consent Decree satisfies its regional
haze obligations. In fact, the HOVENSA
Consent Decree is not an analysis of
reasonable control measures as required
for regional haze. The Consent Decree
was developed for entirely different
reasons. A consent decree is a
negotiated agreement, and was not
evaluated for meeting the requirements
for a reasonable control measure
analysis required for regional haze. EPA
decided it was not practical for
HOVENSA to perform an analysis of
reasonable control measures while its
refining process is idled. EPA believes
the information necessary to complete
such an analysis will be more complete
when HOVENSA’s future operational
plans are known. The Consent Decree is
a starting point for an analysis of
reasonable control measures until more
information is available.
As for evaluating any changes to the
refinery’s compliance obligations during
the five year review, EPA believes that
determining what controls are
reasonable when those controls would
be needed, that is, when emission units
are operating, would better serve the
purpose of meeting the regional haze
plan for the Virgin Islands.
Comment: HOVENSA states that it
would be unreasonable to impose the
costs of controls on its facility when
there will be little or no improvement in
visibility on St. John.
Response: Modeling the controls
required under the Consent Decree
shows an improvement of 0.13
deciviews, compared to HOVENSA’s
total impact of 1.60 deciviews in
visibility on St. John for the twenty
percent worst visibility days. If the
refining process restarts, reasonable
controls may add to this improvement
because HOVENSA has a total impact of
3.34 deciviews on the highest 98th
percentile day.
Comment: HOVENSA stated that
EPA’s requirement for HOVENSA to
perform an analysis of reasonable
controls on its emissions before
restarting its refining facility would
cause uncertainty and delays in any
restart process because EPA is requiring
installation of controls no later than five
years after the effective date of the
revised FIP.
Response: As stated earlier, in
response to HOVENSA’s comments, we
are modifying the HOVENSA
notification requirement to clarify that
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upon notification to EPA that
HOVENSA will restart refinery
operations, HOVENSA will provide
emission unit information to EPA in
order for EPA to determine if additional
control measures are warranted.
However, HOVENSA’s comments do not
accurately reflect the timing for
installation of controls as a result of the
notification requirement. If and when
HOVENSA notifies EPA that it plans to
resume operation of the refinery process
units, EPA will assess whether
additional control measures are
warranted to meet the regional haze
requirements. Should EPA determine
that additional emissions controls are
necessary, HOVENSA will have
considerable time to prepare for their
installation while EPA undertakes
notice-and-comment rulemaking to
revise the FIP. Once the rulemaking is
complete, HOVENSA will then have up
to five years from the effective date of
the revised FIP, if there is one, to install
controls. In other words, EPA’s
requirement to install controls as
expeditiously as practicable but no later
than five years after the effective date of
the revised FIP is referring to this
‘‘second,’’ or revised FIP, not the FIP
being promulgated in this action. While
EPA agrees that the rulemaking process
presents uncertainty as to what controls
will ultimately be determined to be
reasonable, it is likely that some of these
controls may already be installed upon
startup of HOVENSA’s refinery
operations due to other Clean Air Act
requirements. If not, HOVENSA will
have up to five years from the effective
date of the revised FIP to install them.
EPA notes that HOVENSA’s comment
that EPA’s proposed reasonable
measures analysis requirement will
present uncertainty and delay to any
reactivation process contradicts
HOVENSA’s other comment, requesting
EPA to rely on the five-year review
process for determining whether to
change HOVENSA’s compliance
obligations. Relying on the five-year
review would present its own
uncertainties and possible delays.
Comment: HOVENSA commented
that by using potential emissions, rather
than actual emissions, for the modeling
and BART analysis, EPA has greatly
overstated HOVENSA’s impacts on the
Class I area in St. John.
Response: HOVENSA cites EPA
guidance as recommending using the
highest typical emissions from a BARTeligible source for BART modeling. EPA
chose to use potential to emit rather
than historical emissions, resulting in a
more conservative approach than using
HOVENSA’s historical emissions.
HOVENSA has been operating at low
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capacity in recent years [Letter from
HOVENSA to Mr. Steve Riva, EPA
Region 2, April 21, 2011], so historical
emissions are not representative of the
impact that HOVENSA would have on
visibility at the Class I area when
operating near or at full capacity. Thus,
EPA is using the emissions that the
facility is allowed to emit in its
evaluation of impacts on visibility
obscuration in the Class I area.
Comment: HOVENSA commented
that EPA’s back trajectory modeling for
the worst days of visibility impairment
on St. John shows that sources on St.
Croix did not contribute to any of the
worst days of visibility impairment.
Response: EPA does not agree with
HOVENSA’s interpretation of the
trajectory analysis. One of the four days
when sulfates have their highest
contributions to visibility impairment
on St. John, trajectories passed very near
St. Croix, where the HOVENSA refinery
is located. In addition, modeling
predicts that HOVENSA has a
significant impact on visibility in the
Virgin Islands National Park on St. John,
so if reasonable controls on emissions
are available from HOVENSA, they will
reduce this significant impact on the
view in the Park.
Comment: HOVENSA commented
that EPA’s assertion that HOVENSA’s
emissions affect visibility on St. John
stands in sharp contrast to EPA’s own
conclusion that coarse particles are the
primary source of visibility impairment
on St. John and that most of the coarse
particles come from wind-blown sea salt
and Saharan dust.
Response: Even though coarse
particles from Saharan dust may be the
largest contributor to visibility
impairment on St. John, that does not
mean that HOVENSA, or other human
sources of emissions do not affect
visibility on St. John as well. In the
trajectory analysis, one of the four
highest days of sulfate impairment does
occur when the trajectory passes near
St. Croix. Also, the modeling analysis
shows that HOVENSA is likely to have
an impact on visibility on St. John.
Because winds that bring Saharan dust
come from the east and winds that bring
emissions from St. Croix are from the
south, it is likely that these two
visibility-impairing sources impact St.
John at different times. Thus, emissions
from HOVENSA may be noticeable on
St. John as sulfate haze.
Comment: HOVENSA commented
that because natural background
visibility values do not include
important natural sources, the natural
background visibility is biased low and
the relative CALPUFF modeled source
impacts are thereby overestimated.
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Response: EPA disagrees that not
including natural sources, like Saharan
dust, in the natural background values
means that CALPUFF’s impacts are
overestimated. CALPUFF’s impacts are
independent of, and not affected by, the
estimates of natural background. When
we compare the modeled sulfates and
nitrates with the observed sulfates and
nitrates from the IMPROVE site data, the
modeled sulfates and nitrates are less
than the observed. The comparison
indicated that if CALPUFF is not
estimating the impacts of anthropogenic
sources correctly, it is likely to be
underestimating the anthropogenic
source impact. Thus, HOVENSA’s
impact may be higher than modeled by
CALPUFF.
Comment: HOVENSA commented
that emission reductions from its facility
are not going to have a discernible effect
on visibility on St. John because EPA’s
proposal indicated that the effect of
sulfate controls on industrial sources is
overwhelmed by the impact of natural
sulfate and Saharan dust.
Response: While the effect of natural
emissions is very large in the Virgin
Islands, the Clean Air Act requires EPA
to reduce the effect of anthropogenic
sources using measures that EPA
determines are reasonable. Thus, even
though human-caused emissions may be
low compared to the impact of Saharan
dust, they are still significant (up to 7.38
deciviews on the twenty percent worst
days, with as much as 1.60 deciviews
from HOVENSA’s impact). Reducing
anthropogenic emissions will still
improve visibility in the Virgin Islands
National Park, as sulfates and nitrates,
which are mostly from combustion
sources, cause significant reductions in
visibility according to the IMPROVE
data.
Comment: HOVENSA notes that
EPA’s guidance emphasizes using a
blended prognostic meteorological
model, like MM5, instead of
observational data using CALMET. EPA
should not base its recommended
controls on such a simplistic
meteorological data set.
Response: See EPA’s response to the
NPS’s comment on this issue above. In
addition, if using MM5 to drive the
meteorology in the CALPUFF model
gave better performance, remodeling
would be more likely to increase
impacts from anthropogenic sources,
like HOVENSA.
III. What are EPA’s conclusions?
EPA is promulgating a Federal
Implementation Plan for Regional Haze
for the Territory of the United States
Virgin Islands. This FIP addresses
progress toward reducing regional haze
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for the first implementation period
ending in 2018. The FIP includes
emission reductions to begin the
reasonable progress needed to achieve
the overall objective of no man-made
interference with visibility by 2064. The
FIP relies on emission reductions from
existing emissions controls and
programs currently in effect and
requires HOVENSA to notify EPA in the
event it resumes operation of the
refinery process units and to provide
emission unit information to EPA. EPA
is taking this action pursuant to CAA
sections 110(c)(1), 301(a), 169A and
169B. EPA solicited public comments
on the issues discussed in this
document and considered these
comments before taking final action.
EPA is promulgating 40 CFR 52.2781(d)
‘‘Regional Haze Plan for the Virgin
Islands National Park.’’
VI. Statutory and Executive Order
Reviews
A. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory
Planning and Review and Executive
Order 13563: Improving Regulation and
Regulatory Review
This action will promulgate
requirements for one facility and is
therefore not a rule of general
applicability. This type of action is
exempt from review under Executive
Orders 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4,
1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, January
21, 2011).
B. Paperwork Reduction Act
This action does not impose an
information collection burden under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction
Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. Burden is
defined at 5 CFR 1320.3(b). Because this
FIP only applies to one facility, the
Paperwork Reduction Act does not
apply.
C. Regulatory Flexibility Act
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA)
generally requires an agency to prepare
a regulatory flexibility analysis of any
rule subject to notice and comment
rulemaking requirements under the
Administrative Procedure Act or any
other statute unless the agency certifies
that the rule will not have a significant
economic impact on a substantial
number of small entities. Small entities
include small businesses, small
organizations, and small governmental
jurisdictions.
For purposes of assessing the impacts
of today’s rule on small entities, small
entity is defined as: (1) A small business
as defined by the Small Business
Administration’s (SBA’s) regulations at
13 CFR 121.201; (2) a small
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governmental jurisdiction that is a
government of a city, county, town,
school district or special district with a
population of less than 50,000; and (3)
a small organization that is any not-forprofit enterprise which is independently
owned and operated and is not
dominant in its field.
After considering the economic
impacts of this action on small entities,
I certify that this action will not have a
significant economic impact on a
substantial number of small entities.
The net result of this FIP action is that
EPA is promulgating emission controls
on selected units at only one facility.
The facility in question is a large
petroleum refinery that is not owned by
a small entity, and therefore is not a
small entity.
D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
(UMRA)
This rule does not contain a Federal
mandate that may result in expenditures
of $100 million or more for State, local,
and tribal governments, in the aggregate,
or the private sector in any one year. It
is a rule of particular applicability that
affects only one facility in the United
States Virgin Islands. Thus, this rule is
not subject to the requirements of
sections 202 or 205 of UMRA.
This rule is also not subject to the
requirements of section 203 of UMRA
because it contains no regulatory
requirements that might significantly or
uniquely affect small governments. This
rule only applies to one facility in the
United States Virgin Islands.
E. Executive Order 13132: Federalism
This action does not have federalism
implications. It will not have substantial
direct effects on the states, on the
relationship between the national
government and the states, or on the
distribution of power and
responsibilities among the various
levels of government, as specified in
Executive Order 13132. This action
addresses the United States Virgin
Islands not meeting its obligation to
adopt a SIP that meets the regional haze
requirements under the CAA. Thus,
Executive Order 13132 does not apply
to this action. Although section 6 of
Executive Order 13132 does not apply
to this action, EPA did consult with the
Virgin Islands government in
developing this action.
F. Executive Order 13175
This action does not have tribal
implications, as specified in Executive
Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9,
2000), because the action EPA is taking
neither imposes substantial direct
compliance costs on tribal governments,
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nor preempts tribal law. It will not have
substantial direct effects on tribal
government. Thus, Executive Order
13175 does not apply to this action.
G. Executive Order 13045: Protection of
Children From Environmental Health
Risks and Safety Risks
EPA interprets EO 13045 (62 FR
19885, April 23, 1997) as applying only
to those regulatory actions that concern
health or safety risks, such that the
analysis required under section 5–501 of
the EO has the potential to influence the
regulation. This action is not subject to
EO 13045 because it implements
specific standards established by
Congress in statutes. However, to the
extent this rule will limit emissions, the
rule will have a beneficial effect on
children’s health by reducing air
pollution.
H. Executive Order 13211: Actions
Concerning Regulations That
Significantly Affect Energy Supply,
Distribution, or Use
This action is not subject to Executive
Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22,
2001), because it is not a significant
regulatory action under Executive Order
12866.
wreier-aviles on DSK5TPTVN1PROD with
I. National Technology Transfer and
Advancement Act
Section 12(d) of the National
Technology Transfer and Advancement
Act of 1995 (‘‘NTTAA’’), Public Law
104–113, 12(d) (15 U.S.C. 272 note)
directs EPA to use voluntary consensus
standards in its regulatory activities
unless to do so would be inconsistent
with applicable law or otherwise
impractical. Voluntary consensus
standards are technical standards (e.g.,
materials specifications, test methods,
sampling procedures, and business
practices) that are developed or adopted
by voluntary consensus standards
bodies. NTTAA directs EPA to provide
Congress, through OMB, explanations
when the Agency decides not to use
available and applicable voluntary
consensus standards.
This action does not involve technical
standards. Today’s action does not
require the public to perform activities
conducive to the use of voluntary
consensus standards. Therefore, EPA
did not consider the use of any
voluntary consensus standards.
J. Executive Order 12898: Federal
Actions To Address Environmental
Justice in Minority Populations and
Low-Income Populations
Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629,
February 16, 1994), establishes federal
executive policy on environmental
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14:16 Oct 19, 2012
Jkt 229001
justice. Its main provision directs
federal agencies, to the greatest extent
practicable and permitted by law, to
make environmental justice part of their
mission by identifying and addressing,
as appropriate, disproportionately high
and adverse human health or
environmental effects of their programs,
policies, and activities on minority
populations and low-income
populations in the United States.
We have determined that this rule
will not have disproportionately high
and adverse human health or
environmental effects on minority or
low-income populations because it
increases the level of environmental
protection for all affected populations
without having any disproportionately
high and adverse human health or
environmental effects on any
population, including any minority or
low-income population. This rule has
the potential to limit emissions of NOX,
SO2 and PM2.5 from one facility should
that facility resume operations.
K. Congressional Review Act
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. Section 804
exempts from section 801 the following
types of rules: (1) Rules of particular
applicability; (2) rules relating to agency
management or personnel; and (3) rules
of agency organization, procedure, or
practice that do not substantially affect
the rights or obligations of non-agency
parties. 5 U.S.C. 804(3). EPA is not
required to submit a rule report
regarding today’s action under section
801 because this is a rule of particular
applicability.
L. Judicial Review
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 December 21, 2012. Pursuant
to CAA section 307(d)(1)(B), this action
is subject to the requirements of CAA
section 307(d) as it promulgates a FIP
under CAA section 110(c). 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
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64421
be challenged later in proceedings to
enforce its requirements. See CAA
section 307(b)(2).
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air
pollution control, Incorporation by
reference, Nitrogen dioxide, Particulate
matter, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements, Sulfur oxides, Volatile
organic compounds.
Dated: October 15, 2012.
Lisa P. Jackson,
Administrator.
Part 52, chapter I, title 40 of the Code
of Federal Regulations is amended as
follows:
PART 52—APPROVAL AND
PROMULGATION OF
IMPLEMENTATION PLANS
1. The authority citation for part 52
continues to read as follows:
■
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Subpart CCC—Virgin Islands
2. Section 52.2781 is amended by
adding paragraph (d) to read as follows:
■
§ 52.2781
Visibility protection.
*
*
*
*
*
(d) Regional Haze Plan for Virgin
Islands National Park. The regional haze
plan for the Virgin Islands consists of a
Federal Implementation Plan entitled:
‘‘FEDERAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
FOR REGIONAL HAZE FOR THE
UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS.’’
The applicable requirements consist of:
(1) Applicability. This section
addresses Clean Air Act requirements
and EPA’s rules to prevent and remedy
future and existing man-made
impairment of visibility in the
mandatory Class I area of the Virgin
Islands National Park through a
Regional Haze Program. This section
applies to the owner and operator of
HOVENSA L.L.C. (HOVENSA), a
petroleum refinery located on St. Croix,
U.S. Virgin Islands.
(2) Definitions. Terms not defined
below shall have the meaning given
them in the Clean Air Act or EPA’s
regulations implementing the Clean Air
Act. For purposes of this section: NO X
means nitrogen oxides.
Owner/operator means any person
who owns, leases, operates, controls, or
supervises a facility or source identified
in paragraph (d)(1) of this section.
PM means particulate matter.
Process unit means any collection of
structures and/or equipment that
processes, assembles, applies, blends, or
otherwise uses material inputs to
produce or store an intermediate or a
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completed product. A single stationary
source may contain more than one
process unit, and a process unit may
contain more than one emissions unit.
For a petroleum refinery, there are
several categories of process units that
could include: Those that separate and/
or distill petroleum feedstocks; those
that change molecular structures;
petroleum treating processes; auxiliary
facilities, such as steam generators and
hydrogen production units; and those
that load, unload, blend or store
intermediate or completed products.
SO 2 means sulfur dioxide.
Startup means the setting in operation
of an affected facility for any purpose.
(3) Reasonable Progress Measures. On
June 7, 2011, EPA and HOVENSA
entered into a Consent Decree (CD) in
the U.S. District Court for the Virgin
Islands to resolve alleged Clean Air Act
violations at its St. Croix, Virgin Islands
facility. The CD requires HOVENSA,
among other things, to achieve emission
limits and install new pollution controls
pursuant to a schedule for compliance.
The measures required by the CD reduce
emissions of NOX by 5,031 tons per year
(tpy) and SO2 by 3,460 tpy. The
emission limitations, pollution controls,
schedules for compliance, reporting,
and recordkeeping provisions of the
HOVENSA CD constitute an element of
the long term strategy and address the
reasonable progress provisions of 40
CFR 51.308(d)(1). Should the existing
federally enforceable HOVENSA CD be
revised, EPA will reevaluate, and if
necessary, revise the FIP after public
notice and comment.
(4) HOVENSA requirement for
notification. HOVENSA must notify
EPA 60 days in advance of startup and
resumption of operation of refinery
process units at the HOVENSA, St.
Croix, Virgin Islands facility. HOVENSA
shall submit such notice to the Director
of the Clean Air and Sustainability
Division, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Region 2, 290 Broadway, 25th
Floor, New York, New York, 10007–
1866. HOVENSA’s notification to EPA
that it intends to startup refinery
process units must include information
regarding those emission units that will
be operating, including unit design
parameters such as heat input and
hourly emissions, information on
potential to emit limitations, pollution
controls and control efficiencies, and
schedules for compliance. EPA will
revise the FIP as necessary, after public
notice and comment, in accordance
with regional haze requirements
including the ‘‘reasonable progress’’
provisions in 40 CFR 51.308(d)(1).
HOVENSA will be required to install
any controls that are required by the
VerDate Mar<15>2010
14:16 Oct 19, 2012
Jkt 229001
revised FIP as expeditiously as
practicable, but no later than 5 years
after the effective date of the revised
FIP.
[FR Doc. 2012–25806 Filed 10–19–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560–50–P
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA–R05–OAR–2012–0541; FRL–9733–6]
Approval and Promulgation of Air
Quality Implementation Plans; Illinois;
Greif Packaging, LLC Adjusted
Standard
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Direct final rule.
AGENCY:
EPA is approving into the
Illinois State Implementation Plan (SIP)
an adjusted standard for the Greif
Packaging, LLC facility located at 5 S
220 Frontenac Road in Naperville,
Illinois (Greif). On June 20, 2012, the
Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency (IEPA) submitted to EPA for
approval an adjustment to the general
rule, Organic Material Emission
Standards and Limitations for the
Chicago Area; Subpart TT: Other
Emission Units, as it applies to
emissions of volatile organic matter
(VOM) from Greif’s fiber drum container
manufacturing facility. VOM, as defined
by the State of Illinois, is identical to
volatile organic compound (VOC), as
defined by EPA. The adjusted standard
replaces portions of the general rule for
VOM emissions with site-specific
Reasonably Available Control
Technology (RACT) requirements for
the Greif facility.
DATES: This direct final rule will be
effective December 21, 2012, unless EPA
receives adverse comments by
November 21, 2012. If adverse
comments are received, EPA will
publish a timely withdrawal of the
direct final rule in the Federal
Registerinforming the public that the
rule will not take effect.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments,
identified by Docket ID No. EPA–R05–
OAR–2012–0541, by one of the
following methods:
1. www.regulations.gov: Follow the
on-line instructions for submitting
comments.
2. Email: aburano.douglas@epa.gov.
3. Fax: (312) 408–2279.
4. Mail: Doug Aburano, Chief,
Attainment Planning and Maintenance
Section, Air Programs Branch (AR–18J),
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
Frm 00014
Fmt 4700
Sfmt 4700
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago,
Illinois 60604.
5. Hand Delivery: Doug Aburano,
Chief, Attainment Planning and
Maintenance 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–2012–
0541. 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 email. 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 email
comment directly to EPA without going
through www.regulations.gov your email
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
E:\FR\FM\22OCR1.SGM
22OCR1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 204 (Monday, October 22, 2012)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 64414-64422]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-25806]
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R02-OAR-2012-0457, FRL-9742-6]
Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans;
United States Virgin Islands; Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Final rule.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: EPA is promulgating a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) to
address regional haze in the Territory of the United States Virgin
Islands. EPA determined that the FIP meets the requirements of the
Clean Air Act and EPA's rules concerning reasonable progress towards
the national goal of preventing any future and remedying any existing
man-made impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas (also
referred to as the ``regional haze program''). The FIP protects and
improves visibility levels in the Virgin Islands Class I area, namely
the Virgin Islands National Park on the island of St. John. The FIP for
the Virgin Islands addresses reasonable progress toward improving
visibility and evaluation of Best Available Retrofit Technology.
DATES: This rule is effective on November 21, 2012.
ADDRESSES: EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID
No. EPA-R02-OAR-2012-0457. All documents in the docket are listed on
the www.regulations.gov Web site. 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, is not placed on the Internet and will be
publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket
materials are available either electronically through
www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Environmental Protection
Agency, Region II Office, Air Programs Branch, 290 Broadway, 25th
Floor, New York, New York 10007-1866. This Docket Facility is open from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal
holidays. The Docket telephone number is 212-637-4249.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert F. Kelly, Air Planning Section,
Air Programs Branch, EPA Region 2, 290 Broadway, New York, New York
10007-1866. The telephone number is 212-637-4249. Mr. Kelly can also be
reached via electronic mail at kelly.bob@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, wherever
``Agency,'' ``we,'' ``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean the EPA. In
most cases in this document, where we use the term ``state'' when
discussing requirements or recommendations under the Clean Air Act or
Agency guidance, this includes the Territory of the Virgin Islands.
Table of Contents
I. What action is EPA taking?
II. What comments did EPA receive on its proposal and what were
EPA's responses?
III. What are EPA's conclusions?
VI. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. What action is EPA taking?
EPA is promulgating a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) to address
regional haze in the U.S. Virgin Islands under the Clean Air Act (CAA
or the Act) sections 301(a) and 110(c)(1). The FIP ensures that the
Virgin Islands will make reasonable progress toward the national goal
of no man-made contribution to visibility impairment. The FIP also
includes Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) determinations for
sources in the Virgin Islands that may be subject to BART.
For additional details on EPA's analysis and the basis for the
Virgin Islands regional haze FIP, the reader is referred to the June
25, 2012 proposal (77 FR 37842). EPA's regional haze FIP for the Virgin
Islands, all accompanying documents, and the full text of the public
comments are included in the Docket (EPA-R02-OAR-2012-0457) and
available at www.regulations.gov.
EPA's Authority To Promulgate a FIP
The Act requires each state to develop plans to meet various air
quality requirements, including protection of visibility. (CAA sections
110(a), 169A, and 169B). The plans developed by a state or territory
are referred to as State Implementation Plans or SIPs. A state must
submit its SIPs and SIP revisions to EPA for approval. Once approved, a
SIP is federally enforceable, that is it is enforceable by EPA and
citizens under the Act. If a state fails to make a required SIP
submittal or if we find that a state's required submittal is incomplete
or unapprovable, then EPA must promulgate a FIP to fill this regulatory
gap. (CAA section 110(c)(1)).
EPA made a finding of failure to submit on January 15, 2009 (74 FR
2392), determining that the U.S. Virgin Islands failed to submit a SIP
that addressed any of the regional haze SIP requirements of 40 CFR
51.308. Under section 110(c) of the Act, whenever EPA finds that a
state has failed to make a required submission, the Agency is required
to promulgate a FIP. Specifically, section 110(c) provides:
The Administrator shall promulgate a Federal
implementation plan at any time within 2 years after the
Administrator--
[cir] Finds that a state has failed to make a required submission
or finds that the plan or plan revision submitted by the state does not
satisfy the minimum criteria established under [section 110(k)(1)(A)],
or
[cir] disapproves a state implementation plan submission in whole
or in part, unless the state corrects the deficiency, and the
Administrator approves the plan or plan revision, before the
Administrator promulgates such Federal implementation plan.
Section 302(y) defines the term ``Federal implementation plan'' in
pertinent part, as:
[A] plan (or portion thereof) promulgated by the Administrator
to fill all or a portion of a gap or otherwise correct all or a
portion of an inadequacy in a State implementation plan, and which
includes enforceable emission limitations or other control measures,
means or techniques (including economic incentives, such as
marketable permits or auctions or emissions allowances) * * *
Thus, because EPA determined that the Virgin Islands failed to
submit a regional haze SIP, the Agency is promulgating a regional haze
FIP at 40 CFR 52.2781(d). The Virgin Islands Department of Planning and
Natural Resources has indicated that the Government of the Virgin
Islands agrees
[[Page 64415]]
with EPA's moving forward to prepare this FIP.
If the Virgin Islands at any time decide to submit a SIP revision
to incorporate provisions that would be approvable as a SIP revision
for a regional haze plan, EPA would welcome that submittal. If EPA were
to approve such a SIP revision, after public notice and comment, the
SIP provisions would replace EPA's FIP.
II. What comments did EPA receive on its proposal and what were EPA's
responses?
EPA received comments from the National Park Service (NPS), which
serves as the Federal Land Manager (FLM) for the Virgin Islands
National Park, and from HOVENSA, L.L.C. (HOVENSA). EPA also received
one comment from a private citizen in support of EPA's proposal. A
summary of the comments and EPA's responses are provided below.
Comment: A private citizen supported EPA's actions to reduce
regional haze in the area, including the restriction of sulfur in ferry
and cruise-ship fuel, the federal motor vehicle control program, and
emissions reductions from HOVENSA, including the use of Best Available
Retrofit Technology (BART).
The NPS also supported EPA's determination that expected emissions
reductions from marine vessels under the North American Emissions
Control Area and the HOVENSA Consent Decree are appropriate to include
in the long term strategy for regional haze.
Response: EPA acknowledges the support and is including these
emissions reductions as part of the FIP.
Comment: NPS supported EPA's determination that sources outside the
island of St. John are major contributors to visibility impairment at
the Virgin Islands National Park.
Response: EPA acknowledges the support for the visibility analysis.
Comment: NPS commented that it expected EPA's proposal to include a
more rigorous technical analysis of local anthropogenic contributions
to regional haze in the Virgin Islands.
Response: EPA disagrees with the NPS's characterization of the
analysis conducted for the FIP. We identified potential contributors to
visibility impairment from the IMPROVE monitoring data, as well as
other suggestions from the FLM, local citizens, and the Virgin Islands
government. In addition to analyzing the IMPROVE data, we investigated
possible sources of coarse particles that were hard to identify due to
the overwhelming impact of coarse particles from Saharan dust. EPA
commissioned a thorough inventory of all source categories on St. John.
EPA also used inventories from new source review applications to
identify the larger point sources on St. Thomas and St. Croix that may
impact the Class I area on St. John. We investigated fuel usage,
electric generation and open burning information for potential sources
on Tortola, the nearest island of the British Virgin Islands. Finally,
we used back trajectory analyses and dispersion modeling to determine
whether emissions from a major source in Puerto Rico could have an
impact on visibility in St. John.
Comment: NPS commented that coarse mass could be due to transport
or local sources, natural and anthropogenic, but EPA made little effort
to distinguish source contributions.
Response: EPA disagrees. The FIP includes EPA's numerous efforts to
address local anthropogenic sources of coarse mass. Saharan dust is
mostly in the coarse mass (2.5 microns to 10 microns) range of
particles. Coarse mass particles can also be produced by human sources,
such as quarrying operations, wind-blown dirt from unpaved roads, and
dirt on paved and unpaved roads re-entrained by vehicles. Ordinarily,
coarse particles do not travel the long distances that fine particles
travel because of their larger size and larger mass and because they
tend to be emitted near the ground. One exception to this rule is the
coarse dust from the Sahara Desert, which is lofted thousands of feet
into the atmosphere by strong trade winds. This dust is carried by the
trade winds for long distances, across the Atlantic Ocean, remaining
aloft and mixing down into the surface air over the Caribbean islands.
(Prospero, 1999. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 96:3396-3404.)
EPA conducted an effort to find sources of particle emissions on
St. John (as well as other pollutants that contribute to reduced
visibility), knowing that coarse particle emissions on St. John could
be contributing to the obstruction of visibility in the Virgin Islands
National Park, and because coarse particles from ground-level sources
on other islands are not likely to be transported to St. John. EPA also
developed an emission inventory for St. John which identified emissions
from construction activities, re-entrained dirt from traffic, and a
concrete mixing facility on St. John, all of which were included in the
modeling to determine which human sources contribute the most to
reducing visibility in the Virgin Islands National Park. EPA discussed
the results of the modeling in the June 25, 2012 proposal (77 FR
37842). Air modeling ranks construction and road dust as the two
anthropogenic source categories with the highest impact on visibility
at the IMPROVE monitor on St. John.
Comment: NPS believes there are episodes of elevated sulfate that
could be due to industry or marine traffic or due to atmospheric
transport of emissions from other islands or the U.S. mainland. NPS
also suggested that episodes of elevated organic carbon are due to
vegetative burning.
Response: In the June 25, 2012 proposal, EPA noted that local
sulfur dioxide emissions are not the only source of sulfate on St.
John. Sulfates likely come from other islands outside the U.S. Virgin
Islands, and EPA included sources from the British Virgin Islands and
Puerto Rico in the modeling analysis. Modeling predicts that sulfate
averages from five to eleven percent of the anthropogenic contribution
to visibility obstruction and can be as high as twenty-five percent.
However, emissions from sources in the Caribbean upwind of the Virgin
Islands cannot be reduced by actions taken by EPA or the U.S. Virgin
Islands government.
Based on trajectory analyses, emissions from sources in North
America may be transported to the Virgin Islands on rare occasions.
However, there are many Class I areas in the United States that are
closer to these sources than the Virgin Islands. Mainland sources were
not considered in the modeling for the Virgin Islands FIP because state
regional haze SIPs (or FIPs) will inevitable mandate stronger controls
based on the sources' larger impacts on mainland Class I areas.
As for organic carbon, the IMPROVE data show a few periods of time
when carbon is a major component responsible for reducing visibility.
Most of these events occur after major windstorms or hurricanes when
fallen trees and other vegetation are burned due to the lack of space
on the island to landfill the debris.
In summary, EPA did in fact include the various source categories
suggested by the NPS comment in our analysis and in the modeling
conducted in support of the FIP.
Comment: NPS commented that the back trajectory analysis identified
possible source areas for each pollutant species, but EPA's analysis
was not comprehensive. NPS believes sources on nearby islands as well
as long range transport are potential contributors to haze at St. John.
Response: Back trajectory analysis for the top four days with the
largest impact for each of the measured species
[[Page 64416]]
provides the best opportunity to find if consistent locations (and the
sources located there) are upwind of St. John on the days when each
species has the largest impact on visibility. As we expected, most days
have trajectories from the east, the predominant direction of the wind
in the tropics trade wind regime, as seen in the wind roses in the FIP.
Days where a source has high contributions toward reducing visibility
should show up as the source region in the trajectory analysis. For
example, days when coarse particulates were highest had trajectories
that began in or near the Sahara Desert. Days when coarse particulates
were lower and another species was large, on the other hand, mostly had
trajectories from other locations. Thus, EPA determined that looking at
roughly 30 days when different species dominated would reveal the
sources of the various species that impact visibility on St. John.
However, there was no consistent source region or regions in the
U.S. Virgin Islands for these high impact days for products of
combustion, like sulfates and nitrates. While some days' trajectories
passed over St. Thomas and St. Croix, showing that sources there can be
responsible for emissions that interfere with visibility, most of the
trajectories on days with high sulfate and nitrate concentrations did
not pass over St. Thomas or St. Croix. Many trajectories passed over
other islands where EPA does not have jurisdiction to require emission
controls. EPA's modeling showed a similar pattern of combustion sources
impacting St. John on a limited (but still significant) number of days.
The impacts were frequent enough to warrant EPA to evaluate sources
such as HOVENSA and other point sources in St. Thomas and St. Croix to
determine if reasonable controls were available to improve visibility.
In response to the concerns of the Virgin Islands Government that
sources upwind might affect St. John, EPA considered combustion
emissions from Puerto Rico and fuel oil combustion and agricultural
burning on Tortola in its modeling.
Also, a few trajectories show that some days with worse visibility
may result from sulfates, nitrates, and carbon that originate in North
America. It should be noted that significant reductions have occurred
in sulfate, nitrate and carbon emissions from sources in the United
States due to acid rain control programs, ozone and particulate matter
state implementation plans and regional haze plans. Future emission
reductions that will result from these programs are likely to further
reduce visibility impacts from North America.
Comment: NPS commented that it is unclear why EPA did not include
emissions from St. Thomas and St. Croix and recommends EPA develop a
complete inventory for the Virgin Islands. NPS commented that EPA's
proposal indicated that additional point sources were considered, but
the emissions were not presented.
Response: EPA disagrees that emissions from St. Thomas and St.
Croix were not included and disagrees that information on other point
sources was not presented. This information was only summarized in the
June 25, 2012 proposal. Complete information for point sources on St.
Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John is in the modeling analysis performed
for EPA. A detailed emission inventory for St. John is in the
supporting documentation contained in the Docket for the proposal (See:
DEVELOPMENT OF 2002 REGIONAL HAZE AREA, POINT, NONROAD MOBILE, AND
ONROAD MOBILE SOURCE EMISSION INVENTORIES FOR ST. JOHN, VIRGIN ISLANDS
in the Appendices.) The point source inventories were developed in
order to determine compliance with EPA's ambient air quality standards
for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. Emissions
of these pollutants are important in assessing human-made obstruction
to visibility. The emissions from the significant sources in these
inventories are more likely to be transported across the sea to St.
John than emissions from other area or mobile emission source
categories that are emitted near the ground. EPA also used modeling to
evaluate the potential impact of sources in Puerto Rico on St. John.
The results showed that a major source on Puerto Rico would not impact
visibility on St. John, so emissions from Puerto Rico were not
investigated further for inclusion in the FIP.
As stated in the June 25, 2012 proposal, rather than use a full
statewide inventory to judge reasonable progress, we focused on the
inventory for the island of St. John, where the Class I area is
located, and other major point sources located in the Virgin Islands.
Our analysis indicates that most emissions outside of St. John, other
than major point sources, do not significantly impair visibility at the
Virgin Islands National Park due to the prevailing winds. Prevailing
winds at St. John are from the east, as shown in the wind roses
contained in the FIP. St. Thomas and St. Croix are located west and
south, respectively, of St. John. Therefore, these trade winds tend to
transport pollution from St. Thomas and St. Croix away from the Class I
area. In addition, modeling performed to estimate the visibility impact
of currently operating individual sources of pollution indicates that,
with the exception of HOVENSA, even very large sources in the Virgin
Islands have relatively small visibility impacts on Virgin Islands
National Park.
Comment: NPS commented that EPA should add marine traffic between
neighboring islands to the inventory.
Response: The impact of marine traffic at St. John was included in
the inventory. EPA reasonably chose not to include emissions from
marine traffic between other neighboring islands, because modeling did
not predict a large impact of the ship emissions on St. John.
Comment: NPS commented that EPA should have used 2009 MM5
meteorological model outputs in its modeling. HOVENSA also commented
that the use of a small set of overwater buoy data, combined with upper
air sounding data from San Juan, Puerto Rico and the airport station at
St. Thomas, was insufficient to satisfy EPA's own recommendations to
use available prognostic data in combination with observational data.
Response: EPA chose to use four years of local meteorological data
because only a single year of data was available for MM5. While using a
gridded, prognostic data model to simulate meteorological conditions is
likely to produce a more accurate wind field in most circumstances,
this would have been difficult with just a single year of MM5 data.
Using four years of data from local weather sites, on the other hand,
provided EPA with a robust calculation of impacts from anthropogenic
emissions in the Virgin Islands. Moreover, the use of interpolated
weather data from a few sites is more likely to be accurate in the
Virgin Islands than it would in the continental United States because
there is less terrain across the modeling domain to disrupt wind flow
and wind direction and speed is more consistent in the tropics.
Comment: NPS commented that EPA should not use the 98th percentile
impact averaged over four years as a threshold.
Response: EPA agrees and modified the FIP to highlight the highest
of the 98th percentile impacts for each source or source category. As a
result of this change, the impact EPA will use for evaluating potential
control strategies and for comparing sources' impacts will be higher
than when EPA used a four-year average in the proposal.
[[Page 64417]]
In our proposal, we evaluated the impacts of the sources based on
the average of the 98th percentile visibility impacts. Our guidance
recommends using the highest 98th percentile value, not the average of
the 98th percentile values. Both of these values are listed in the
following table. Nonetheless, using the highest of the 98th percentile
impacts did not change any of our analyses for potential controls on
these sources or source categories.
Table 1--Impact of Anthropogenic Sources That Contribute to Regional Haze in the Virgin Islands, Based on Four
Years of Modeling From 2007 to 2010
[In deciviews (dv)]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highest of four years' Average of four years' 98th
Source or source category 98th percentile impact percentile impact
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All Sources (w/o FIP)............................ 10.07 dv*............... 8.15 dv*.
All Sources after FIP reductions................. 9.67.................... 7.79
(0.40 reduction)........ (0.36 reduction).
St. John Construction (total of all activities).. 5.72 dv................. 4.36 dv.
HOVENSA--all units operating..................... 3.34.................... 2.49
St. John Road Dust............................... 2.71.................... 2.19
St. Croix Other (w/o WAPA, HOVENSA).............. 1.13.................... 0.82
St. John Point Sources--generators............... 1.05.................... 0.60
St. Thomas--all sources (inc. WAPA).............. 0.62.................... 0.38
St. John Open Burning............................ 0.58.................... 0.42
St. Croix WAPA--all units........................ 0.48.................... 0.35
BVI Oil Combustion............................... 0.46**.................. **
St. John Non-road Combustion Emissions........... 0.26.................... 0.22
St. John Marine.................................. 0.25.................... 0.12
Estimated BVI Open Burning Source................ 0.16**.................. **
St. John On-road Vehicle Tailpipe Emissions...... 0.12.................... 0.11
St. John Residential Hot Water Heating........... 0.01.................... 0.01
Sample Puerto Rico Power Plant................... 0.00**.................. **
Other Source Categories (These are included in
the sources or source categories listed above):
HOVENSA BART eligible stacks only............ 2.60 dv................. 1.91 dv
St. Thomas WAPA--all units................... 0.21.................... 0.12
St. Thomas WAPA BART eligible stacks only.... 0.09.................... 0.06
St. Croix WAPA BART eligible stacks only..... 0.12.................... 0.09
St. John Marine with reductions.............. 0.04.................... 0.02
(0.21 reduction)........ (0.10 reduction).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Individual impacts from each source will not add up to the total for ``All Sources'', since the impacts from
each source may be on different days and times than the impact for ``All Sources'' together.
** Modeling from 2009 only.
BVI refers to the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.
WAPA refers to the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority.
EPA has revised Table 8 of the June 25, 2012 proposal to include
the highest of the 98th percentile impacts for EPA's BART analysis:
Revision to Table 8--Individual BART-Eligible Source Visibility Impacts on Virgin Islands Class I Area
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum 4-year
Class I area and 98th percentile
Facility and location locations of modeling visibility impact Subject to BART?
receptor (deciviews)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VI WAPA............................... St. John................. 0.09 No.
St. Thomas............................ Hassel Island, St. Thomas 0.09
VI WAPA............................... St. John................. 0.12 No.
St. Croix............................. Hassel Island, St. Thomas 0.13
HOVENSA............................... St. John................. 2.60 Yes.
St. Croix............................. Hassel Island, St. Thomas 3.12
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The changes to the impacts for VI WAPA St. Thomas and VI WAPA St.
Croix are not high enough to cause or contribute to a significant
impact on visibility in the Virgin Islands National Park. Thus, neither
source is eligible for further analysis for BART controls.
Comment: NPS commented that EPA should use the first high results
to determine impact of sources and do a comparison to the twenty
percent best days.
Response: EPA used four years of modeling data and using the first
high over four years' worth of days would be overly conservative. A
comparison to the twenty percent best visibility days is often not
helpful because many sources did not have any impact on the twenty
percent best visibility days. (For more information, see the tables
from the modeling report. The number of days when the source had an
impact is noted in parentheses.)
Furthermore, EPA's BART Guidelines call for the use of the 98th
percentile (essentially the 8th highest day) rather
[[Page 64418]]
than the maximum modeled daily impact. The BART Guidelines further
state that while ``the use of the 98th percentile of modeled visibility
values would appear to exclude roughly 7 days per year from
consideration, in our judgment, this approach will effectively capture
the sources that contribute to visibility impairment in a Class I area,
while minimizing the likelihood that the highest modeled visibility
impacts might be caused by unusual meteorology or conservative
assumptions in the model.'' See 70 FR 39104, 39121 (July 6, 2005).
Comment: NPS commented that EPA should have used the latest CALPOST
processor.
Response: The processor used by EPA is the one in the Federal Land
Managers' Air Quality Related Values Work Group (FLAG) guidance that
was in effect when EPA began the modeling in 2010.
Comment: The NPS agrees with EPA that as long as HOVENSA retains
its air quality permits, the Consent Decree should remain in place. NPS
commented that if the refinery is to restart, an emissions control
analysis should be conducted prior to restart.
Response: EPA appreciates the FLM's agreement that the HOVENSA
Consent Decree should remain in place and that an analysis of
reasonable control measures should be conducted when HOVENSA notifies
EPA that they will resume refinery operations. In response to comments
submitted to EPA by HOVENSA, we are modifying the HOVENSA notification
requirement to clarify that upon notification to EPA that HOVENSA will
restart refinery operations, HOVENSA will provide emission unit
information to EPA in order for EPA to assess whether additional
control measures are warranted to meet the regional haze requirements.
Comment: NPS commented that it is difficult to conclude that there
will be a 0.16 deciview improvement in visibility due to the expected
emissions reductions from marine sources and HOVENSA. EPA should
determine the reason for the increasing trends in sulfate's
contribution to visibility impairment.
Response: The emission reductions leading to a 0.16 deciview
improvement over the worst twenty percent visibility days are based on
emission control strategies that have been adopted and will be
implemented, so EPA is confident that these emission reductions will
lead to improvements in visibility, especially on the days with the
largest degradation due to anthropogenic sources. On the 98th
percentile days, the improvement is as large as 0.53 deciviews.
EPA disagrees that an analysis of the increasing trends in
sulfate's contribution to visibility impairment is required to be part
of the FIP. Concentrations vary from year to year and some of the
variability may be due to imprecision in the sampling and analysis of
the particles that obstruct visibility. EPA will evaluate changes in
sulfate, and all other contributing factors to visibility impairment,
as part of the five-year review.
Comment: The FLMs want EPA to more substantively involve them in
future discussions for regional haze in the Virgin Islands.
Response: EPA understands that it is important to increase FLM
involvement in technical issues related to regional haze in the Virgin
Islands, especially via informal sharing of new information and
improvements in the FIP.
Comment: HOVENSA stated that EPA's regional haze rules indicate
that the states should consider whether it is reasonable to aim for
attainment of the national goal, and that the 2064 target date and the
resulting glidepath are not in any way binding.
Response: EPA acknowledges that the 2064 target date and the
glidepath for meeting the goal are not directly enforceable. In our
June 25, 2012 proposal, we indicated in Table 6 that while a 1.48
deciview improvement is needed to reach the uniform rate of progress
goal for 2018, EPA's proposed FIP is only projecting a 2018 improvement
of 0.16 deciviews (the Reasonable Progress Goal).
Comment: HOVENSA commented that EPA has no rational basis for
applying the Regional Haze Rule (RHR) to the Virgin Islands because
there are no U.S. possessions that can impact visibility in the Virgin
Islands. EPA's RHR declares that regional haze is from sources over a
wide geographic area.
Response: EPA disagrees. The requirement to submit a regional haze
SIP applies to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin
Islands. The RHR (64 FR 35714, July 1, 1999) specifically states that
``Hawaii, Alaska, and the Virgin Islands would be subject to the
regional haze provisions because of the potential for emissions from
sources within their borders to contribute to regional haze impairment
in Class I areas also located within their own jurisdiction'' (64 FR
35720).
Therefore, sources in the Virgin Islands that impact the Virgin
Islands National Park are not exempted from the Clean Air Act's
regional haze requirements to protect visibility in Class I areas.
Comment: HOVENSA objected to EPA's proposal for the facility to
provide a reasonable control measures study, consistent with the RHR,
should HOVENSA resume operation of the refinery process units. HOVENSA
asked EPA to remove this requirement from the final FIP.
Response: EPA proposed the requirement for HOVENSA to submit an
analysis of reasonable control measures in the event that HOVENSA
resumes operation of any refinery process units as an alternative to
requiring such an analysis at this time. While refinery operations are
currently idled, HOVENSA has retained its air permits and has not
surrendered them to EPA. Therefore, EPA cannot rely on the idling of
HOVENSA's refinery operations as an enforceable emission reduction for
meeting the regional haze requirements. As we stated in our June 25,
2012 proposal (77 FR 37856), while there is uncertainty at this time
regarding future operations at HOVENSA, the Consent Decree, which is
enforceable by EPA, contains emission reductions and emission
limitation requirements. These Consent Decree requirements allow us to
project that, should HOVENSA resume operating as a refinery, its
permitted emissions of sulfur dioxide will be lower than they were
prior to entry of the Consent Decree.
Because the facility is in an idled state and HOVENSA has not
provided any possible future refinery operating scenarios, EPA
determined that it was not practical to require HOVENSA to perform an
analysis of reasonable control measures at this time. In addition, EPA
believed that should refinery operation resume, HOVENSA may decide to
operate certain emission units and pollution control equipment but not
others, compared to emission units that operated before the refinery
operations were idled. Nevertheless, in response to HOVENSA's comments,
EPA agrees that resuming operations at HOVENSA does not need to wait
for HOVENSA to first provide an analysis of reasonable control
measures. So, we are modifying the notification requirement to clarify
that upon notification to EPA that HOVENSA will restart refinery
operations, HOVENSA will provide emission unit information to EPA in
order for EPA to assess if additional control measures are warranted to
meet the regional haze requirements.
Comment: HOVENSA stated that EPA's FIP should reflect the
determination that HOVENSA's compliance with the terms of the Consent
Decree satisfies its regional haze obligations during the first
[[Page 64419]]
planning period of the program and that any changes to the refinery's
compliance obligations would be evaluated as part of the five year
review.
Response: HOVENSA's comment specifically says that HOVENSA's
compliance with the terms of the Consent Decree satisfies its regional
haze obligations. In fact, the HOVENSA Consent Decree is not an
analysis of reasonable control measures as required for regional haze.
The Consent Decree was developed for entirely different reasons. A
consent decree is a negotiated agreement, and was not evaluated for
meeting the requirements for a reasonable control measure analysis
required for regional haze. EPA decided it was not practical for
HOVENSA to perform an analysis of reasonable control measures while its
refining process is idled. EPA believes the information necessary to
complete such an analysis will be more complete when HOVENSA's future
operational plans are known. The Consent Decree is a starting point for
an analysis of reasonable control measures until more information is
available.
As for evaluating any changes to the refinery's compliance
obligations during the five year review, EPA believes that determining
what controls are reasonable when those controls would be needed, that
is, when emission units are operating, would better serve the purpose
of meeting the regional haze plan for the Virgin Islands.
Comment: HOVENSA states that it would be unreasonable to impose the
costs of controls on its facility when there will be little or no
improvement in visibility on St. John.
Response: Modeling the controls required under the Consent Decree
shows an improvement of 0.13 deciviews, compared to HOVENSA's total
impact of 1.60 deciviews in visibility on St. John for the twenty
percent worst visibility days. If the refining process restarts,
reasonable controls may add to this improvement because HOVENSA has a
total impact of 3.34 deciviews on the highest 98th percentile day.
Comment: HOVENSA stated that EPA's requirement for HOVENSA to
perform an analysis of reasonable controls on its emissions before
restarting its refining facility would cause uncertainty and delays in
any restart process because EPA is requiring installation of controls
no later than five years after the effective date of the revised FIP.
Response: As stated earlier, in response to HOVENSA's comments, we
are modifying the HOVENSA notification requirement to clarify that upon
notification to EPA that HOVENSA will restart refinery operations,
HOVENSA will provide emission unit information to EPA in order for EPA
to determine if additional control measures are warranted. However,
HOVENSA's comments do not accurately reflect the timing for
installation of controls as a result of the notification requirement.
If and when HOVENSA notifies EPA that it plans to resume operation of
the refinery process units, EPA will assess whether additional control
measures are warranted to meet the regional haze requirements. Should
EPA determine that additional emissions controls are necessary, HOVENSA
will have considerable time to prepare for their installation while EPA
undertakes notice-and-comment rulemaking to revise the FIP. Once the
rulemaking is complete, HOVENSA will then have up to five years from
the effective date of the revised FIP, if there is one, to install
controls. In other words, EPA's requirement to install controls as
expeditiously as practicable but no later than five years after the
effective date of the revised FIP is referring to this ``second,'' or
revised FIP, not the FIP being promulgated in this action. While EPA
agrees that the rulemaking process presents uncertainty as to what
controls will ultimately be determined to be reasonable, it is likely
that some of these controls may already be installed upon startup of
HOVENSA's refinery operations due to other Clean Air Act requirements.
If not, HOVENSA will have up to five years from the effective date of
the revised FIP to install them. EPA notes that HOVENSA's comment that
EPA's proposed reasonable measures analysis requirement will present
uncertainty and delay to any reactivation process contradicts HOVENSA's
other comment, requesting EPA to rely on the five-year review process
for determining whether to change HOVENSA's compliance obligations.
Relying on the five-year review would present its own uncertainties and
possible delays.
Comment: HOVENSA commented that by using potential emissions,
rather than actual emissions, for the modeling and BART analysis, EPA
has greatly overstated HOVENSA's impacts on the Class I area in St.
John.
Response: HOVENSA cites EPA guidance as recommending using the
highest typical emissions from a BART-eligible source for BART
modeling. EPA chose to use potential to emit rather than historical
emissions, resulting in a more conservative approach than using
HOVENSA's historical emissions. HOVENSA has been operating at low
capacity in recent years [Letter from HOVENSA to Mr. Steve Riva, EPA
Region 2, April 21, 2011], so historical emissions are not
representative of the impact that HOVENSA would have on visibility at
the Class I area when operating near or at full capacity. Thus, EPA is
using the emissions that the facility is allowed to emit in its
evaluation of impacts on visibility obscuration in the Class I area.
Comment: HOVENSA commented that EPA's back trajectory modeling for
the worst days of visibility impairment on St. John shows that sources
on St. Croix did not contribute to any of the worst days of visibility
impairment.
Response: EPA does not agree with HOVENSA's interpretation of the
trajectory analysis. One of the four days when sulfates have their
highest contributions to visibility impairment on St. John,
trajectories passed very near St. Croix, where the HOVENSA refinery is
located. In addition, modeling predicts that HOVENSA has a significant
impact on visibility in the Virgin Islands National Park on St. John,
so if reasonable controls on emissions are available from HOVENSA, they
will reduce this significant impact on the view in the Park.
Comment: HOVENSA commented that EPA's assertion that HOVENSA's
emissions affect visibility on St. John stands in sharp contrast to
EPA's own conclusion that coarse particles are the primary source of
visibility impairment on St. John and that most of the coarse particles
come from wind-blown sea salt and Saharan dust.
Response: Even though coarse particles from Saharan dust may be the
largest contributor to visibility impairment on St. John, that does not
mean that HOVENSA, or other human sources of emissions do not affect
visibility on St. John as well. In the trajectory analysis, one of the
four highest days of sulfate impairment does occur when the trajectory
passes near St. Croix. Also, the modeling analysis shows that HOVENSA
is likely to have an impact on visibility on St. John. Because winds
that bring Saharan dust come from the east and winds that bring
emissions from St. Croix are from the south, it is likely that these
two visibility-impairing sources impact St. John at different times.
Thus, emissions from HOVENSA may be noticeable on St. John as sulfate
haze.
Comment: HOVENSA commented that because natural background
visibility values do not include important natural sources, the natural
background visibility is biased low and the relative CALPUFF modeled
source impacts are thereby overestimated.
[[Page 64420]]
Response: EPA disagrees that not including natural sources, like
Saharan dust, in the natural background values means that CALPUFF's
impacts are overestimated. CALPUFF's impacts are independent of, and
not affected by, the estimates of natural background. When we compare
the modeled sulfates and nitrates with the observed sulfates and
nitrates from the IMPROVE site data, the modeled sulfates and nitrates
are less than the observed. The comparison indicated that if CALPUFF is
not estimating the impacts of anthropogenic sources correctly, it is
likely to be underestimating the anthropogenic source impact. Thus,
HOVENSA's impact may be higher than modeled by CALPUFF.
Comment: HOVENSA commented that emission reductions from its
facility are not going to have a discernible effect on visibility on
St. John because EPA's proposal indicated that the effect of sulfate
controls on industrial sources is overwhelmed by the impact of natural
sulfate and Saharan dust.
Response: While the effect of natural emissions is very large in
the Virgin Islands, the Clean Air Act requires EPA to reduce the effect
of anthropogenic sources using measures that EPA determines are
reasonable. Thus, even though human-caused emissions may be low
compared to the impact of Saharan dust, they are still significant (up
to 7.38 deciviews on the twenty percent worst days, with as much as
1.60 deciviews from HOVENSA's impact). Reducing anthropogenic emissions
will still improve visibility in the Virgin Islands National Park, as
sulfates and nitrates, which are mostly from combustion sources, cause
significant reductions in visibility according to the IMPROVE data.
Comment: HOVENSA notes that EPA's guidance emphasizes using a
blended prognostic meteorological model, like MM5, instead of
observational data using CALMET. EPA should not base its recommended
controls on such a simplistic meteorological data set.
Response: See EPA's response to the NPS's comment on this issue
above. In addition, if using MM5 to drive the meteorology in the
CALPUFF model gave better performance, remodeling would be more likely
to increase impacts from anthropogenic sources, like HOVENSA.
III. What are EPA's conclusions?
EPA is promulgating a Federal Implementation Plan for Regional Haze
for the Territory of the United States Virgin Islands. This FIP
addresses progress toward reducing regional haze for the first
implementation period ending in 2018. The FIP includes emission
reductions to begin the reasonable progress needed to achieve the
overall objective of no man-made interference with visibility by 2064.
The FIP relies on emission reductions from existing emissions controls
and programs currently in effect and requires HOVENSA to notify EPA in
the event it resumes operation of the refinery process units and to
provide emission unit information to EPA. EPA is taking this action
pursuant to CAA sections 110(c)(1), 301(a), 169A and 169B. EPA
solicited public comments on the issues discussed in this document and
considered these comments before taking final action. EPA is
promulgating 40 CFR 52.2781(d) ``Regional Haze Plan for the Virgin
Islands National Park.''
VI. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
A. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory Planning and Review and Executive
Order 13563: Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review
This action will promulgate requirements for one facility and is
therefore not a rule of general applicability. This type of action is
exempt from review under Executive Orders 12866 (58 FR 51735, October
4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, January 21, 2011).
B. Paperwork Reduction Act
This action does not impose an information collection burden under
the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.
Burden is defined at 5 CFR 1320.3(b). Because this FIP only applies to
one facility, the Paperwork Reduction Act does not apply.
C. Regulatory Flexibility Act
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) generally requires an agency
to prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis of any rule subject to
notice and comment rulemaking requirements under the Administrative
Procedure Act or any other statute unless the agency certifies that the
rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial
number of small entities. Small entities include small businesses,
small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions.
For purposes of assessing the impacts of today's rule on small
entities, small entity is defined as: (1) A small business as defined
by the Small Business Administration's (SBA's) regulations at 13 CFR
121.201; (2) a small governmental jurisdiction that is a government of
a city, county, town, school district or special district with a
population of less than 50,000; and (3) a small organization that is
any not-for-profit enterprise which is independently owned and operated
and is not dominant in its field.
After considering the economic impacts of this action on small
entities, I certify that this action will not have a significant
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The net
result of this FIP action is that EPA is promulgating emission controls
on selected units at only one facility. The facility in question is a
large petroleum refinery that is not owned by a small entity, and
therefore is not a small entity.
D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA)
This rule does not contain a Federal mandate that may result in
expenditures of $100 million or more for State, local, and tribal
governments, in the aggregate, or the private sector in any one year.
It is a rule of particular applicability that affects only one facility
in the United States Virgin Islands. Thus, this rule is not subject to
the requirements of sections 202 or 205 of UMRA.
This rule is also not subject to the requirements of section 203 of
UMRA because it contains no regulatory requirements that might
significantly or uniquely affect small governments. This rule only
applies to one facility in the United States Virgin Islands.
E. Executive Order 13132: Federalism
This action does not have federalism implications. It will not have
substantial direct effects on the states, on the relationship between
the national government and the states, or on the distribution of power
and responsibilities among the various levels of government, as
specified in Executive Order 13132. This action addresses the United
States Virgin Islands not meeting its obligation to adopt a SIP that
meets the regional haze requirements under the CAA. Thus, Executive
Order 13132 does not apply to this action. Although section 6 of
Executive Order 13132 does not apply to this action, EPA did consult
with the Virgin Islands government in developing this action.
F. Executive Order 13175
This action does not have tribal implications, as specified in
Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000), because the
action EPA is taking neither imposes substantial direct compliance
costs on tribal governments,
[[Page 64421]]
nor preempts tribal law. It will not have substantial direct effects on
tribal government. Thus, Executive Order 13175 does not apply to this
action.
G. Executive Order 13045: Protection of Children From Environmental
Health Risks and Safety Risks
EPA interprets EO 13045 (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997) as applying
only to those regulatory actions that concern health or safety risks,
such that the analysis required under section 5-501 of the EO has the
potential to influence the regulation. This action is not subject to EO
13045 because it implements specific standards established by Congress
in statutes. However, to the extent this rule will limit emissions, the
rule will have a beneficial effect on children's health by reducing air
pollution.
H. Executive Order 13211: Actions Concerning Regulations That
Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use
This action is not subject to Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355,
May 22, 2001), because it is not a significant regulatory action under
Executive Order 12866.
I. National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act
Section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement
Act of 1995 (``NTTAA''), Public Law 104-113, 12(d) (15 U.S.C. 272 note)
directs EPA to use voluntary consensus standards in its regulatory
activities unless to do so would be inconsistent with applicable law or
otherwise impractical. Voluntary consensus standards are technical
standards (e.g., materials specifications, test methods, sampling
procedures, and business practices) that are developed or adopted by
voluntary consensus standards bodies. NTTAA directs EPA to provide
Congress, through OMB, explanations when the Agency decides not to use
available and applicable voluntary consensus standards.
This action does not involve technical standards. Today's action
does not require the public to perform activities conducive to the use
of voluntary consensus standards. Therefore, EPA did not consider the
use of any voluntary consensus standards.
J. Executive Order 12898: Federal Actions To Address Environmental
Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations
Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994), establishes
federal executive policy on environmental justice. Its main provision
directs federal agencies, to the greatest extent practicable and
permitted by law, to make environmental justice part of their mission
by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high
and adverse human health or environmental effects of their programs,
policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income
populations in the United States.
We have determined that this rule will not have disproportionately
high and adverse human health or environmental effects on minority or
low-income populations because it increases the level of environmental
protection for all affected populations without having any
disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental
effects on any population, including any minority or low-income
population. This rule has the potential to limit emissions of
NOX, SO2 and PM2.5 from one facility
should that facility resume operations.
K. Congressional Review Act
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. Section 804 exempts from section 801 the following types
of rules: (1) Rules of particular applicability; (2) rules relating to
agency management or personnel; and (3) rules of agency organization,
procedure, or practice that do not substantially affect the rights or
obligations of non-agency parties. 5 U.S.C. 804(3). EPA is not required
to submit a rule report regarding today's action under section 801
because this is a rule of particular applicability.
L. Judicial Review
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 December 21, 2012. Pursuant to CAA section
307(d)(1)(B), this action is subject to the requirements of CAA section
307(d) as it promulgates a FIP under CAA section 110(c). 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 CAA section 307(b)(2).
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by
reference, Nitrogen dioxide, Particulate matter, Reporting and
recordkeeping requirements, Sulfur oxides, Volatile organic compounds.
Dated: October 15, 2012.
Lisa P. Jackson,
Administrator.
Part 52, chapter I, title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations 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 CCC--Virgin Islands
0
2. Section 52.2781 is amended by adding paragraph (d) to read as
follows:
Sec. 52.2781 Visibility protection.
* * * * *
(d) Regional Haze Plan for Virgin Islands National Park. The
regional haze plan for the Virgin Islands consists of a Federal
Implementation Plan entitled: ``FEDERAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR
REGIONAL HAZE FOR THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS.'' The applicable
requirements consist of:
(1) Applicability. This section addresses Clean Air Act
requirements and EPA's rules to prevent and remedy future and existing
man-made impairment of visibility in the mandatory Class I area of the
Virgin Islands National Park through a Regional Haze Program. This
section applies to the owner and operator of HOVENSA L.L.C. (HOVENSA),
a petroleum refinery located on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
(2) Definitions. Terms not defined below shall have the meaning
given them in the Clean Air Act or EPA's regulations implementing the
Clean Air Act. For purposes of this section: NO X means nitrogen
oxides.
Owner/operator means any person who owns, leases, operates,
controls, or supervises a facility or source identified in paragraph
(d)(1) of this section.
PM means particulate matter.
Process unit means any collection of structures and/or equipment
that processes, assembles, applies, blends, or otherwise uses material
inputs to produce or store an intermediate or a
[[Page 64422]]
completed product. A single stationary source may contain more than one
process unit, and a process unit may contain more than one emissions
unit. For a petroleum refinery, there are several categories of process
units that could include: Those that separate and/or distill petroleum
feedstocks; those that change molecular structures; petroleum treating
processes; auxiliary facilities, such as steam generators and hydrogen
production units; and those that load, unload, blend or store
intermediate or completed products.
SO 2 means sulfur dioxide.
Startup means the setting in operation of an affected facility for
any purpose.
(3) Reasonable Progress Measures. On June 7, 2011, EPA and HOVENSA
entered into a Consent Decree (CD) in the U.S. District Court for the
Virgin Islands to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations at its St.
Croix, Virgin Islands facility. The CD requires HOVENSA, among other
things, to achieve emission limits and install new pollution controls
pursuant to a schedule for compliance. The measures required by the CD
reduce emissions of NOX by 5,031 tons per year (tpy) and
SO2 by 3,460 tpy. The emission limitations, pollution
controls, schedules for compliance, reporting, and recordkeeping
provisions of the HOVENSA CD constitute an element of the long term
strategy and address the reasonable progress provisions of 40 CFR
51.308(d)(1). Should the existing federally enforceable HOVENSA CD be
revised, EPA will reevaluate, and if necessary, revise the FIP after
public notice and comment.
(4) HOVENSA requirement for notification. HOVENSA must notify EPA
60 days in advance of startup and resumption of operation of refinery
process units at the HOVENSA, St. Croix, Virgin Islands facility.
HOVENSA shall submit such notice to the Director of the Clean Air and
Sustainability Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2,
290 Broadway, 25th Floor, New York, New York, 10007-1866. HOVENSA's
notification to EPA that it intends to startup refinery process units
must include information regarding those emission units that will be
operating, including unit design parameters such as heat input and
hourly emissions, information on potential to emit limitations,
pollution controls and control efficiencies, and schedules for
compliance. EPA will revise the FIP as necessary, after public notice
and comment, in accordance with regional haze requirements including
the ``reasonable progress'' provisions in 40 CFR 51.308(d)(1). HOVENSA
will be required to install any controls that are required by the
revised FIP as expeditiously as practicable, but no later than 5 years
after the effective date of the revised FIP.
[FR Doc. 2012-25806 Filed 10-19-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P