Air Plan Approval and Air Quality Designation; FL; Redesignation of the Duval County Ozone Unclassifiable Area, 40351-40353 [2019-17474]
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Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 14, 2019 / Proposed Rules
October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821,
January 21, 2011);
• Is not an Executive Order 13771 (82
FR 9339, February 2, 2017) regulatory
action because SIP approvals are
exempted under Executive Order 12866;
• Does not impose an information
collection burden under the provisions
of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.);
• Is certified as not having a
significant economic impact on a
substantial number of small entities
under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5
U.S.C. 601 et seq.);
• Does not contain any unfunded
mandate or significantly or uniquely
affect small governments, as described
in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
of 1995 (Pub. L. 104–4);
• Does not have Federalism
implications as specified in Executive
Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10,
1999);
• Is not an economically significant
regulatory action based on health or
safety risks subject to Executive Order
13045 (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997);
• Is not a significant regulatory action
subject to Executive Order 13211 (66 FR
28355, May 22, 2001);
• Is not subject to requirements of
Section 12(d) of the National
Technology Transfer and Advancement
Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) because
it does not involve technical standards;
and
• Does not provide the EPA with the
discretionary authority to address, as
appropriate, disproportionate human
health or environmental effects, using
practicable and legally permissible
methods, under Executive Order 12898
(59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994).
The proposed SIP would not be
approved to apply on any Indian
reservation land or in any other area
where the EPA or an Indian tribe has
demonstrated that a tribe has
jurisdiction. In those areas of Indian
country, the proposed rule does not
have tribal implications as specified by
Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249,
November 9, 2000), nor will it impose
substantial direct costs on tribal
governments or preempt tribal law.
khammond on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with PROPOSALS
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air
pollution control, Carbon monoxide,
Incorporation by reference,
Intergovernmental relations, Lead,
Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, Particulate
matter, Reporting and record keeping
requirements, Sulfur oxides, Volatile
organic compounds.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
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Dated: July 31, 2019.
Chris Hladick,
Regional Administrator, Region 10.
[FR Doc. 2019–17351 Filed 8–13–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560–50–P
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
40 CFR Part 81
[EPA–R04–OAR–2019–0374; FRL–9998–31–
Region 4]
Air Plan Approval and Air Quality
Designation; FL; Redesignation of the
Duval County Ozone Unclassifiable
Area
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule.
AGENCY:
On June 19, 2019, the State of
Florida, through the Florida Department
of Environmental Protection (FDEP),
submitted a request for the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
to redesignate the Duval County, Florida
ozone unclassifiable area (hereinafter
referred to as the ‘‘Duval County Area’’
or ‘‘Area’’) to attainment for the 2015
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone
national ambient air quality standards
(NAAQS). EPA now has sufficient data
to determine that the Duval County Area
is in attainment of the 2015 primary and
secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.
Therefore, EPA is proposing to approve
the State’s request and redesignate the
Area to attainment/unclassifiable for the
2015 primary and secondary 8-hour
ozone NAAQS based upon valid,
quality-assured, and certified ambient
air monitoring data showing that the
Area is in compliance with the 2015
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone
NAAQS.
SUMMARY:
Comments must be received on
or before September 13, 2019.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments,
identified by Docket ID No. EPA–R04–
OAR–2019–0374 at https://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments.
Once submitted, comments cannot be
edited or removed from Regulations.gov.
EPA may publish any comment received
to its public docket. Do not submit
electronically any information you
consider to be Confidential Business
Information (CBI) or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute.
Multimedia submissions (audio, video,
etc.) must be accompanied by a written
comment. The written comment is
considered the official comment and
should include discussion of all points
DATES:
PO 00000
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Fmt 4702
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40351
you wish to make. EPA will generally
not consider comments or comment
contents located outside of the primary
submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or
other file sharing system). For
additional submission methods, the full
EPA public comment policy,
information about CBI or multimedia
submissions, and general guidance on
making effective comments, please visit
https://www2.epa.gov/dockets/
commenting-epa-dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Madolyn Sanchez, Air Regulatory
Management Section, Air Planning and
Implementation Branch, Air and
Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth
Street SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303–8960.
Ms. Sanchez can be reached by
telephone at (404) 562–9644 or via
electronic mail at
sanchez.madolyn@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Clean Air Act (CAA or Act)
establishes a process for air quality
management through the establishment
and implementation of the NAAQS.
After the promulgation of a new or
revised NAAQS, EPA is required to
designate areas, pursuant to section
107(d)(1) of the CAA, as attainment,
nonattainment, or unclassifiable. On
October 1, 2015, EPA published a final
rule revising the primary and secondary
8-hour NAAQS for ozone to a level of
70 parts per billion (ppb), based on a 3year average of the annual fourthhighest daily maximum 8-hour ozone
concentrations. See 80 FR 65292
(October 26, 2015). EPA established the
standards based on significant evidence
and numerous health studies
demonstrating that serious health effects
are associated with exposures to
ground-level ozone.
The process for designating areas
following promulgation of a new or
revised NAAQS is contained in section
107(d)(1) of the CAA. On June 4, 2018
(83 FR 25776), EPA published a final
rule designating certain areas across the
country, including the Duval Area, as
nonattainment, unclassifiable, or
attainment/unclassifiable 1 for the 2015
1 For the ozone initial area designations in 2018,
EPA used a designation category of ‘‘attainment/
unclassifiable’’ for areas that had monitors showing
attainment of the standard and were not
contributing to nearby violations and for areas that
did not have monitors but for which EPA had
reason to believe were likely attaining the standard
and not contributing to nearby violations. EPA used
the category ‘‘unclassifiable’’ for areas in which
EPA could not determine, based upon available
information, whether or not the NAAQS was being
E:\FR\FM\14AUP1.SGM
Continued
14AUP1
40352
Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 14, 2019 / Proposed Rules
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone
NAAQS based upon air quality
monitoring data from monitors for
calendar years 2015–2017.2 The
monitors in the Duval County Area had
incomplete data for the 2015–2017
timeframe. Therefore, EPA designated
Duval County as unclassifiable for the
2015 primary and secondary 8-hour
ozone NAAQS.
As discussed in section III below, the
monitors in the Duval County Area now
have sufficient data to determine that
the Area is attaining the 2015 primary
and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.
Therefore, on June 19, 2019, Florida
submitted a request for EPA to
redesignate the Duval County Area to
attainment for the 2015 primary and
secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.3
II. What are the criteria for
redesignating an area from
unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable?
khammond on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with PROPOSALS
Section 107(d)(3) of the CAA provides
the framework for changing the area
designations for any NAAQS pollutants.
Section 107(d)(3)(A) provides that the
Administrator may notify the Governor
of any state that the designation of an
area should be revised ‘‘on the basis of
air quality data, planning and control
considerations, or any other air qualityrelated considerations the Administrator
deems appropriate.’’ The Act further
provides in section 107(d)(3)(D) that
even if the Administrator has not
notified a state Governor that a
designation should be revised, the
Governor of any state may, on the
Governor’s own motion, submit a
request to revise the designation of any
area, and the Administrator must
approve or deny the request.
When approving or denying a request
to redesignate an area, EPA bases its
decision on the air quality data for the
area as well as the considerations
provided under section 107(d)(3)(A).4 In
met and/or EPA had not determined the area to be
contributing to nearby violations. EPA reserves the
‘‘attainment’’ category for when EPA redesignates a
nonattainment area that has attained the relevant
NAAQS and has an approved maintenance plan.
2 This action, combined with final rules
published on November 16, 2017 (82 FR 54232) and
July 25, 2018 (83 FR 35136), completed the 2015
8-hour ozone NAAQS designations for all areas.
3 Although Florida requested redesignation of the
Area to ‘‘attainment,’’ EPA is proposing to
redesignate the area to ‘‘attainment/unclassifiable’’
because, as noted above, EPA reserves the
‘‘attainment’’ category for when EPA redesignates a
nonattainment area that has attained the relevant
NAAQS and has an approved maintenance plan.
4 While CAA section 107(d)(3)(E) also lists
specific requirements for redesignations, those
requirements only apply to redesignations of
nonattainment areas to attainment and therefore are
not applicable in the context of a redesignation of
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keeping with section 107(d)(1)(A), areas
that are redesignated to attainment/
unclassifiable must meet the
requirements for attainment areas and
thus must meet the relevant NAAQS. In
addition, the area must not contribute to
ambient air quality in a nearby area that
does not meet the NAAQS. The relevant
monitoring data must be collected and
quality-assured in accordance with 40
CFR part 58 and recorded in the EPA
Air Quality System (AQS) database. The
designated monitors generally should
have remained at the same location for
the duration of the monitoring period
upon which the redesignation request is
based.5
III. What is EPA’s rationale for
proposing to redesignate the area?
In order to redesignate the Area from
unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable for the 2015 primary and
secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS, the 3year average of annual fourth-highest
daily maximum 8-hour ozone
concentration values (i.e., design value)
over the most recent 3-year period must
be less than or equal to 70 ppb at all
monitoring sites in the Area over the
full 3-year period, as determined in
accordance with 40 CFR 50.19 and
Appendix U of Part 50. EPA reviewed
ozone monitoring data from the
monitoring stations in the Duval County
Area for the 2015 primary and
secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS for the
3-year period from 2016–2018. These
data have been quality-assured,
certified, and recorded in AQS by
Florida, and the monitoring locations
have not changed during the monitoring
period. As summarized in Table 1, the
design values for all of the monitors in
the Area for the 2016–2018 period are
well below the 2015 primary and
secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.
TABLE 1—2015 8-HOUR OZONE DESIGN VALUES FOR THE MONITORS IN
THE DUVAL COUNTY AREA FOR
2016–2018
AQS site No.
Site name
12–031–0077 .....
Sheffield Elementary.
Mayo Clinic ............
Cisco Drive ............
12–031–0100 .....
12–031–0106 .....
2016–2018
Ozone
design
value
(ppb)
58
60
61
an area from unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable.
5 See Memorandum from John Calcagni, Director,
EPA Air Quality Management Division, entitled
‘‘Procedures for Processing Requests to Redesignate
Areas to Attainment’’ (September 4, 1992).
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Fmt 4702
Sfmt 4702
Because the 3-year design values,
based on complete, valid, certified, and
quality-assured data, demonstrate that
the Area meets the 2015 primary and
secondary 8-hour ozone standards, EPA
is proposing to redesignate the Duval
County Area from unclassifiable to
attainment/unclassifiable for the 2015
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone
NAAQS.
IV. Proposed Action
EPA is proposing to approve Florida’s
June 19, 2019, redesignation request and
to redesignate the Duval County Area
from unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable for the 2015 primary and
secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS. If
finalized, approval of the redesignation
request would change the legal
designation, found at 40 CFR part 81, of
Duval County from unclassifiable to
attainment/unclassifiable for the 2015
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone
NAAQS.
V. Statutory and Executive Order
Reviews
Under the CAA, redesignation of an
area to attainment/unclassifiable is an
action that affects the status of a
geographical area and does not impose
any additional regulatory requirements
on sources beyond those imposed by
state law. A redesignation to attainment/
unclassifiable does not create any new
requirements. Accordingly, this
proposed action merely proposes to
redesignate an area to attainment/
unclassifiable and does not impose
additional requirements. For that
reason, this proposed action:
• Is not a significant regulatory action
subject to review by the Office of
Management and Budget under
Executive Orders 12866 (58 FR 51735,
October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821,
January 21, 2011);
• Is not an Executive Order 13771 (82
FR 9339, February 2, 2017) regulatory
action because redesignations are
exempted under Executive Order 12866;
• Does not impose an information
collection burden under the provisions
of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.);
• Is certified as not having a
significant economic impact on a
substantial number of small entities
under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5
U.S.C. 601 et seq.);
• Does not contain any unfunded
mandate or significantly or uniquely
affect small governments, as described
in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
of 1995 (Pub. L. 104–4);
• Does not have Federalism
implications as specified in Executive
E:\FR\FM\14AUP1.SGM
14AUP1
Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 14, 2019 / Proposed Rules
Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10,
1999);
• Is not an economically significant
regulatory action based on health or
safety risks subject to Executive Order
13045 (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997);
• Is not a significant regulatory action
subject to Executive Order 13211 (66 FR
28355, May 22, 2001);
• Is not subject to requirements of
Section 12(d) of the National
Technology Transfer and Advancement
Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) because
application of those requirements would
be inconsistent with the CAA; and
• Will not have disproportionate
human health or environmental effects
under Executive Order 12898 (59 FR
7629, February 16, 1994).
This proposed action does not apply
on any Indian reservation land or in any
other area where EPA or an Indian tribe
has demonstrated that a tribe has
jurisdiction. In those areas of Indian
country, this proposed action does not
have tribal implications as specified by
Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249,
November 9, 2000), nor will it impose
substantial direct costs on tribal
governments or preempt tribal law.
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 81
Environmental protection, Air
pollution control.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: August 5, 2019.
Mary S. Walker,
Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. 2019–17474 Filed 8–13–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560–50–P
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
40 CFR Part 257
[EPA–HQ–OLEM–2018–0524; FRL–9997–
74–OLEM]
RIN 2050–AG98
Hazardous and Solid Waste
Management System: Disposal of Coal
Combustion Residuals From Electric
Utilities; Enhancing Public Access to
Information; Reconsideration of
Beneficial Use Criteria and Piles
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule.
khammond on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with PROPOSALS
AGENCY:
In this action, EPA is
proposing the following targeted
changes to the April 17, 2015 Coal
Combustion Residuals Final Rule based
on stakeholder input: Revisions to the
annual groundwater monitoring and
corrective action report requirements,
SUMMARY:
VerDate Sep<11>2014
16:38 Aug 13, 2019
Jkt 247001
establishing an alternate risk-based
groundwater protection standard for
boron, and revisions to the publicly
accessible CCR website requirements.
The Agency is also proposing to address
two provisions of the final rule that
were remanded back to EPA on August
21, 2018 by the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the D.C. Circuit. First, EPA is
proposing to revise the CCR beneficial
use definition by replacing the massbased numerical threshold with specific
location-based criteria as the trigger for
an environmental demonstration.
Second, EPA is proposing to introduce
a single approach to consistently
address the potential environmental and
human health issues associated with
piles of CCR, regardless of the location
of the pile and whether the CCR is
destined for disposal or beneficial use.
DATES: Comments. Comments must be
received on or before October 15, 2019.
Public Hearing. The EPA will hold a
public hearing on October 2, 2019, in
the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments,
identified by Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–
OLEM–2018–0524, by any of the
following methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal:
https://www.regulations.gov/ (our
preferred method). Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, EPA Docket Center,
Office of Land and Emergency
Management Docket, Mail Code 28221T,
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20460.
• Hand Delivery/Courier: EPA Docket
Center, WJC West Building, Room 3334,
1301 Constitution Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20004. The Docket
Center’s hours of operations are 8:30
a.m.–4:30 p.m., Monday–Friday (except
Federal Holidays).
Instructions: All submissions received
must include the Docket ID No. for this
rulemaking. Comments received may be
posted without change to https://
www.regulations.gov/, including any
personal information provided. For
detailed instructions on sending
comments and additional information
on the rulemaking process, see the
‘‘Public Participation’’ heading of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of
this document.
The hearing will be held in the
Washington, DC metropolitan area. The
exact location of the hearing will be
posted in the docket for this proposal
and on EPA’s CCR website (https://
www.epa.gov/coalash) in advance of the
hearing. The hearing will convene at
9:00 a.m. (local time) and will conclude
at 8:00 p.m. (local time).
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40353
Please note that if this hearing is held
at a U.S. government facility,
individuals planning to attend the
hearing should be prepared to show
valid picture identification to the
security staff in order to gain access to
the meeting room. Please note that the
REAL ID Act, passed by Congress in
2005, established new requirements for
entering federal facilities. For purposes
of the REAL ID Act, EPA will accept
government-issued IDs, including
driver’s licenses, from the District of
Columbia and all states and territories
except from American Samoa. If your
identification is issued by American
Samoa, you must present an additional
form of identification to enter the
federal building where the public
hearing will be held. Acceptable
alternative forms of identification
include: Federal employee badges,
passports, enhanced driver’s licenses,
and military identification cards. For
additional information for the status of
your state regarding REAL ID, go to:
https://www.dhs.gov/real-idenforcement-brieffrequently-askedquestions. Any objects brought into the
building need to fit through the security
screening system, such as a purse,
laptop bag, or small backpack.
Demonstrations will not be allowed on
federal property for security reasons.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jesse Miller, Materials Recovery and
Waste Management Division, Office of
Resource Conservation and Recovery
(5304–P), Environmental Protection
Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW, Washington, DC 20460; telephone
number: (703) 308–1180; email address:
miller.jesse@epa.gov. For more
information on this rulemaking please
visit https://www.epa.gov/coalash.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Public Participation
A. Written Comments
Submit your comments, identified by
Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OLEM–2018–
0524, at https://www.regulations.gov
(our preferred method), or the other
methods identified in the ADDRESSES
section. Once submitted, comments
cannot be edited or removed from the
docket. The EPA may publish any
comment received to its public docket.
Do not submit electronically any
information you consider to be
Confidential Business Information (CBI)
or other information whose disclosure is
restricted by statute. Multimedia
submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be
accompanied by a written comment.
The written comment is considered the
official comment and should include
discussion of all points you wish to
E:\FR\FM\14AUP1.SGM
14AUP1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 157 (Wednesday, August 14, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 40351-40353]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-17474]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 81
[EPA-R04-OAR-2019-0374; FRL-9998-31-Region 4]
Air Plan Approval and Air Quality Designation; FL; Redesignation
of the Duval County Ozone Unclassifiable Area
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: On June 19, 2019, the State of Florida, through the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), submitted a request for
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to redesignate the Duval
County, Florida ozone unclassifiable area (hereinafter referred to as
the ``Duval County Area'' or ``Area'') to attainment for the 2015
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality
standards (NAAQS). EPA now has sufficient data to determine that the
Duval County Area is in attainment of the 2015 primary and secondary 8-
hour ozone NAAQS. Therefore, EPA is proposing to approve the State's
request and redesignate the Area to attainment/unclassifiable for the
2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS based upon valid,
quality-assured, and certified ambient air monitoring data showing that
the Area is in compliance with the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour
ozone NAAQS.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 13, 2019.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04-
OAR-2019-0374 at https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot
be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. EPA may publish any comment
received to its public docket. Do not submit electronically any
information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI)
or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.
Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a
written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment
and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. EPA will
generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of
the primary submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing
system). For additional submission methods, the full EPA public comment
policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general
guidance on making effective comments, please visit https://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Madolyn Sanchez, Air Regulatory
Management Section, Air Planning and Implementation Branch, Air and
Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61
Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8960. Ms. Sanchez can be
reached by telephone at (404) 562-9644 or via electronic mail at
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) establishes a process for air
quality management through the establishment and implementation of the
NAAQS. After the promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS, EPA is
required to designate areas, pursuant to section 107(d)(1) of the CAA,
as attainment, nonattainment, or unclassifiable. On October 1, 2015,
EPA published a final rule revising the primary and secondary 8-hour
NAAQS for ozone to a level of 70 parts per billion (ppb), based on a 3-
year average of the annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour ozone
concentrations. See 80 FR 65292 (October 26, 2015). EPA established the
standards based on significant evidence and numerous health studies
demonstrating that serious health effects are associated with exposures
to ground-level ozone.
The process for designating areas following promulgation of a new
or revised NAAQS is contained in section 107(d)(1) of the CAA. On June
4, 2018 (83 FR 25776), EPA published a final rule designating certain
areas across the country, including the Duval Area, as nonattainment,
unclassifiable, or attainment/unclassifiable \1\ for the 2015
[[Page 40352]]
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS based upon air quality
monitoring data from monitors for calendar years 2015-2017.\2\ The
monitors in the Duval County Area had incomplete data for the 2015-2017
timeframe. Therefore, EPA designated Duval County as unclassifiable for
the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ For the ozone initial area designations in 2018, EPA used a
designation category of ``attainment/unclassifiable'' for areas that
had monitors showing attainment of the standard and were not
contributing to nearby violations and for areas that did not have
monitors but for which EPA had reason to believe were likely
attaining the standard and not contributing to nearby violations.
EPA used the category ``unclassifiable'' for areas in which EPA
could not determine, based upon available information, whether or
not the NAAQS was being met and/or EPA had not determined the area
to be contributing to nearby violations. EPA reserves the
``attainment'' category for when EPA redesignates a nonattainment
area that has attained the relevant NAAQS and has an approved
maintenance plan.
\2\ This action, combined with final rules published on November
16, 2017 (82 FR 54232) and July 25, 2018 (83 FR 35136), completed
the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS designations for all areas.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As discussed in section III below, the monitors in the Duval County
Area now have sufficient data to determine that the Area is attaining
the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS. Therefore, on June
19, 2019, Florida submitted a request for EPA to redesignate the Duval
County Area to attainment for the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour
ozone NAAQS.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Although Florida requested redesignation of the Area to
``attainment,'' EPA is proposing to redesignate the area to
``attainment/unclassifiable'' because, as noted above, EPA reserves
the ``attainment'' category for when EPA redesignates a
nonattainment area that has attained the relevant NAAQS and has an
approved maintenance plan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
II. What are the criteria for redesignating an area from unclassifiable
to attainment/unclassifiable?
Section 107(d)(3) of the CAA provides the framework for changing
the area designations for any NAAQS pollutants. Section 107(d)(3)(A)
provides that the Administrator may notify the Governor of any state
that the designation of an area should be revised ``on the basis of air
quality data, planning and control considerations, or any other air
quality-related considerations the Administrator deems appropriate.''
The Act further provides in section 107(d)(3)(D) that even if the
Administrator has not notified a state Governor that a designation
should be revised, the Governor of any state may, on the Governor's own
motion, submit a request to revise the designation of any area, and the
Administrator must approve or deny the request.
When approving or denying a request to redesignate an area, EPA
bases its decision on the air quality data for the area as well as the
considerations provided under section 107(d)(3)(A).\4\ In keeping with
section 107(d)(1)(A), areas that are redesignated to attainment/
unclassifiable must meet the requirements for attainment areas and thus
must meet the relevant NAAQS. In addition, the area must not contribute
to ambient air quality in a nearby area that does not meet the NAAQS.
The relevant monitoring data must be collected and quality-assured in
accordance with 40 CFR part 58 and recorded in the EPA Air Quality
System (AQS) database. The designated monitors generally should have
remained at the same location for the duration of the monitoring period
upon which the redesignation request is based.\5\
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\4\ While CAA section 107(d)(3)(E) also lists specific
requirements for redesignations, those requirements only apply to
redesignations of nonattainment areas to attainment and therefore
are not applicable in the context of a redesignation of an area from
unclassifiable to attainment/unclassifiable.
\5\ See Memorandum from John Calcagni, Director, EPA Air Quality
Management Division, entitled ``Procedures for Processing Requests
to Redesignate Areas to Attainment'' (September 4, 1992).
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III. What is EPA's rationale for proposing to redesignate the area?
In order to redesignate the Area from unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable for the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS,
the 3-year average of annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour ozone
concentration values (i.e., design value) over the most recent 3-year
period must be less than or equal to 70 ppb at all monitoring sites in
the Area over the full 3-year period, as determined in accordance with
40 CFR 50.19 and Appendix U of Part 50. EPA reviewed ozone monitoring
data from the monitoring stations in the Duval County Area for the 2015
primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS for the 3-year period from
2016-2018. These data have been quality-assured, certified, and
recorded in AQS by Florida, and the monitoring locations have not
changed during the monitoring period. As summarized in Table 1, the
design values for all of the monitors in the Area for the 2016-2018
period are well below the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone
NAAQS.
Table 1--2015 8-Hour Ozone Design Values for the Monitors in the Duval
County Area for 2016-2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016-2018
Ozone
AQS site No. Site name design
value
(ppb)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
12-031-0077.................... Sheffield Elementary....... 58
12-031-0100.................... Mayo Clinic................ 60
12-031-0106.................... Cisco Drive................ 61
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because the 3-year design values, based on complete, valid,
certified, and quality-assured data, demonstrate that the Area meets
the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone standards, EPA is proposing
to redesignate the Duval County Area from unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable for the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.
IV. Proposed Action
EPA is proposing to approve Florida's June 19, 2019, redesignation
request and to redesignate the Duval County Area from unclassifiable to
attainment/unclassifiable for the 2015 primary and secondary 8-hour
ozone NAAQS. If finalized, approval of the redesignation request would
change the legal designation, found at 40 CFR part 81, of Duval County
from unclassifiable to attainment/unclassifiable for the 2015 primary
and secondary 8-hour ozone NAAQS.
V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
Under the CAA, redesignation of an area to attainment/
unclassifiable is an action that affects the status of a geographical
area and does not impose any additional regulatory requirements on
sources beyond those imposed by state law. A redesignation to
attainment/unclassifiable does not create any new requirements.
Accordingly, this proposed action merely proposes to redesignate an
area to attainment/unclassifiable and does not impose additional
requirements. For that reason, this proposed action:
Is not a significant regulatory action subject to review
by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Orders 12866 (58
FR 51735, October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, January 21, 2011);
Is not an Executive Order 13771 (82 FR 9339, February 2,
2017) regulatory action because redesignations are exempted under
Executive Order 12866;
Does not impose an information collection burden under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.);
Is certified as not having a significant economic impact
on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory
Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.);
Does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or
uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded
Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4);
Does not have Federalism implications as specified in
Executive
[[Page 40353]]
Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999);
Is not an economically significant regulatory action based
on health or safety risks subject to Executive Order 13045 (62 FR
19885, April 23, 1997);
Is not a significant regulatory action subject to
Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001);
Is not subject to requirements of Section 12(d) of the
National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272
note) because application of those requirements would be inconsistent
with the CAA; and
Will not have disproportionate human health or
environmental effects under Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February
16, 1994).
This proposed action does not apply on any Indian reservation land
or in any other area where EPA or an Indian tribe has demonstrated that
a tribe has jurisdiction. In those areas of Indian country, this
proposed action does not have tribal implications as specified by
Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000), nor will it
impose substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal
law.
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 81
Environmental protection, Air pollution control.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: August 5, 2019.
Mary S. Walker,
Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. 2019-17474 Filed 8-13-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P