Environmental Protection Agency April 4, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The EPA is requesting comment on issues raised in a petition for reconsideration of EPA's rule to implement the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS or 8-hour standard). On April 30, 2004, EPA took final action on key elements of the program to implement the 8-hour standard. In that final action, we (the EPA) addressed certain implementation issues related to the 8-hour standard, including aspects of implementation of the nonattainment major New Source Review (NSR) program mandated by part D of title I of the Act (CAA or Act). Following this action, on June 29, 2004 and September 24, 2004, three different parties each filed a petition for reconsideration concerning implementation of the 8-hour standard, including both major NSR and other issues. By letter dated September 23, 2004, EPA granted reconsideration of three issues raised in the petition for reconsideration filed by Earthjustice on behalf of several environmental organizations. On February 3, 2005, we published a proposed rule providing additional information and soliciting comment on two of the issues on which we granted reconsideration. Today, we provide additional information and seek comment on the third issue, which relates to two aspects of the major NSR provisions in the April 30, 2004 final rules. Specifically, we request comment on whether we should interpret the Act to require areas to retain major NSR requirements that apply to certain 1-hour ozone nonattainment areas in implementing the 8-hour standard, and whether EPA properly concludes that a State's request to remove 1-hour major NSR programs from its State Implementation Plan (SIP) will not interfere with any applicable requirement within the meaning of Section 110(l) of the Act.

EPA proposes to approve State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the District of Columbia, the State of Maryland, and the Commonwealths of Virginia and Pennsylvania for the purpose of revising their respective Carbon Monoxide (CO) Maintenance Plans in support of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving each State's SIP submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views these as noncontroversial submittals and anticipates no adverse comments. A more detailed description of the state submittal and EPA's evaluation are included in a Technical Support Document (TSD) prepared in support of this rulemaking action. A copy of the TSD is available, upon request, from the EPA Regional Office listed in the ADDRESSES section of this document. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.

EPA proposes to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the purpose of establishing and requiring reasonably available control technology (RACT) for three major sources of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOX). In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the State's SIP submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.