Environmental Protection Agency August 26, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In a Federal Register notice issued on October 9, 1996, the Environmental Protection Agency (``EPA'') requested comment on how it calculates the economic benefit that regulated entities obtain as a result of violating environmental requirements. EPA makes this calculation as a part of establishing an appropriate penalty for settlement purposes. The Agency's policy is that any civil penalty should at least recapture the economic benefit the violator has obtained through its unlawful actions. Because enforcement staff typically use the BEN (short for benefit) computer model to perform the economic benefit calculations, the Agency requested comments on the BEN model as well as the larger benefit recapture issues. In a subsequent Federal Register notice issued on June 18, 1999, EPA responded to the comments on the October 1996 Federal Register notice; provided advance notice of the changes EPA proposed to make to its benefit recapture approach and the BEN computer model; and requested a second round of comment of those proposed changes. This notice responds to the comments on the June 1999 notice and contains the changes EPA will implement in its benefit recapture program.

This document announces that on May 26, 2005, the Environmental Appeals Board (``EAB'') of EPA denied review of a petition for review of a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (``PSD'') permit amendment (``Permit Amendment'') that EPA, Region 10 and the State of Washington's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (``EFSEC'') issued to Sumas Energy 2, Inc. (``SE2''). The Permit Amendment extends the original PSD permit (``Original Permit'') issued to SE2 for construction and operation of the SE2 electric generating facility (``Facility''). The Permit Amendment was issued pursuant to 40 CFR 52.21.

This document announces that on June 21, 2005, the Environmental Appeals Board (``EAB'') of EPA denied review of a petition for review of a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (``PSD'') permit (``Permit'') that EPA Region 10 and the State of Washington's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (``EFSEC'') issued to BP West Coast Products, L.L.C. (``BP'') for construction and operation of the BP Cherry Point Cogeneration Facility (``Facility''), a natural gas-fired cogeneration facility. The Permit was issued pursuant to 40 CFR 52.21.

EPA is revising the format of part 52 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR part 52) for materials submitted by Chattanooga, Tennessee that are incorporated by reference (IBR) into the State Implementation Plan (SIP). The regulations affected by this format change have all been previously submitted by the local agency and approved by EPA. This format revision will affect the ``Identification of Plan'' sections of 40 CFR part 52, by adding a table for the Chattanooga portion of the Tennessee SIP. This revision will also affect the format of the SIP materials that will be available for public inspection at the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), the Air and Radiation Docket and Information Center, and the Regional Office.

The EPA is approving revisions to the South Carolina and Georgia State Implementation Plans (SIPs), submitted by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), respectively, for the Early Action Compact (EAC) areas in South Carolina and Georgia. The proposed SIP revisions were submitted on December 29, 2004, by South Carolina and December 31, 2004, by Georgia. There are ten EAC areas in South Carolina and Georgia covered by this final action: the Appalachian, Catawba, Pee Dee, Waccamaw, Santee Lynches, Berkeley- Charleston-Dorchester, Low Country, Lower Savannah, Central Midlands, and Upper Savannah EAC Areas. Only the Lower Savannah EAC Area has counties in both South Carolina and Georgia. For the purposes of this document, however, all of the above listed EAC areas will be collectively referred to as the ``South Carolina and Georgia EAC Areas.'' The SIP revisions meet the requirements for the South Carolina and Georgia EAC Areas to attain and maintain the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (the 8-hour ozone standard) as described in the EAC Protocol and related regulations. EPA is also now approving the photochemical modeling used by South Carolina and Georgia to support the attainment and maintenance demonstrations of the 8-hour ozone standard in the South Carolina and Georgia EAC Areas. The revisions being approved today further incorporate regulatory control measures into the South Carolina SIP, including two Statewide regulations pertaining to control of nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions and open burning. In addition, this final action also corrects inadvertent errors in the May 26, 2005, proposal document relating to these SIP revisions (70 FR 30396). In today's final action, EPA is not finalizing its proposed rulemaking to defer the effective date of the nonattainment designations for EAC areas. In a separate action, published on June 8, 2005, EPA proposed to defer the effective date of the nonattainment deferred designation for EAC areas until December 31, 2006 (69 FR 23858). EPA final action on the deferral is expected to be published before September 30, 2005.