Environmental Protection Agency January 26, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is proposing a limited approval of revisions to the Indiana State Implementation Plan (SIP) addressing regional haze for the first implementation period. Indiana submitted its regional haze plan on January 14, 2011, and supplemented it on March 10, 2011. The Indiana regional haze plan addresses the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and Regional Haze Rule (RHR) requirements for states to remedy any existing and prevent future anthropogenic impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas caused by emissions of air pollutants from numerous sources located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the ``regional haze program''). States are required to assure reasonable progress toward the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas. EPA is proposing a limited approval of these SIP revisions to implement the regional haze requirements for Indiana on the basis that the revisions, as a whole, strengthen the Indiana SIP. In a separate action, EPA has previously proposed a limited disapproval of the Indiana regional haze SIP because of the deficiencies in Indiana's regional haze SIP submittal arising from the remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit) to EPA of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). Consequently, we are not proposing to take action in this notice to address the state's reliance on CAIR to meet certain regional haze requirements.

EPA is proposing limited approval of a revision to the Pennsylvania State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) on December 20, 2010 that addresses regional haze for the first implementation period. This revision addresses the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA's rules that require states to prevent any future, and remedy any existing, anthropogenic impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas caused by emissions of air pollutants from numerous sources located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the ``regional haze program''). States are required to assure reasonable progress toward the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas. EPA is proposing a limited approval of this SIP revision to implement the regional haze requirements for Pennsylvania on the basis that the revisions, as a whole, strengthen the Pennsylvania SIP. EPA is also proposing to approve this revision as meeting the infrastructure requirements relating to visibility protection for the 1997 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and the 1997 and 2006 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) NAAQS. In a separate action, EPA has previously proposed a limited disapproval of the Pennsylvania regional haze SIP because of deficiencies in the Commonwealth's regional haze SIP submittal arising from the remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC Circuit) to EPA of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), see 76 FR 82219, December 30, 2011. Consequently, we are not taking action in this notice to address the Commonwealth's reliance on CAIR to meet certain regional haze requirements.