Environmental Protection Agency February 21, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is holding an initial meeting of the Arsenic Small Systems Working Group to provide input and recommendations on barriers to the use of point-of-use and point-of-entry treatment units, package plant, and modular units, as well as alternative affordability criteria that give extra weight to small, rural, and lower income communities. This meeting will be held via Webcast and the public may attend this meeting.

EPA is finalizing revisions to the Transport Rule that was published on August 8, 2011 (76 FR 48208). These revisions address discrepancies in unit-specific modeling assumptions that affect the proper calculation of Transport Rule state budgets and assurance levels in Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin, as well as new unit set-asides in Arkansas and Texas. EPA is also finalizing allowance allocation revisions to specific units covered by certain consent decrees that restrict the use of those allowances. The resulting budgets maintain substantial emission reductions from historic levels and are consistent with the final Transport Rule's methodology for defining significant contribution and interference with maintenance.\1\

EPA is proposing additional revisions to certain portions of the Transport Rule (Federal Implementation Plans: Interstate Transport of Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone and Correction of SIP Approvals, published August 8, 2011). The final Transport Rule limits the interstate transport of emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) that contribute harmful levels of fine particle matter and ozone in downwind states. After the final rule was published, it was brought to our attention that there are some incorrect data assumptions that affect a few states' budgets or new unit set-asides in the rule text. On October 14, 2011, EPA proposed revisions to the final Transport Rule based on this new information and sought comment on additional unit-level information addressing post- combustion pollution control equipment and operational requirements necessitating non-economic generation of a unit. EPA is finalizing the earlier specifically proposed revisions in a separate action. EPA has reviewed the information provided in comments addressing the topics described above and proposes to determine that the unit-level adjustments described in the preamble to the direct final are merited.