Environmental Protection Agency July 12, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is taking direct final action to delegate the authority to implement and enforce specific National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) to the Gila River Indian Community Department of Environmental Quality (GRIC) in Arizona. The preamble outlines the process that GRIC will use to receive delegation of any future NESHAP, and identifies the NESHAP categories to be delegated by today's action. EPA has reviewed GRIC's request for delegation and has found that this request satisfies all of the requirements necessary to qualify for approval. Thus, EPA is hereby granting GRIC the authority to implement and enforce the unchanged NESHAP categories listed in this rule.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces two public teleconferences of the SAB Animal Feeding Operations Emission Review Panel (AFO Panel) to discuss additional EPA data and the Panel's draft advisory report regarding EPA draft methodologies for estimating emissions from animal feeding operations.

Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, EPA gives notice of a teleconference meeting of the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Committee (FRRCC). The FRRCC is a policy-oriented committee that provides policy advice, information, and recommendations to the EPA Administrator on a range of environmental issues and policies that are of importance to agriculture and rural communities. The purpose of this teleconference is to discuss specific topics of relevance for consideration by the Committee in order to provide advice and insights to the Agency on environmental policies and programs that affect and engage agriculture and rural communities.

EPA is proposing to approve a state implementation plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Alabama, through the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) to EPA on October 7, 2009, for the purpose of providing for attainment of the 1997 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) in the Alabama portion of the tri-state Chattanooga PM2.5 nonattainment area (hereafter referred to as the ``Chattanooga Area'' or ``Area''). The Chattanooga Area is comprised of Catoosa and Walker Counties in Georgia; Hamilton County in Tennessee; and a portion of Jackson County in Alabama. The Alabama SIP revision (hereafter referred to as the ``attainment plan'') pertains only to the Alabama portion of the Chattanooga Area (hereafter referred to as ``Jackson County''). EPA is now proposing to approve Alabama's October 7, 2009, SIP revision regarding reasonably available control technology (RACT) and reasonably available control measures (RACM); reasonable further progress (RFP); contingency measures; and, for transportation conformity purposes, an insignificance determination for PM2.5 and nitrogen oxides (NOx) for the mobile source contribution to ambient PM2.5 levels for the Alabama portion of the Chattanooga Area. This action is being taken in accordance with the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and the ``Clean Air Fine Particle Implementation Rule,'' hereafter referred to as the ``PM2.5 Implementation Rule,'' issued by EPA on April 25, 2007. The States of Georgia and Tennessee have provided separate SIP revisions with attainment plans for their portions for the Chattanooga Area. EPA is not addressing those SIP revisions in this proposed rulemaking.