Environmental Protection Agency November 24, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is publishing an updated list of EPA financial assistance programs which states may choose to review under their Single Point of Contact (SPOC) intergovernmental review processes. These programs are also eligible for intergovernmental review by directly affected state, areawide, regional, and local entities if a state does not have a SPOC or chooses not to review an application for EPA financial assistance. EPA is also streamlining the intergovernmental review process and is offering the public an opportunity to comment on the revisions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a source-specific State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Air Quality (DAQ), in final form, through a letter dated September 3, 2020. North Carolina's September 3, 2020, source- specific SIP revision requests that EPA incorporate into the SIP more stringent sulfur dioxide (SO2) permit limits than those currently contained in the SIP for the Blue Ridge Paper Products, LLC (also known as BRPP) facility located in the Beaverdam Township Area of Haywood County, North Carolina. Specifically, EPA is approving, into the SIP, specific SO2 permit limits and associated operating restrictions, monitoring, recordkeeping, reporting (MRR) and testing compliance requirements established in BRPP's title V operating permit as permanent and enforceable SO2 control measures. North Carolina submitted these limits to support its recommendation that EPA designate the Beaverdam Township Area as ``attainment/unclassifiable'' under the 2010 primary SO2 national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS or standard) (also referred to as the 2010 1-hour SO2 NAAQS). The purpose of this rulemaking is not to take action on whether these SO2 emissions limits are adequate for EPA to designate the Beaverdam Township Area as attainment under the 2010 1-hour SO2 NAAQS. Instead, EPA will determine the air quality status and designate remaining undesignated areas for the 2010 1-hour SO2 NAAQS, including the Beaverdam Township Area, in a separate action. This SIP approval does not prejudge that future designation action.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is promulgating revisions to its major New Source Review (NSR) applicability regulations to clarify when the requirement to obtain a major NSR permit applies to a source proposing to undertake a physical change or a change in the method of operation (i.e., a project) under the major NSR preconstruction permitting programs. Under these programs, an existing major stationary source proposing to undertake a project must determine whether that project will constitute a major modification subject to the major NSR preconstruction permitting requirements by following a two-step applicability test. The first step is to determine if the proposed project would result in a ``significant emissions increase'' of a regulated NSR pollutant (Step 1). If the proposed project is determined to result in such an increase, the second step is to determine if the project would also result in a ``significant net emissions increase'' of that pollutant from the source (Step 2). In this action, we are promulgating revisions to our major NSR applicability regulations to clarify that both increases and decreases in emissions resulting from a proposed project can be considered in Step 1 of the major NSR major modification applicability test. We refer to the consideration of emissions increases and decreases in Step 1 as project emissions accounting.