Environmental Protection Agency October 20, 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or ``Agency'') is determining that the Imperial County nonattainment area would have attained the 2015 ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) by the August 3, 2021 ``Marginal'' area attainment date, but for emissions emanating from outside the United States. As a result of this final action, the Imperial County nonattainment area will no longer be subject to the Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements pertaining to reclassification upon failure to attain and therefore will remain classified as a Marginal nonattainment area for the 2015 ozone NAAQS. This action discharges the EPA's statutory obligation to determine whether the Imperial County ozone nonattainment area attained the NAAQS by the attainment date.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing a determination that the Nevada County (Western part) and Ventura County areas in California, both classified as Serious for the 2008 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), attained the 2008 ozone NAAQS by the July 20, 2021 attainment date. The EPA is also finalizing a determination that six areas in California classified as Marginal for the 2015 ozone NAAQS, attained the 2015 ozone NAAQS by the August 3, 2021 attainment date. These six areas are: Butte County, Calaveras County, San Luis Obispo (Eastern part), Sutter Buttes, Tuolumne County, and Tuscan Buttes. Our final determination of attainment is based on the exclusion of exceedances of the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS that occurred on multiple days in 2018 and 2020, because the exceedances were due to exceptional events. We are also finalizing our determination that the requirement for the State to have contingency measures for Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) and attainment for the 2008 ozone NAAQS for the Nevada County (Western part) and Ventura nonattainment areas will no longer apply, because the contingency measures will never be needed given the attainment of the NAAQS by the attainment date. This action fulfills the EPA's statutory obligation to determine whether these ozone nonattainment areas attained the NAAQS by the relevant attainment dates.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 60- day public comment period associated with release of the draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Toxicological Review of Hexavalent Chromium. The draft document was prepared by the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) within EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD). EPA is releasing this draft IRIS assessment for public comment in advance of a Science Advisory Board (SAB) led peer review. SAB will convene a public meeting to discuss the draft report with the public during Step 4 of the IRIS Process. The external peer reviewers will consider public comments submitted to the EPA docket in response to this notice and any others provided at the public meeting when reviewing this document. EPA will consider all comments submitted to the docket when revising the document post-peer review. This draft assessment is not final as described in EPA's information quality guidelines, and it does not represent, and should not be construed to represent Agency policy or views.