06-1788. Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; State of Iowa

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Direct final rule.

SUMMARY:

EPA is approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the state of Iowa for the purpose of establishing exemptions for indoor sources of air pollution that are not directly vented to the outside but have emissions that leave the building through doors, vents or other means. This revision also clarifies that the permitting exemptions do not relieve the owner or operator of any source from any obligation to comply with any other applicable requirements. The state has determined that air pollution emissions from this equipment are negligible and these exemptions are likely to result in no significant impact on human health or the environment.

DATES:

This direct final rule will be effective May 1, 2006, without further notice, unless EPA receives adverse comment by March 30, 2006. If adverse comment is received, EPA will publish a timely withdrawal of the direct final rule in the Federal Register informing the public that the rule will not take effect.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R07-OAR-2006-0086, by one of the following methods:

1. http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments.

2. E-mail: [e-mail].

3. Mail: Heather Hamilton, Environmental Protection Agency, Air Planning and Development Branch, 901 North 5th Street, Kansas City, Kansas 66101.

4. Hand Delivery or Courier. Deliver your comments to Heather Hamilton, Environmental Protection Agency, Air Planning and Development Branch, 901 North 5th Street, Kansas City, Kansas 66101.

Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R07-OAR-2006-0086. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the public docket without change and may be made available online at http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail information that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site is an “anonymous access” system, which means EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without going through http://www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses.

Docket: All documents in the electronic docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, i.e., CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is not placed on the Internet and will be publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Environmental Protection Agency, Air Planning and Development Branch, 901 North 5th Street, Kansas City, Kansas 66101. The Regional Office's official hours of business are Monday through Friday, 8 to 4:30 excluding Federal holidays. The interested persons wanting to examine these documents should make an appointment with the office at least 24 hours in advance.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Heather Hamilton at [phone], or by e-mail at [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Throughout this document whenever “we,” “us,” or “our” is used, we mean EPA. This section provides additional information by addressing the following questions:

What Is a SIP?

What Is the Federal Approval Process for a SIP?

What Does Federal Approval of a State Regulation Mean to Me?

What Is Being Addressed in This Document?

Have the Requirements for Approval of a SIP Revision Been Met?

What Action Is EPA Taking?

What is a SIP?

Section 110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) requires states to develop air pollution regulations and control strategies to ensure that state air quality meets the national ambient air quality standards established by EPA. These ambient standards are established under section 109 of the CAA, and they currently address six criteria pollutants. These pollutants are: Carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, lead, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide.

Each state must submit these regulations and control strategies to us for approval and incorporation into the Federally-enforceable SIP.

Each Federally-approved SIP protects air quality primarily by addressing air pollution at its point of origin. These SIPs can be extensive, containing state regulations or other enforceable documents and supporting information such as emission inventories, monitoring networks, and modeling demonstrations.

What Is the Federal Approval Process for a SIP?

In order for state regulations to be incorporated into the Federally-enforceable SIP, states must formally adopt the regulations and control strategies consistent with state and Federal requirements. This process generally includes a public notice, public hearing, public comment period, and a formal adoption by a state-authorized rulemaking body.

Once a state rule, regulation, or control strategy is adopted, the state submits it to us for inclusion into the SIP. We must provide public notice and seek additional public comment regarding the proposed Federal action on the state submission. If adverse comments are received, they must be addressed prior to any final Federal action by us.

All state regulations and supporting information approved by EPA under section 110 of the CAA are incorporated into the Federally-approved SIP. Records of such SIP actions are maintained in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at title 40, part 52, entitled “Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans.” The actual state regulations which are approved are not reproduced in their entirety in the CFR outright but are “incorporated by reference,” which means that we have approved a given state regulation with a specific effective date.

What Does Federal Approval of a State Regulation Mean to Me?

Enforcement of the state regulation before and after it is incorporated into the Federally-approved SIP is primarily a state responsibility. However, after the regulation is Federally approved, we are authorized to take enforcement action against violators. Citizens are also offered legal recourse to address violations as described in section 304 of the CAA.

What Is Being Addressed in This Document?

EPA is approving a revision to the SIP for the State of Iowa to establish exemptions for indoor sources of air pollution that are not directly vented to the outside but have emissions that leave the building through doors, vents or other means. The introductory paragraph to the Iowa Administrative Code 567-22.1(2) “Exemptions” is being changed to state that these additional permitting exemptions do not relieve the owner or operator of any source from any obligation to comply with any other applicable requirements. The change further states that the exemptions from construction permitting listed in the subrule with this rulemaking may be used provided that a permit is not needed to create federally enforceable limits that restrict potential to emit.

The exemptions include equipment, processes and activities identified in the rule and summarized below. The reader should refer to the Iowa Administrative Code, Chapter 22.1(2)x. through ii. which is part of the docket for this rulemaking for more detail concerning the exemptions.

1. The following equipment, processes, and activities: (1) Facilities used for preparing food or beverages primarily for consumption at the source; (2) Consumer use of certain office equipment and products; (3) Janitorial services and consumer use of janitorial products; (4) Internal combustion engines used for lawn care, landscaping, and groundskeeping purposes; (5) Laundry activities, not including dry cleaning and steam boilers; (6) Bathroom vent emissions; (7) Blacksmith forges; (8) Plant maintenance and upkeep activities and repair or maintenance shop activities, provided that these activities are not conducted as part of a manufacturing process; (9) Air compressors and vacuum pumps, including hand tools; (10) Batteries and battery charging stations, except at battery manufacturing plants; (11) Certain equipment used to store, mix, pump, handle or package soaps, detergents, and other materials listed in the rule; (12) Equipment used exclusively to slaughter animals; (13) Vents from continuous emissions monitors and other analyzers; (14) Natural gas pressure regulator vents, excluding venting at oil and gas production facilities; (15) Certain equipment used by surface coating operations that apply the coating by brush, roller, or dipping; (16) Hydraulic and hydrostatic testing equipment; (17) Environmental chambers not using gases which are hazardous air pollutants; (18) Shock chambers, humidity chambers, and solar simulators; (19) Fugitive dust emissions related to movement of passenger vehicles on unpaved road surfaces, provided that the emissions are not counted for applicability purposes and that any fugitive dust control plan or its equivalent is submitted as required by the department; (20) Process water filtration systems and demineralizers; (21) Boiler water treatment operations, not including cooling towers or lime silos; (22) Oxygen scavenging (deaeration) of water; (23) Fire suppression systems; (24) Emergency road flares; (25) Steam vents, safety relief valves, and steam leaks; and, (26) Steam sterilizers.

2. Certain direct-fired equipment based on specified fuel types and maximum heat input.

3. Closed refrigeration systems, including storage tanks used in refrigeration systems, excluding combustion equipment associated with such systems.

4. Pretreatment application processes that use aqueous-based chemistries designed to prepare a substrate for an organic coating, provided that the chemical concentrate contains no more than 5 percent organic solvents by weight.

5. Indoor-vented powder coating operations with filters or powder recovery systems.

6. Certain electric curing ovens or curing ovens used for powder coating operations, and meeting fuel, heat input, and powder usage restrictions.

7. Small production painting, adhesive or coating units unless a particular unit is subject to requirements of other rules specified in the exemption.

8. Production surface coating activities that use only nonrefillable hand-held aerosol cans, where the total volatile organic compound emissions from all these activities at a stationary source do not exceed 5.0 tons per year.

9. Production welding meeting specified design and usage restrictions.

10. Electric hand soldering, wave soldering, and electric solder paste reflow ovens.

11. Pressurized piping and storage systems for natural gas, propane, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and refrigerants, where emissions could only result from an upset condition.

12. Emissions from the storage and mixing of paints and solvents associated with the painting operations, provided that the emissions from the storage and mixing are accounted for in an enforceable permit condition or are otherwise exempt.

Based on review of IDNR's technical evaluation documented in the exemption justification document submitted with the rule and included in the docket, these activities generate emissions that have little or no environmental or human health consequences and can be exempted from the requirement to obtain a construction permit.

Have the Requirements for Approval of a SIP Revision Been Met?

The state submittal has met the public notice requirements for SIP submissions in accordance with 40 CFR 51.102. The submittal also satisfied the completeness criteria of 40 CFR part 51, appendix V. In addition, as explained above and in more detail in the technical support document that is part of this document, the revision meets the substantive SIP requirements of the CAA, including section 110 and implementing regulations.

What Action Is EPA Taking?

EPA is approving a revision which adds permitting exemptions to the Iowa Administrative Code. This revision also clarifies that the permitting exemptions do not relieve the owner or operator of any source from any obligation to comply with any other applicable requirements.

We are processing this action as a direct final action because the revisions make minor changes to the existing rules that are noncontroversial. Therefore, we do not anticipate any adverse comments. Please note that if EPA receives adverse comment on part of this rule and if that part can be severed from the remainder of the rule, EPA may adopt as final those parts of the rule that are not the subject of an adverse comment.

Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

Under Executive Order 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993), this action is not a “significant regulatory action” and therefore is not subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget. For this reason, this action is also not subject to Executive Order 13211, “Actions Concerning Regulations That Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use” (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001). This action merely approves state law as meeting Federal requirements and imposes no additional requirements beyond those imposed by state law. Accordingly, the Administrator certifies that this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.). Because this rule approves pre-existing requirements under state law and does not impose any additional enforceable duty beyond that required by state law, it does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4).

This rule also does not have tribal implications because it will not have a substantial direct effect on one or more Indian tribes, on the relationship between the Federal Government and Indian tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between the Federal Government and Indian tribes, as specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000). This action also does not have Federalism implications because it does not have substantial direct effects on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government, as specified in Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999). This action merely approves a state rule implementing a Federal standard, and does not alter the relationship or the distribution of power and responsibilities established in the CAA. This rule also is not subject to Executive Order 13045, “Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks” (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997), because it is not economically significant.

In reviewing SIP submissions, EPA's role is to approve state choices, provided that they meet the criteria of the CAA. In this context, in the absence of a prior existing requirement for the State to use voluntary consensus standards (VCS), EPA has no authority to disapprove a SIP submission for failure to use VCS. It would thus be inconsistent with applicable law for EPA, when it reviews a SIP submission, to use VCS in place of a SIP submission that otherwise satisfies the provisions of the CAA. Thus, the requirements of section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) do not apply. This rule does not impose an information collection burden under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule, to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the United States. EPA will submit a report containing this rule and other required information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States prior to publication of the rule in the Federal Register. A major rule cannot take effect until 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register. This action is not a “major rule” as defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2).

Under section 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act, petitions for judicial review of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the appropriate circuit by May 1, 2006. Filing a petition for reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect the finality of this rule for the purposes of judicial review nor does it extend the time within which a petition for judicial review may be filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness of such rule or action. This action may not be challenged later in proceedings to enforce its requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).)

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

• Environmental protection
• Air pollution control
• Carbon monoxide
• Incorporation by reference
• Intergovernmental relations
• Lead
• Nitrogen dioxide
• Ozone
• Particulate matter
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
• Sulfur oxides
• Volatile organic compounds

Dated: February 17, 2006.

James B. Gulliford,

Regional Administrator, Region 7.

Chapter I, title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows:

PART 52—[AMENDED]

1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.

Subpart Q—Iowa

2. In § 52.820 the table in paragraph (c) is amended by revising the entry for 567-22.1 to read as follows:

§ 52.820

Identification of plan.

* * * * *

(c) * * *

EPA-Approved Iowa Regulations

Iowa Citation	Title	State effective date	EPA approval date	Explanation
IOWA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION COMMISSION [567]
*         *         *         *         *         *         *
Chapter 22—Controlling Pollution
567-22.1	Permits Required for New or Existing Stationary Sources	10/19/05	02/28/06 [insert FR page number where the document begins]
*         *         *         *         *         *         *

* * * * *