[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 221 (Monday, November 17, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 61236]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-30137]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[AL-036-1 9715; FRL-5922-4]
Revocation of the Section 182(f) Oxides of Nitrogen
(NOX) Exemption Granted to the Birmingham Ozone
Nonattainment Area
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Final rule; informational notice.
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SUMMARY: The EPA has rescinded its previous approval of the State of
Alabama's exemption from NOX provisions for the Birmingham
marginal nonattainment area. The exemption was originally approved by
EPA in 1993. It is now rescinded because the conditions which formed
the basis of the original approval no longer exist; and there is no
other showing from the State of Alabama that reductions of
NOX would not contribute to attainment of the ozone standard
for the area.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This action was effective September 19, 1997.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to Kimberly Bingham at the EPA Region
4 address listed below. Copies of the material submitted by the Alabama
Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) may be examined during
normal business hours at the following locations:
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, Air Planning Branch, 61
Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3104.
Alabama Department of Environmental Management, 1751 Congressman W. L.
Dickinson Drive, Montgomery, Alabama 36109.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kimberly Bingham, Regulatory Planning
Section, Air Planning Branch, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management
Division, Region 4, Environmental Protection Agency, 61 Forsyth Street,
SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. The telephone number is (404) 562-9038.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Section 182(f)(1)(A) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) provides for an
exemption from New Source Review (NSR) offsets for NOX
emissions in ozone nonattainment areas where a state shows and EPA
agrees that additional NOX reductions would not contribute
to attainment of the ozone standard in that area. At the time of the
request submitted by the State of Alabama through the Alabama
Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), the Birmingham area was
required to attain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
for ozone by November 15, 1993. Given this deadline, offsets from new
sources of NOX emissions applying for a permit to locate in
the Birmingham area after November 15, 1992, would not in practice have
been achieved prior to the expected ozone attainment date. Based on
this information, the EPA determined that the application of the
NOX provisions would not have contributed to the timely
attainment of the ozone standard and, therefore, approved the
NOX exemption for the Birmingham area. (58 FR 45439).
Moreover, the area had ambient air quality data that demonstrated
attainment of the ozone NAAQS on November 15, 1993.
Accordingly, on August 30, 1993, the EPA announced in the Federal
Register (58 FR 45439) that it had determined, pursuant to the State's
request according to the provisions of section 182(f) of the CAA, that
additional reductions of NOX would not contribute to
attainment of the NAAQS for ozone in the Birmingham nonattainment area.
In that same notice, the EPA approved a request from ADEM for an
exemption from the CAA requirements for NSR offsets for NOX.
In addition to exempting the Birmingham ozone nonattainment area from
NOX NSR, this action also exempted the Birmingham ozone
nonattainment area from applicable transportation and general
conformity requirements for NOX in accordance with 58 FR
62188 and 58 FR 63214. Because the EPA previously issued an area wide
exemption under section 182(f) of the CAA, Region 4 acknowledged on
November 21, 1994, that additional exemptions from the conformity
requirements automatically applied to the Birmingham area.
On March 16, 1995, ADEM submitted a request for redesignation of
the Birmingham marginal ozone nonattainment area to attainment status.
However, prior to the close of the administrative record on the
redesignation request, the Birmingham area registered a violation of
the ozone standard on August 18, 1995. EPA proposed disapproval of the
redesignation request and the associated maintenance plan on April 30,
1997. On September 19, 1997, EPA published in the Federal Register, a
final rulemaking which disapproved the ozone redesignation request for
the Birmingham area (See 62 FR 49154). In light of the fact that the
Birmingham area continued to violate the NAAQS for ozone in 1996, the
EPA could no longer conclude that additional NOX reductions
would not contribute to attainment of the ozone standard for this area.
For those reasons, the NOX exemption for the Birmingham
marginal ozone nonattainment area has been revoked.
This determination was made as of the effective date of the
redesignation disapproval, September 19, 1997, because the basis of the
disapproval is the violation of the ozone NAAQS. A letter dated
September 11, 1997, provided ADEM official notification that the waiver
for Birmingham would be revoked as of the aforementioned date.
As a result of the NOX waiver being rescinded for the
Birmingham marginal ozone nonattainment area, the State will be
required to implement New Source Review for major stationary sources of
NOX. Furthermore, the State will no longer have a waiver for
the Birmingham ozone nonattainment area which exempts the area from CAA
requirements to satisfy the general and transportation conformity
requirements for NOX. Consequently, the Birmingham
Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Alabama Department of
Transportation must demonstrate that the future long-range
transportation plan (LRTP) and the transportation improvement program
(TIP) conformity analyses satisfy the applicable VOC and NOX
requirements in section 93.109 of the transportation conformity rule,
as amended on August 15, 1997. The approved conformity determination
for the existing 2015 LRTP demonstrated that the ``Action'' scenarios
for 2005 and 2015 will have NOX emissions over the
respective ``Baseline'' scenarios. Without an NOX waiver,
any new LRTP and/or TIP for the Birmingham area which shows such
increases would not satisfy the emission reduction requirements of
section 93.119 of the transportation conformity rule and would not be
in conformance with the Alabama State Implementation Plan.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q.
Dated: October 31, 1997.
A. Stanley Meiburg,
Acting Regional Administrator.
[FR Doc. 97-30137 Filed 11-14-97; 8:45 am]
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