[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 67 (Tuesday, April 8, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 16704-16706]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-8898]
[[Page 16704]]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[IL 150; FRL-5804-2]
Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plan; Illinois
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).
ACTION: Direct final rule.
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SUMMARY: In this action USEPA is approving the State Implementation
Plan (SIP) revision request submitted by the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency (IEPA) on August 15, 1996. In the August 15 request,
IEPA requested that the Marathon Oil Company in Robinson, Illinois be
granted a carbon monoxide (CO) variance with specified conditions
beginning January 19, 1996, and ending August 4, 1997. This variance
exempts the Marathon Oil Company from the emission limits specified in
the relevant CO SIP approved May 31, 1972 and revised February 21,
1980, thereby allowing its fluid bed catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) to
emit 300 parts per million (ppm) of CO corrected for 50 percent excess
air (Corrected) instead of the SIP emission limit of 200 ppm Corrected.
The conditions require that the Marathon Oil Company utilize all means
possible to minimize emissions and implement a plan of compliance
submitted as part of the SIP revision. In this action, USEPA is
approving the requested SIP revision through a ``direct final''
rulemaking; the rationale for this approval is set forth below.
Elsewhere in this Federal Register, USEPA is proposing approval and
soliciting comment on this direct final action; if adverse comments are
received, USEPA will withdraw the direct final and address the comments
received in a new final rule; otherwise, no further rulemaking will
occur on this requested SIP revision. The USEPA is approving this SIP
revision request because modeling shows that the emission limits are
adequate to protect the CO national ambient air quality standards
(NAAQS).
DATES: This action is effective on June 9, 1997, unless USEPA receives
adverse or critical comments by May 8, 1997. If the effective date is
delayed, timely notification will be published in the Federal Register.
ADDRESSES: Written comments should be mailed to: J. Elmer Bortzer,
Chief, Regulation Development Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J),
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, 77 West Jackson
Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604.
Copies of the State submittal and USEPA's analysis of it are
available for inspection at: Regulation Development Section, Air
Programs Branch (AR-18J), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region
5, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ryan Bahr, Environmental Engineer,
Regulation Development Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J), U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, 77 West Jackson Boulevard,
Chicago, Illinois 60604, (312) 353-4366.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Marathon Oil Company is located in Crawford County, Illinois
which is designated attainment for CO (See 40 CFR 81.314). On May 31,
1972 (37 FR 10862) the USEPA approved the ``State of Illinois Air
Pollution Implementation Plan'' as the Illinois SIP. On February 21,
1980, the USEPA approved revisions to the SIP, incorporating section
216.361 in Title 35 of the Illinois Administrative Code (35 IAC
216.361) as part of the Illinois SIP (45 FR 11472). The SIP limits
petroleum and petrochemical processes to emit no more than 200 ppm
Corrected of CO. The FCCU operated by the Marathon Oil Company is such
a petroleum process and therefore cannot legally emit CO in excess of
this limit.
On August 4 and 5 of 1993, stack tests showed the FCCU at the
Marathon Oil Company to be emitting above the 200 ppm limit. The State
issued a Compliance Inquiry Letter (CIL) on March 2, 1995, concerning
the stack tests. The Marathon Oil Company then performed a test on
March 14, finding the FCCU to be emitting less than 200 ppm Corrected.
The USEPA issued a notice of violation (NOV), concerning the 1993 test
results, on April 13, 1995. Then, on May 23, 1995, the Marathon Oil
Company filed a petition with the State for a variance from 35 IAC.
Adm. Code Sec. 216.361(a).
On May 16, 1996, Illinois approved the variance for the period
beginning on January 19, 1996, and ending August 4, 1997, as Illinois
Pollution Control Board Variance 95-150 (PCB 95-150). The effective
date of the Variance was January 19, 1996. A plan of compliance was
also approved as part of that variance.
IEPA submitted the variance as a SIP revision request on August 15,
1996. The USEPA found the submittal to be complete in a completeness
letter to IEPA on December 20, 1996.
II. Analysis of State Submittal
What Illinois designates as a variance can be considered for a SIP
revision if there is evidence that no exceedances of the NAAQS would
occur under the variance, and the applicable prevention of significant
deterioration (PSD) requirements are acceptably addressed.
A. Air Quality Modeling
In support of the SIP revision request and to show the CO NAAQS to
be protected, IEPA submitted dispersion modeling performed by a
contractor for the Marathon Oil Company. The basic study entitled
``Screening Modeling of Air Emissions from the CO Boiler Bypass Stack
at Robinson'' was completed May 9, 1994, and was the only analysis
submitted with the original request. The USEPA requested a more
detailed report and was supplied with an attachment on October 3, 1996,
which was inadvertently omitted from the revision request. This report
entitled ``Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling of Carbon Monoxide Emissions
from the CO Boiler at the Robinson Refinery'' had been completed on May
1, 1995.
The analysis used The Industrial Source Complex--Short Term Model
to calculate maximum downwind concentrations of CO for several
scenarios. The highest ambient concentration resulting from an effluent
concentration of 300 ppm was .03 ppm on a one hour average basis and
.007 ppm on an eight hour averaging basis. The NAAQS for CO are 35 ppm
on a one hour averaging basis and 9 ppm for an 8 hour averaging basis.
This modeling was reviewed by the USEPA and was found to be acceptable
and demonstrates that no exceedances of the NAAQS would occur under a
CO emission limit of 300 ppm.
B. Prevention of Significant Deterioration
The Marathon Oil Company's FCCU was constructed in 1975, prior to
the promulgation of PSD rules. The original permit was not a PSD permit
and the original capacity or potential to emit, has not changed since
the original construction. Therefore, PSD does not apply.
C. Test Methods
Illinois' August 15, 1996, submittal did not include revisions to
or discussion of compliance test methods. The current SIP, which
includes Crawford County limits and selected test methods that were
simultaneously approved on May 31, 1972 (37 FR 10862), applies the
stack test method in 35 IAC Sec. 216.101 as the reference test method
for evaluating compliance with
[[Page 16705]]
the Crawford County limits. The State's recent submittal did not
request revisions to the applicable test methods. This indicates that
the SIP continues to apply the test methodology in 35 IAC Sec. 216.101
as the applicable reference test method for all of Crawford County's
sources.
D. Plan of Compliance
The plan of compliance calls for revising the refinery gas burners,
inspection and repair of the damper controls, installation of a flame
temperature measuring devise, burner improvements, and boiler testing
and optimization, all to be concluded before June 14, 1997. The USEPA
realizes that this plan has the potential for decreasing CO emissions
and the Marathon Oil Company shall implement the plan as written.
However, the plan does not demonstrate that it will achieve compliance,
and is therefore considered as routine maintenance measures and not a
compliance plan. The implementation of the plan does not exempt the
Marathon Oil Company from any regulations which apply to the facility.
III. USEPA's Rulemaking Action
USEPA is approving the SIP revision request submitted by the IEPA
on August 15, 1996, which grants the Marathon Oil Company in Robinson,
Illinois a CO variance with specified conditions beginning January 19,
1996, and ending August 4, 1997. Dispersion modeling has shown the CO
emission limit of 300 ppm to be protective of the NAAQS and is
therefore approved. This site-specific SIP revision consists of
variance PCB 95-150, which was adopted on May 16, 1996, and became
effective on January 19, 1996. This is a variance from section 35 IAC
216.361(a) as it applies to the Marathon Oil Company's fluid bed
catalytic cracking unit.
The USEPA is publishing this action without prior proposal because
USEPA views this as a noncontroversial revision and anticipates no
adverse comments. However, in a separate document in this Federal
Register publication, the USEPA is proposing to approve the SIP
revision should adverse or critical comments be filed. This action will
be effective on June 9, 1997, unless, by May 8, 1997, adverse or
critical comments are received.
If the USEPA receives such comments, this action will be withdrawn
before the effective date by publishing a subsequent rulemaking that
will withdraw the final action. All public comments received will be
addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this action serving as a
proposed rule. The USEPA will not institute a second comment period on
this action. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should
do so at this time. If no such comments are received, the public is
advised that this action will be effective on June 9, 1997.
Nothing in this action should be construed as permitting, allowing
or establishing a precedent for any future request for revision to any
SIP. Each request for revision to the SIP shall be considered
separately in light of specific technical, economic, and environmental
factors and in relation to relevant statutory and regulatory
requirements.
IV. Administrative Requirements
A. Executive Order 12866
This action has been classified as a Table 3 action for signature
by the Regional Administrator under the procedures published in the
Federal Register on January 19, 1989 (54 FR 2214-2225), as revised by a
July 10, 1995, memorandum from Mary D. Nichols, Assistant Administrator
for Air and Radiation. The Office of Management and Budget has exempted
this regulatory action from Executive Order 12866 review.
B. Regulatory Flexibility
Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. section 600 et seq.,
USEPA must prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis assessing the
impact of any proposed or final rule on small entities. 5 U.S.C.
sections 603 and 604. Alternatively, USEPA may certify that the rule
will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small
entities. Small entities include small businesses, small not-for-profit
enterprises, and government entities with jurisdiction over populations
of less than 50,000.
SIP approvals under section 110 and subchapter I, part D of the
Clean Air Act (Act) do not create any new requirements, but simply
approve requirements that the State is already imposing. Therefore,
because the Federal SIP approval does not impose any new requirements,
the Administrator certifies that it does not have a significant impact
on any small entities affected. Moreover, due to the nature of the
Federal-State relationship under the Act, preparation of a flexibility
analysis would constitute Federal inquiry into the economic
reasonableness of the State action. The Act forbids USEPA to base its
actions concerning SIPs on such grounds. Union Electric Co. v. EPA.,
427 U.S. 246, 256-66 (1976); 42 U.S.C. 7410(a)(2).
C. Unfunded Mandates
Under Section 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995,
signed into law on March 22, 1995, USEPA must undertake various actions
in association with any proposed or final rule that includes a Federal
mandate that may result in estimated costs to state, local, or tribal
governments, or to the private sector, in the aggregate of $100 million
or more. This Federal action approves pre-existing requirements under
state or local law, and imposes no new requirements. Accordingly, no
additional costs to state, local, or tribal governments, or the private
sector, result from this action.
D. Petitions for Judicial Review
Under section 307(b)(1) of the Act, petitions for judicial review
of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for
the appropriate circuit by June 9, 1997. 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,
Intergovernmental relations, Reporting and record keeping requirements.
Dated: March 19, 1997.
David A. Ullrich,
Acting Regional Administrator.
For the reasons stated in the preamble, part 52, 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. 7401-7671q.
2. Section 52.729 is added to read as follows:
Sec. 52.729 Control strategy: Carbon monoxide.
The following source specific emission controls are approved: (a)
Approval--On August 15, 1996, the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency requested that the Marathon Oil Company in Robinson, Illinois be
[[Page 16706]]
granted a carbon monoxide (CO) state implementation plan (SIP) revision
with specified conditions. This SIP revision limits the Marathon Oil
Company's CO emissions from its fluid bed catalytic cracking unit CO
boiler to be no more than 300 parts per million of CO corrected for 50
percent excess air beginning January 19, 1996, and ending August 4,
1997. The variance became effective January 19, 1996. The SIP revision
request satisfies all applicable requirements of the Clean Air Act.
(b) [Reserved]
[FR Doc. 97-8898 Filed 4-7-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
