2022-19694. Air Plan Approval; Rhode Island; Prevention of Significant Deterioration Infrastructure State Implementation Plan Elements for the 2012 PM2.5

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Proposed rule.

SUMMARY:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving three elements of a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision, which was submitted by the State of Rhode Island on December 6, 2017. This revision addressed the infrastructure requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act) for the 2012 annual fine particle (PM_2.5) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). On May 31, 2022, EPA approved much of the submission, but did not act on three elements related to the infrastructure requirement to have a comprehensive Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program. In today's action, EPA is approving the three remaining elements of the state's December 2017 infrastructure SIP submittal based on a previous EPA approval of Rhode Island's Air Pollution Control Regulation (APCR) No. 9. This action is being taken in accordance with the Clean Air Act.

DATES:

Written comments must be received on or before October 13, 2022.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R01-OAR-2017-0443 at https://www.regulations.gov, or via email to [e-mail]. For comments submitted at Regulations.gov, follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. For either manner of submission, the EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA will generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary submission ( i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For additional submission methods, please contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section. For the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/​dockets/​commenting-epa-dockets. Publicly available docket materials are available at https://www.regulations.gov or at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Region 1 Regional Office, Air and Radiation Division, 5 Post Office Square—Suite 100, Boston, MA. EPA requests that if at all possible, you contact the contact listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section to schedule your inspection. The Regional Office's official hours of business are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding legal holidays and facility closures due to COVID-19.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Alison C. Simcox, Air Quality Branch, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Region 1, 5 Post Office Square—Suite 100, (Mail code 05-2), Boston, MA 02109-3912, tel. [phone], email [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In the Final Rules section of this issue of the Federal Register , EPA is approving the State's SIP submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time. Please note that if EPA receives adverse comment on an amendment, paragraph, or section of this rule and if that provision may be severed from the remainder of the rule, EPA may adopt as final those provisions of the rule that are not the subject of an adverse comment.

For additional information, see the direct final rule which is located in the Rules section of this issue of the Federal Register .

Dated: September 7, 2022.

David Cash,

Regional Administrator, EPA Region 1.