E7-15119. Revisions to the Arizona State Implementation Plan, Maricopa County

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Proposed rule.

SUMMARY:

EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the Maricopa County portion of the Arizona State Implementation Plan (SIP). This revision concerns reductions of particulate matter (PM) emissions from the paving of unpaved road and use of these reductions to satisfy the offset requirements under the new source review provisions of the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act). We are proposing to approve a local rule to assure that the PM emission reductions resulting from the road paving meet the criteria for valid offsets under the Act.

DATES:

Any comments on this proposal must arrive by September 5, 2007.

ADDRESSES:

Submit comments, identified by docket number EPA-R09-OAR-2007-0610, by one of the following methods:

1. Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions.

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

3. Mail or deliver: Andrew Steckel (Air-4), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-3901.

Instructions: All comments 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 Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Information that you consider CBI or otherwise protected should be clearly identified as such and should not be submitted through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. http://www.regulations.gov is an “anonymous access” system, and EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send e-mail directly to EPA, your e-mail address will be automatically captured and included as part of the public comment. 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: The index to the docket for this action is available electronically at http://www.regulations.gov and in hard copy at EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, California. While all documents in the docket are listed in the index, some information may be publicly available only at the hard copy location (e.g., copyrighted material), and some may not be publicly available in either location (e.g., CBI). To inspect the hard copy materials, please schedule an appointment during normal business hours with the contact listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Lily Wong, EPA Region IX, [phone], [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

This proposal addresses the following local rule: Maricopa County Air Quality Department Rule 242, “Emission Offsets Generated by the Voluntary Paving of Unpaved Roads.” In the Rules and Regulations section of this Federal Register, we are approving this local rule in a direct final action without prior proposal because we believe these SIP revisions are not controversial. If we receive adverse comments, however, we will publish a timely withdrawal of the direct final rule and address the comments in subsequent action based on this proposed rule.

We do not plan to open a second comment period, so anyone interested in commenting should do so at this time. If we do not receive adverse comments, no further activity is planned. For further information, please see the direct final action.

Dated: July 20, 2007.

Keith Takata,

Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX.