Finding of Failure To Submit State Implementation Plan Submissions for the 2012 Fine Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards; California; Los Angeles-South Coast Air Basin

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R09-OAR-2023-0630; FRL-11617-01-R9]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Finding of Failure To Submit State Implementation Plan Submissions for the 2012 Fine Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards; California; Los Angeles-South Coast Air Basin</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final action. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final action to find that California has failed to submit state implementation plan (SIP) elements required under the Clean Air Act (CAA or “Act”) to implement the 2012 national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ) (“2012 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS”) in the Los Angeles-South Coast Air Basin (“South Coast”). California was required to submit a SIP that meets the Serious area plan requirements for a reasonable further progress demonstration, quantitative milestones, an attainment demonstration, and contingency measures for the 2012 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS by December 31, 2023. The State submitted the required SIP elements, but subsequently withdrew its submission. If the EPA has not affirmatively found that the State has submitted a complete SIP to correct these deficiencies within 18 months of this finding, the offset sanctions will apply in the area. If within six additional months the EPA has still not affirmatively determined that the State has submitted a complete SIP to correct the deficiencies, the highway funding sanction will apply in the area. No later than two years after the EPA makes this finding, if the State has not submitted and the EPA has not approved each of the required SIP elements, the EPA must promulgate a Federal implementation plan (FIP) to address the remaining requirements. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The effective date of this action is February 29, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-2023-0630. All documents in the docket are listed on the <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> website. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, <E T="03">e.g.,</E> Confidential Business Information (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 through <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> or please contact the person identified in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section for additional availability information. If you need assistance in a language other than English or if you are a person with a disability who needs a reasonable accommodation at no cost to you, please contact the person identified in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Ginger Vagenas, EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105. By phone: (415) 972-3964 or by email at <E T="03">vagenas.ginger@epa.gov</E> . </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> Section 553 of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), U.S.C. 553(b)(B), provides that an agency may issue a rule without providing notice and an opportunity for public comment when that agency finds for good cause that notice and public procedure are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to public interest. The EPA has determined that there is a good cause for issuing this finding without prior proposal and opportunity for comment because there is little or no judgment involved for the EPA to make a finding of failure to submit SIPs or elements of SIPs required by the CAA, where states have not submitted a required SIP revision, made incomplete submissions, or, as in this case, withdrawn an existing submission by the date specified by the statute. In such circumstances, the EPA finds that notice and public procedures are unnecessary and that this constitutes good cause under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). Throughout this document, “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the EPA. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Consequences of Findings of Failure to Submit</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Final Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> Airborne particulate matter (PM) can be composed of a complex mixture of particles in both solid and liquid form. Particulate matter can be of different sizes, commonly referred to as “coarse” and “fine” particles. Fine particles, in general terms, are PM with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to a nominal 2.5 micrometers. For this reason, particles of this size are referred to as PM <E T="52">2.5</E> . Under section 109 of the Act, the EPA is required to establish primary (health-based) and secondary (welfare-based) NAAQS for each pollutant for which the EPA has issued air quality criteria. The EPA first promulgated annual and 24- hour NAAQS for PM <E T="52">2.5</E> in July 1997  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> and then revised the 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS in October 2006. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> Most recently, on December 14, 2012, the EPA revised the primary annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standard by lowering the level from 15.0 to 12.0 micrograms per cubic meter of air (μg/m <SU>3</SU> ) to provide increased protection against health effects associated with long- and short-term PM <E T="52">2.5</E> exposures. The EPA did not revise the secondary annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standard, which remains at 15.0 μg/m <SU>3</SU> . <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> In addition, the EPA retained the level and form of the primary and secondary 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standards to continue to provide supplemental protection against health and welfare effects associated with short-term PM <E T="52">2.5</E> exposures. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  62 FR 38652 (July 18, 1997). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  71 FR 61143 (October 17, 2006). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  78 FR 3086 (January 15, 2013). </FTNT> Promulgation of a revised NAAQS triggers a requirement for the EPA to designate areas of the country as nonattainment, attainment, or unclassifiable for the standards. As prescribed by CAA section 188(a), areas designated as nonattainment for a PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS are initially classified as Moderate. The designation and initial classification for the South Coast as Moderate nonattainment for the 2012 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS became effective on April 15, 2015. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  80 FR 2206 (January 15, 2015). </FTNT> Nonattainment areas for PM <E T="52">2.5</E> are subject to the general nonattainment area planning requirements of CAA section 172 and to the PM-specific planning requirements of CAA sections 188-189. On August 24, 2016, the EPA established a final implementation rule (“PM <E T="52">2.5</E> SIP Requirements Rule”) outlining the attainment planning and control requirements for current and future PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> The PM <E T="52">2.5</E> SIP Requirements Rule also established the due date for Moderate area PM <E T="52">2.5</E> SIP submissions as no later than 18 months from the effective date of area designations. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> Accordingly, the areas designated as nonattainment for the 2012 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS (with an effective date of April 15, 2015) were required to submit Moderate area attainment plans to EPA no later than October 15, 2016. <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  Fine Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards: State Implementation Plan Requirements; Final rule; 81 FR 58010 (August 24, 2016). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  40 CFR 51.1003(a)(1). </FTNT> On April 27, 2017, California submitted the “Final 2016 Air Quality Management Plan” (“2016 Plan”), as adopted on March 3, 2017, by the Governing Board for the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD or “District”) to the EPA to address CAA requirements associated with the 2012 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standard. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> The 2016 Plan included a demonstration, consistent with the requirements of CAA section 189(a)(1)(B), that attainment of the 2012 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standard by the December 31, 2021, Moderate area attainment date was impracticable, despite the implementation of required control measures. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> The 2016 Plan also included a request that the EPA reclassify the nonattainment area from Moderate to Serious, and included a Serious area attainment demonstration, an emissions inventory, attainment related plan elements, and control measure provisions. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> Effective December 9, 2020, we approved or conditionally approved the portions of the 2016 Plan that addressed the CAA Moderate area requirements for the 2012 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS in the South Coast nonattainment area and reclassified the South Coast as a Serious nonattainment area under CAA section 188(b)(1). <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>  85 FR 71264 (November 9, 2020). For additional background, see the associated proposed rulemaking at 85 FR 40026 (July 2, 2020). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>  Id. at 71266. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>  Id. at 71268. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>  85 FR 71264. </FTNT> Our final action on the 2016 Plan's Moderate area requirements and reclassification of the nonattainment area to Serious also noted that the submitted 20 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 24k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━