Air Quality Implementation Plans; California; San Diego County; 2008 and 2015 8-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Area Requirements

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R09-OAR-2021-0135; FRL-9538-01-R9]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Quality Implementation Plans; California; San Diego County; 2008 and 2015 8-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Area Requirements</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final action to approve portions of two State implementation plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of California to meet Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements for the 2008 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS or “standards”) and the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS in the San Diego County ozone nonattainment area (“San Diego County area” or “area”). The first SIP revision, “2020 Plan for Attaining the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone in San Diego County” (“2020 San Diego County Ozone SIP” or “2020 Plan”), addresses most of the SIP requirements for the area. The second SIP revision, referred to as the “Smog Check Certification,” supplements the motor vehicle inspection and maintenance program portion of the 2020 Plan. The EPA is taking final action to approve the 2020 Plan, and the San Diego County area portion of the Smog Check Certification, as meeting all the applicable ozone nonattainment area requirements for the 2008 and 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS addressed by the plan except for the emissions statement requirement that the EPA previously found to have been met and the contingency measure requirements, for which the EPA is deferring action. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective April 1, 2024. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID Number EPA-R09-OAR-2021-0135. 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 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 disabilities 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> John J. Kelly, Air Planning Office (AIR-2-1), EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105; phone: (415) 947-4151; email: <E T="03">kelly.johnj@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> Throughout this document, “we,” “us” and “our” refer to the EPA. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Summary of Proposed Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Public Comments and EPA Responses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Environmental Justice Considerations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. EPA Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Summary of Proposed Action</HD> On December 19, 2023 (88 FR 87850), the EPA proposed to approve all of the “2020 Plan for Attaining the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone in San Diego County,” submitted on January 12, 2021, with two exceptions, and the San Diego County area vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) SIP revision for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the San Diego County area portion of the “California Smog Check Performance Standard Modeling and Program Certification for the 70 Parts Per Billion (ppb) 8-Hour Ozone Standard” (also referred to as the “Smog Check Certification”), submitted on April 26, 2023. The portions of the 2020 Plan on which we did not propose action are the portion addressing the emissions statement requirement, which we already approved in a separate rulemaking, and the portion addressing the contingency measures requirement, for which we are deferring action. Our December 19, 2023 proposed rule contains more information on the plans, our evaluation, and our rationale for proposing approval. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Public Comments and EPA Responses</HD> The EPA's proposed action provided a 30-day public comment period. During this period, we received no comments. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Environmental Justice Considerations</HD> This document takes final action to approve certain SIP elements included in the 2020 Plan and the San Diego County area portion of the Smog Check Certification. Information on ozone and its relationship to negative health impacts can be found on the EPA's website. We expect that this action will generally be neutral or contribute to reduced environmental and health impacts on all populations in the San Diego County area, including people of color and low-income populations in the area. At a minimum, the action would not worsen any existing air quality and is expected to ensure the area is meeting requirements to attain air quality standards. Further, there is no information in the record indicating that this action is expected to have disproportionately high or adverse human health or environmental effects on a particular group of people. Lastly, although the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District (“District”) did not perform an environmental justice review specifically for the 2020 Plan, the District does implement the State's “Community Air Protection Program” in San Diego County. This environmental justice program identifies specific communities based on environmental, health, and socioeconomic information in order to reduce their pollution exposure. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. EPA Action</HD> No comments were submitted. Therefore, pursuant to section 110(k)(3) of the CAA, and for the reasons provided in our December 19, 2023 proposed rule, the EPA is taking final action to approve into the California SIP all of the “2020 Plan for Attaining the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone in San Diego County,” submitted to the EPA on January 12, 2021, with two exceptions, and the San Diego County area I/M SIP revision for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the San Diego County area portion of the “Smog Check Certification,” submitted on April 26, 2023. More specifically, we are taking final action to approve the following portions of the 2020 Plan, as supplemented by the Smog Check Certification, as meeting the following requirements: • Base year emissions inventory element as meeting the requirements of CAA sections 172(c)(3) and 182(a)(1) for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS, 40 CFR 51.1115 for the 2008 ozone NAAQS, and 40 CFR 51.1315 for the 2015 ozone NAAQS; • Reasonably Available Control Measures (RACM) demonstration element as meeting the requirements of CAA section 172(c)(1) for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS, 40 CFR 51.1112(c) for the 2008 ozone NAAQS, and 40 CFR 51.1312(c) for the 2015 ozone NAAQS; • Attainment demonstration element for the 2008 ozone NAAQS as meeting the requirements of CAA section 182(c)(2)(A) and 40 CFR 51.1108; • Attainment demonstration element for the 2015 ozone NAAQS as meeting the requirements of CAA section 182(c)(2)(A) and 40 CFR 51.1308, and the related commitments by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) (through CARB Resolution 20-29) to achieve an aggregate emissions reduction of 4 tpd of NO <E T="52">X</E> by 2032 in the San Diego County area and by the District (through District Resolution 20-166) to achieve emissions reductions of 1.7 tpd of NO <E T="52">X</E> by 2032; • Rate of Progress (ROP) demonstration element as meeting the requirements of CAA section 182(b)(1) for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS, 40 CFR 51.1110(a)(2) for the 2008 ozone NAAQS, and 40 CFR 51.1310(a)(2) for the 2015 ozone NAAQS; • Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) demonstration element as meeting the requirements of CAA sections 172(c)(2), 182(b)(1), and 182(c)(2)(B) for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS, 40 CFR 51.1110(a)(2)(i) and (ii) for the 2008 ozone NAAQS, and 40 CFR 51.1310(a)(2)(ii) for the 2015 ozone NAAQS; • Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) emissions offset demonstration element as meeting the requirements of CAA section 182(d)(1)(A) for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS, 40 CFR 51.1102 for the 2008 ozone NAAQS, and 40 CFR 51.1302 for the 2015 ozone NAAQS; • Motor vehicle emissions budgets for the 2020 and 2023 RFP milestone years and the 2026 attainment year (see Table 1) because they are consistent with the RFP and attainment demonstrations for the 2008 ozone NAAQS approved herein and meet the other criteria in 40 CFR 93.118(e)(4); <GPOTABLE COLS="3" OPTS="L2,i1" CDEF="s100,12,12"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets for the 2008 Ozone NAAQS in the San Diego County Area</TTITLE> [Summer planning inventory, <E T="01">tpd</E> ] <CHED H="1">Budget year</CHED> <CHED H="1">VOC</CHED> <CHED H="1"> NO <E T="0732">X</E> <ENT>16.3</ENT> <ENT>28.1</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">2023</ENT> <ENT>13.6</ENT> <ENT>19.3</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">2026</ENT> <ENT>12.1</ENT> <ENT>17.3</ENT> </ROW> <TNOTE>Source: 2020 Plan, Table 3-1.</TNOTE> </GPOTABLE> • Motor vehicle emissions budgets for the 2023, 2026, and 2029 RFP milestone years and the 2032 attainment year (see Table 2) because they are consistent with the RFP and attainment demonstrations for the 2015 ozon ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 21k characters. 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