Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plan; Maryland; Regional Haze State Implementation Plan for the Second Implementation Period

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R03-OAR-2022-0912; FRL-11269-02-R3]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plan; Maryland; Regional Haze State Implementation Plan for the Second Implementation Period</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 approving the regional haze state implementation plan (SIP) revision submitted by Maryland on February 8, 2022, as satisfying applicable requirements under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the EPA's Regional Haze Rule (RHR) for the program's second implementation period. Maryland's SIP submission addresses the requirement that states must periodically revise their long-term strategies for making reasonable progress towards the national goal of preventing any future, and remedying any existing, anthropogenic impairment of visibility, including regional haze, in mandatory Class I Federal areas. The SIP submission also addresses other applicable requirements for the second implementation period of the regional haze program. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on May 1, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID Number EPA-R03-OAR-2022-0912. All documents in the docket are listed on the <E T="03">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">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. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Adam Yarina, Planning & Implementation Branch (3AD30), Air & Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 3, 1600 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103-2852. The telephone number is (215) 814-2108. Mr. Yarina can also be reached via electronic mail at <E T="03">yarina.adam@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> On February 8, 2022, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) submitted a revision to its SIP to address regional haze for the second implementation period. MDE made this SIP submission to satisfy the requirements of the CAA's regional haze program pursuant to CAA sections 169A and 169B and 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 51.308. On August 25, 2023 (88 FR 58178), EPA published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) proposing approval of Maryland's February 8, 2022, SIP submission as satisfying the regional haze requirements for the second implementation period contained in the CAA and 40 CFR 51.308. EPA is now determining that the Maryland regional haze SIP submission for the second implementation period meets the applicable statutory and regulatory requirements and is thus approving Maryland's submission into its SIP. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. EPA's Response to Comments Received</HD> EPA received two sets of comments in response to the NPRM. One set of comments originated from three Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) conservation groups writing as a coalition ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), Sierra Club, and the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks), and one set of comments from an individual. These comments are available in the docket for this action via Docket ID Number EPA-R03-OAR-2022-0912 on the <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> website. EPA's summary of and response to those comments is provided below. <E T="03">Comment:</E> NGO commenters praised Maryland's submittal, stating that “the MDE has engaged with many of the worst haze-polluting facilities” for the second implementation period, that “Maryland's SIP should be a model for all of EPA Region 3”, and that “the MDE engaged early with the National Park Service (“NPS”) as part of the Federal Land Manager (FLM) consultation period and provided in-depth information regarding control technologies, emissions limits, and retirement plans for the majority of sources identified by NPS.” NGO commenters also provided additional feedback as to how Maryland's submittal could be further improved, which is described in more detail below. <E T="03">Response:</E> EPA appreciates and agrees with this comment. <E T="03">Comment:</E> NGO commenters also stated that SIP measures, including stationary source emission limitations, must be practically enforceable and approved into the SIP. NGO commenters express their belief that MDE improperly excluded certain facilities, including Brandon Shores Generating Station and the AES Warrior Run Facility, from a four-factor analysis. Specifically, NGO commenters express concern that MDE excluded the Brandon Shores Generating Station from being selected for a four-factor analysis based on an agreement between Brandon Shores Generating Station's owner and Sierra Club to cease coal combustion at the site by December 31, 2025, because the plans to cease fuel combustion or shutdown the facility are not a federally enforceable part of the revised SIP. NGO commenters therefore request that EPA require MDE to “amend its Revised SIP to either (1) make Brandon Shores' plans to cease coal combustion or retire a federally enforceable part of the State's Revised SIP or (2) conduct a four-factor analysis for Brandon Shores to ensure the facility is supporting the MDE long-term strategy and reasonable progress goals.” Regarding the AES Warrior Run Facility, which MDE did not select for a four-factor analysis, NGO commenters request that EPA require MDE to conduct a four-factor analysis for this facility per FLM recommendations. <E T="03">Response:</E> As explained in the NPRM, the RHR does not require states to consider controls for all sources, all source categories, or any or all sources in a particular source category. Rather, states have discretion to choose any source selection methodology or threshold that is reasonable, provided that the choices they make are reasonably explained. <E T="51">1 2</E> <FTREF/> To this end, 40 CFR 51.308(f)(2)(i) requires that a state's SIP submission must include “a description of the criteria it used to determine which sources or groups of sources it evaluated.” The technical basis for source selection must also be appropriately documented, as required by 40 CFR 51.308(f)(2)(iii). In this particular instance, EPA proposed to find that Maryland's information and explanation included in its SIP submittal indicated that the State had in fact examined a reasonable set of sources, including sources identified by the FLMs. Furthermore, EPA proposed that Maryland had reasonably concluded that four-factor analyses were not necessary for all identified sources because the outcome would be that no further emission reductions would be reasonable for this planning period. EPA based the proposed finding on the State's examination of its largest operating electric generating units (EGUs) and its industrial commercial institutional (ICI) boilers, at the time of SIP submission, and on the emissions from and controls that apply to those sources, as well as on Maryland's existing SIP-approved nitrogen oxides (NO <E T="52">X</E> ) and sulfur dioxide (SO <E T="52">2</E> ) rules that effectively control emissions from the largest contributing stationary-source sectors. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that selecting additional sources from the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast-Visibility Union (MANE-VU's) or FLMs' lists for four-factor analysis would not have resulted in additional emission reduction measures being determined to be necessary to make reasonable progress for the second implementation period. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  See 88 FR 58178, 58194 (August 25, 2023). <SU>2</SU>  See Sections 2 and 2.1 of Clarifications Regarding Regional Haze State Implementation Plans for the Second Implementation Period. <E T="03">www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-07/clarifications-regarding-regional-haze-state-implementation-plans-for-the-second-implementation-period.pdf.</E> The EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Research Triangle Park (July 8, 2021). </FTNT> Regarding Brandon Shores Generating Station, EPA notes that based on an existing consent agreement between the owner/operator of Brandon Shores and Sierra Club, the facility is scheduled to shut down by June 1, 2025. As noted by the NGO commenters, it is possible that the shutdown date could be extended as far as 2028. However, EPA notes that, even if the owner/operator of this facility were to extend or delay its currently scheduled shutdown date of June 1, 2025, to 2028, which is the date anticipated by NGO commenters, <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> this would be unlikely to affect Maryland's conclusion for this facility ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> that no additional controls are reasonable based on installing controls during the short remaining useful life of the source). <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Regarding the AES Warrior Run facility, EPA notes that the facility recently filed a deactivation notice with its Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), PJM Interconnection LLC, to retire by June 1, 2024, <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> and PJM's response to that notice indicated that the facility could deactivate as desired. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> Th ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 39k characters. 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