Air Plan Approval; KY; Updates to Attainment Status Designations

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R04-OAR-2023-0253; FRL-11850-01-R4]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Approval; KY; Updates to Attainment Status Designations</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Commonwealth of Kentucky, through the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet (Cabinet), Kentucky Division for Air Quality (KDAQ), submitted a revision to the Kentucky State Implementation Plan (SIP) on November 29, 2022. The SIP revision updates the geographical boundary description and attainment status designation for the Henderson-Webster nonattainment area for the 2010 Sulfur Dioxide (SO <E T="52">2</E> ) primary National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The update is being made to conform Kentucky's attainment status tables with the federal attainment status designations made for this area. The SIP revision also includes minor language changes in the attainment status designations provisions. EPA is proposing to approve Kentucky's SIP revision pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act). </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before May 13, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04-OAR-2023-0253 at <E T="03">http://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from <E T="03">Regulations.gov</E> . 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. EPA will generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary submission ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For additional submission methods, the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit <E T="03">http://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Josue Ortiz Borrero, Air Regulatory Management Section, Air Planning and Implementation Branch, Air and Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8960. Mr. Ortiz can be reached via phone number (404) 562-8085 or via electronic mail at <E T="03">ortizborrero.josue@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> On November 29, 2022, the Cabinet submitted a SIP revision containing changes to 401 Kentucky Administrative Regulation (KAR) 51:010— <E T="03">Attainment status designations,</E> State effective June 9, 2022, to be consistent with the SO <E T="52">2</E> designation status codified by EPA at title 40 CFR part 81, subpart C as designated pursuant to section 107 of the CAA. Regulation 401 KAR 51:010 “establishes the designation status of all areas of the Commonwealth of Kentucky with regard to attainment of the” NAAQS. Specifically, the regulation compiles the designation status for the entire Commonwealth for the following NAAQS: ozone (O <E T="52">3</E> ), fine particulate matter (PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ), lead (Pb), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO <E T="52">2</E> ), SO <E T="52">2,</E> and Total Suspended Particles (TSP) in a tabular format that identifies the area and the legal geographical boundary description consistent with the designation status codified at 40 CFR part 81. Specifically, Kentucky's SIP submission adds the attainment status and the legal geographical boundary description for the Henderson-Webster nonattainment area for the 2010 SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS as determined by EPA in SO <E T="52">2</E> designations effective on April 14, 2021. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> This update is being made to ensure Kentucky's attainment designation tables are consistent with those codified at 40 CFR 81.318 for the Commonwealth. Kentucky's proposed amendment to 401 KAR 51:010 also includes minor language changes as described below in Section II. The SIP submittal amending the Kentucky regulation to incorporate these changes can be found in the docket at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> and is summarized below. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 86 FR 16055. This round of designations for the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS was signed on December 21, 2020 (86 FR 16055 (March 26, 2021)) and April 8, 2021 (86 FR 19576 (April 14, 2021)). These designations were signed by former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on December 21, 2020, pursuant to a court-ordered deadline of December 31, 2020. For administrative purposes only, and in compliance with requirements of the Office of the Federal Register, former Acting Administrator Jane Nishida re-signed the same action on March 10, 2021, for publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . EPA and state documents and public comments related to these final designations are in the docket at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> with Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2020-0037 and at EPA's website for SO <E T="52">2</E> designations at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/sulfur-dioxide-designations.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. NAAQS Review and Designations</HD> Sections 108 and 109 of the CAA require EPA to set NAAQS for the criteria air pollutants: O <E T="52">3</E> , PM, CO, Pb, SO <E T="52">2</E> , and NO <E T="52">2</E> , and to undertake periodic review of these standards. After EPA sets a new NAAQS or revises an existing standard, the CAA requires EPA to determine if areas of the country meet the new standard and to designate areas as either nonattainment, attainment, or unclassifiable. Such designations inform the state's planning and implementation of requirements to achieve and maintain the NAAQS for each area within that state. Section 107(d) of the CAA governs the process for these area designations. Under this process, states and tribes submit recommendations to EPA as to whether an area is attaining the NAAQS for criteria air pollutants. EPA then considers these recommendations as part of its obligation to promulgate the area designations and boundaries for the new or revised NAAQS. EPA codifies its designations for areas within each state in 40 CFR part 81. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> Under section 107(d) of the CAA, a designation for an area remains in effect until redesignated by EPA. <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 40 CFR 81.318 for designations for Kentucky. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2"> B. SO <E T="54">2</E> NAAQS Designations </HD> On June 2, 2010, EPA revised the primary SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS to provide requisite protection of public health with an adequate margin of safety. <E T="03">See</E> 75 FR 35520 (June 22, 2010). Specifically, EPA established a new 1-hour daily maximum SO <E T="52">2</E> standard at a level of 75 parts per billion (ppb), codified at 40 CFR 50.17. The CAA requires EPA to complete the designations process within two years of promulgating a new or revised standard or June 2012 for the 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS. If the Administrator has insufficient information to make these designations by that deadline, the EPA has the authority to extend the deadline for completing designations by up to one year. On July 27, 2012, EPA extended the deadline for area designations for the 2010 primary SO <E T="52">2</E> standard from June 2012 by one year to June 2013 due to having insufficient information to make initial area designations in two years (77 FR 46295, August 3, 2012). With this extension, EPA completed initial designations on July 25, 2013 (78 FR 47191, August 5, 2013) based on air quality monitoring data available at the time. <E T="51">3 4</E> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  EPA completed the first round of SO <E T="52">2</E> designations on July 25, 2013, designating 29 areas in 16 states as nonattainment (78 FR 47191, August 5, 2013). EPA based this first round of SO <E T="52">2</E> designations on monitored SO <E T="52">2</E> concentrations from Federal Reference Method and Federal Equivalent Method monitors that were sited and operated in accordance with 40 CFR parts 50 and 58. <SU>4</SU>  Following the initial August 5, 2013, designations, three lawsuits were filed against EPA in different U.S. District Courts, alleging the agency had failed to perform a nondiscretionary duty under the CAA by not designating all portions of the country by the June 2, 2013, deadline. In an effort intended to resolve the litigation in one of those cases, EPA and the plaintiffs—Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council—filed a proposed consent decree with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. On March 2, 2015, the court entered the consent decree and issued an enforceable order for EPA to complete the area designations by three specific deadlines according to the court-ordered schedule. </FTNT> EPA completed the remaining area designations in three specific “rounds” of designations: July 2, 2016 (“Round 2”), December 31, 2017 (“Round 3”), and December 31, 2020 (“Round 4”). EPA designated the Henderson-Webster area  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> in Round 4 as nonattainment for the 2010 primary SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS. This designation was effective on April 30, 2021  <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> and codified at 40 CFR 81.318. <FTNT> <SU>5 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 19k characters. 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