California Air Plan Revisions; California Air Resources Board and Local California Air Districts; Crude Oil and Natural Gas Facilities

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R09-OAR-2024-0175; FRL-11888-01-R9]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>California Air Plan Revisions; California Air Resources Board and Local California Air Districts; Crude Oil and Natural Gas Facilities</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve revisions to a California statewide rule and six California air district rules into the California State Implementation Plan (SIP) under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act). These revisions concern emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from crude oil and natural gas facilities. Based on our proposed finding that these revisions correct previously-identified deficiencies in these rules, we are now proposing to fully approve the reasonably available control technology (RACT) requirement for the 2008 and 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for sources covered by the EPA's 2016 Control Techniques Guidelines for the Oil and Natural Gas Industry (“2016 Oil and Gas CTG”) for the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD), San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District (SJVUAPCD), Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (VCAPCD), and the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District (YSAQMD). We are also proposing to conditionally approve the RACT requirement for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS for sources covered by the EPA's 2016 Oil and Gas CTG for the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). We are taking comments on this proposal and plan to follow with a final action. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before June 3, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-2024-0175 at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> For comments submitted at <E T="03">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> The 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. The 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, please contact the person identified in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. For the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.</E> 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> Nicole Law, EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA, 94105. By phone: (415) 947-4126 or by email at <E T="03">law.nicole@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. The State's Submittal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. What did the State submit?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Are there earlier versions of the submitted documents in the SIP?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. What is the purpose of the submitted rules?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. How is the EPA evaluating these rules?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Do these rules meet the evaluation criteria?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Were there any newly identified deficiencies with the April 2, 2024 submitted CARB Oil and Gas Methane Rule?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. The EPA's Recommendations To Further Improve the Rules</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Public Comment and Proposed Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Incorporation by Reference</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. The State's Submittal</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. What did the State submit?</HD> Table 1 lists the rules addressed by this proposal with the dates that they were adopted and submitted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). <GPOTABLE COLS="4" OPTS="L2,i1" CDEF="xs60,r100,10,10"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Submitted Rules</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Agency</CHED> <CHED H="1">Rule title</CHED> <CHED H="1">Adopted/amended</CHED> <CHED H="1">Submitted</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">CARB</ENT> <ENT>California Code of Regulations, Title 17, Division 3, Chapter 1, Subchapter 10 Climate Change, Article 4 Subarticle 13: Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards for Crude Oil and Natural Gas Facilities (“CARB Oil and Gas Methane Rule”)</ENT> <ENT>06/22/2023</ENT> <ENT>04/02/2024</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">SJVUAPCD</ENT> <ENT>Rule 4409—Components at Light Crude Oil Production Facilities, Natural Gas Production Facilities, and Natural Gas Processing Facilities</ENT> <ENT>06/15/2023</ENT> <ENT>10/13/2023</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">SJVUAPCD</ENT> <ENT>Rule 4623—Storage of Organic Liquids *</ENT> <ENT>06/15/2023</ENT> <ENT>10/13/2023</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">SJVUAPCD</ENT> <ENT>Rule 4401—Steam-Enhanced Crude Oil Production Wells *</ENT> <ENT>06/15/2023</ENT> <ENT>10/13/2023</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">VCAPCD</ENT> <ENT>Rule 71.1—Crude Oil Production and Separation</ENT> <ENT>07/11/2023</ENT> <ENT>01/10/2024</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">SCAQMD</ENT> <ENT>Rule 463—Organic Liquid Storage</ENT> <ENT>05/05/2023</ENT> <ENT>10/13/2023</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">SCAQMD</ENT> <ENT>Rule 1178—Further Reductions of VOC Emissions from Storage Tanks at Petroleum Facilities</ENT> <ENT>09/01/2023</ENT> <ENT>02/14/2024</ENT> </ROW> <TNOTE> <E T="03">*</E>  In two letters from Sheraz Gill, Deputy Air Pollution Control Officer, SJVUAPCD, to Lisa Beckham, Manager, EPA Region IX, both dated April 18, 2024, SJVUAPCD described administrative corrections to Rule 4401 section 5.4.4.2 to clarify which tables to refer to for repair leak time frames and Rule 4623 to correct table numbers and references throughout Rule 4623. The administrative corrections are minor, only clarify what is already in the rule, and do not impact our analysis of the approvability of the rules. The corrections are consistent with SJVUAPCD's Board's intent and SJVUAPCD has submitted the revised rules to the EPA to replace earlier submitted versions. For this proposed action, we are basing our evaluation on the SJVUAPCD rules as corrected. </TNOTE> </GPOTABLE> The EPA has reviewed the submittals containing the documents listed in table 1 and finds that they fulfill the completeness criteria in 40 CFR part 51, appendix V, which must be met before formal EPA review. The March 26, 2024, submittal letter to the EPA from CARB included a commitment to submit an amended version of SCAQMD Rule 1148.1 within 12 months of the effective date of our final action that will remedy the deficiency identified in this document. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Letter dated March 26, 2024, submitted with the CARB Oil and Gas Methane Rule, from Steven S. Cliff, Executive Officer, CARB, to Martha Guzman, Regional Administrator, EPA, Region 9. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Are there earlier versions of the submitted documents in the SIP?</HD> On September 30, 2022 (87 FR 59314), we finalized a limited approval and limited disapproval of California Code of Regulations, Title 17, Division 3, Chapter 1, Subchapter 10 Climate Change, Article 4 Subarticle 13: Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards for Crude Oil and Natural Gas Facilities (“CARB Oil and Gas Methane Rule”) as adopted on March 23, 2017. That action also finalized a disapproval of the RACT requirement for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS for sources covered by the 2016 Oil and Gas CTG regulated by various California air districts. CARB adopted revisions to the SIP-approved version of the CARB Oil and Gas Methane Rule on June 22, 2023, and submitted them to us on April 2, 2024. We previously approved earlier versions of the six local air rules listed in table 1 into the SIP as follows: SJVUAPCD Rule 4409 on March 23, 2006 (71 FR 14652), SJVUAPCD Rule 4623 on September 13, 2005 (70 FR 53936), SJVUAPCD Rule 4401 on November 16, 2011 (76 FR 70886), VCAPCD Rule 71.1 on August 4, 1994 (59 FR 39690), SCAQMD Rule 463 on March 28, 2013 (78 FR 18853), and SCAQMD Rule 1178 on August 28, 2007 (72 FR 49196). If we finalize our approval as proposed, the amended versions of the rules listed in table 1 will replace the previously approved versions of these rules in the SIP. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. What is the purpose of the submitted rules?</HD> Emissions of VOCs contribute to the production of ground-level ozone, smog and particulate matter (PM), which harm human health and the environment. Section 110(a) of the CAA requires states to submit plans that provide for implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of the NAAQS. In addition, CAA section 182(b)(2) requires, among other things, that SIPs for ozone nonattainment areas classified as “Moderate” or higher impl ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 59k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━