Clean Air Plans; 1997 Fine Particulate Matter Nonattainment Area Requirements; San Joaquin Valley, California

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R09-OAR-2024-0301; FRL-12060-01-R9]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Clean Air Plans; 1997 Fine Particulate Matter Nonattainment Area Requirements; San Joaquin Valley, California</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 or “Agency”) is proposing to approve through parallel processing a state implementation plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of California to meet Clean Air Act (CAA or “Act”) requirements for the 1997 fine particulate matter (PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS or “standards”) in the San Joaquin Valley “Serious” nonattainment area. Specifically, the EPA proposes to approve through parallel processing the “Amendments to the 15 µg/m <SU>3</SU> SIP Revision and Agricultural Equipment Incentive Measure for the 1997 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> Standard” (“15 µg/m <SU>3</SU> Plan Amendments”), which revises the State's aggregate tonnage commitment made for the purpose of attaining the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS, amends an existing SIP measure related to certain state mobile source incentive funding programs, and demonstrates that those programs under the SIP-approved measure have achieved specified amounts of reductions in emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO <E T="52">X</E> ) and PM <E T="52">2.5</E> in the San Joaquin Valley area in the year 2023. If finalized, the effect of this action would be to approve these amounts of emissions reductions for credit toward the emissions reduction commitment in the California SIP. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before August 7, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-2024-0301, 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 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> Ashley Graham, Geographic Strategies and Modeling Section (AIR-2-2), EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, phone: (415) 972-3877; email: <E T="03">graham.ashleyr@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. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. The State's Submittal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> A. Revision of the Aggregate Tonnage Commitment for the 15 μg/m <SU>3</SU> SIP Revision </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Revision to the State's Valley Incentive Measure</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. The EPA's Evaluation of the State's Submittal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> A. Completeness Review of the 15 μg/m <SU>3</SU> Plan Amendments </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> B. Review of the Revision to the Aggregate Tonnage Commitment for the 15 μg/m <SU>3</SU> SIP Revision </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Review of the Revision to the State's Valley Incentive Measure</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Environmental Justice Considerations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Summary of Proposed Actions and Request for Public Comment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> On July 18, 1997, the EPA revised the NAAQS for particulate matter by establishing new NAAQS for particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to a nominal 2.5 micrometers (PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ). <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> The EPA established primary and secondary annual and 24-hour standards for PM <E T="52">2.5</E> . <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> The EPA set the annual primary and secondary standards at 15.0 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m <SU>3</SU> ), based on a three-year average of annual mean PM <E T="52">2.5</E> concentrations, and set the 24-hour primary and secondary standards at 65 μg/m <SU>3</SU> , based on the three-year average of the 98th percentile of 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> concentrations at each monitoring site within an area. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> This proposed action pertains only to the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS; therefore, we discuss only those NAAQS in the remainder of this document. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  62 FR 38652. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  For a given air pollutant, “primary” NAAQS are those determined by the EPA as requisite to protect the public health, allowing an adequate margin of safety, and “secondary” standards are those determined by the EPA as requisite to protect the public welfare from any known or anticipated adverse effects associated with the presence of such air pollutant in the ambient air. See CAA section 109(b). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  40 CFR 50.7. </FTNT> On January 15, 2013, the EPA revised the level of the primary annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS to 12.0 μg/m <SU>3</SU> , <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> and on February 7, 2024, the EPA revised the level of the primary annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS once more to 9.0 μg/m <SU>3</SU> . <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> Even though the EPA lowered the annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS, the 1997 primary annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS remains in effect in areas designated nonattainment for that NAAQS. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  78 FR 3086. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  89 FR 16202. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  40 CFR 50.13(d). </FTNT> The EPA established each of the PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS after considering substantial evidence from numerous health studies demonstrating that serious health effects are associated with exposures to PM <E T="52">2.5</E> concentrations above these levels. PM <E T="52">2.5</E> can be particles emitted by sources directly into the atmosphere as a solid or liquid particle (“primary PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ” or “direct PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ”) or can be particles that form in the atmosphere as a result of various chemical reactions from PM <E T="52">2.5</E> precursor emissions emitted by sources (“secondary PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ”). The EPA has identified the precursors of PM <E T="52">2.5</E> to be oxides of nitrogen (“NO <E T="52">X</E> ”), sulfur oxides (“SO <E T="52">X</E> ”), volatile organic compounds (“VOC”), and ammonia. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>  For example, see 72 FR 20586, 20589 (April 25, 2007). </FTNT> Following promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS, the EPA is required under CAA section 107(d) to designate areas throughout the nation as attainment, nonattainment, or unclassifiable for the NAAQS. Effective April 5, 2005, the EPA established the initial air quality designations for the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS, using air quality monitoring data for the three-year periods of 2001-2003 and 2002-2004. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> The EPA designated the San Joaquin Valley as nonattainment for the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS (15.0 µg/m <SU>3</SU> ). <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>  70 FR 944 (January 5, 2005). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>  40 CFR 81.305. </FTNT> On June 2, 2014, the EPA classified the San Joaquin Valley as a “Moderate” nonattainment area for the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS. <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> Effective May 7, 2015, the EPA reclassified the San Joaquin Valley as a “Serious” nonattainment area for the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS based on our determination that the State could not practicably attain these NAAQS in the San Joaquin Valley nonattainment area by the latest statutory Moderate area attainment date, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> April 5, 2015. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> Upon reclassification as a Serious area, the State became subject to the requirement of CAA section 188(c)(2) to attain the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS as expeditiously as practicable but no later than ten years after designation, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> by no later than December 31, 2015. <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>  79 FR 31566. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>  80 FR 18528 (April 7, 2015). </FTNT> On November 23, 2016, the EPA determined that the San Joaquin Valley had failed to attain the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS by the December 31, 2015 Serious area attainment date. <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> This determination triggered a requirement for California ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 48k characters. 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