Air Plan Approval; New Hampshire; Ambient Air Quality Standards

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R01-OAR-2024-0255; FRL-12071-01-R1]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Approval; New Hampshire; Ambient Air Quality Standards</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 most of a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of New Hampshire. This revision updates the State regulation containing ambient air quality standards. EPA is proposing to approve all the State's updated standards, except the primary annual fine particle (PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ) standard, which we propose to conditionally approve because it does not match EPA's current National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM <E T="52">2.5</E> . This action is being taken under the Clean Air Act (CAA). </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Written comments must be received on or before August 12, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R01-OAR-2024-0255 at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> or via email to Alison Simcox at: <E T="03">simcox.alison@epa.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> For either manner of submission, 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> Publicly available docket materials are available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> or at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Region 1 Regional Office, Air and Radiation Division, 5 Post Office Square—Suite 100, Boston, MA. EPA requests that, if at all possible, you contact the contact listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section to schedule your inspection. The Regional Office's official hours of business are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding legal holidays. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Alison C. Simcox, Air Quality Branch, Air and Radiation Division (Mail Code 5-MD), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 1, 5 Post Office Square, Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts 02109-3912, telephone number: (617) 918-1684; email address: <E T="03">simcox.alison@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> Throughout this document whenever “we,” “us,” or “our” is used, we mean EPA. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Background and Purpose</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Evaluation of New Hampshire's Submittal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Proposed Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Incorporation by Reference</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background and Purpose</HD> On December 22, 2022, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NH DES) submitted to EPA a SIP revision updating its Env-A 300, “Ambient Air Quality Standards”. The State revised this regulation to incorporate into its SIP revised National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). In its December 2022 SIP submittal, NH DES adopted the following: (1) Coarse fine particle (PM <E T="52">10</E> ) primary (health-based) and secondary (welfare-based) 24-hour standards of 150 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m <SU>3</SU> ), (2) Fine particle (PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ) primary annual standard of 12 μg/m <SU>3</SU> , (3) PM <E T="52">2.5</E> secondary annual standard of 15 μg/m <SU>3</SU> , (4) PM <E T="52">2.5</E> primary and secondary 24-hour standards of 35 μg/m <SU>3</SU> , (5) Sulfur dioxide (SO <E T="52">2</E> ) primary 1-hour standard of 75 parts per billion (ppb), (6) SO <E T="52">2</E> secondary 3-hour standard of 0.5 parts per million (ppm), (7) CO primary 8-hour standard of 9 ppm, (8) CO primary 1-hour standard of 35 ppm, (9) Nitrogen Dioxide (NO <E T="52">2</E> ) primary annual of 53 ppb, (10) NO <E T="52">2</E> primary 1-hour standard of 100 ppb, (11) NO <E T="52">2</E> secondary annual standard of 0.053 ppm (equivalent to 100 μg/m <SU>3</SU> ), (12) Ozone primary and secondary 8-hour standard of 0.070 ppm, (13) Lead primary and secondary rolling 3-month standard of 0.15 μg/m <SU>3</SU> . New Hampshire's Env-A 300, “Ambient Air Quality Standards,” was originally approved into the New Hampshire SIP on March 15, 1983 (48 FR 10830). Updates to the rule were approved into the New Hampshire SIP on August 19, 1994 (59 FR 42766) and on June 24, 2014 (79 FR 35695). <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Evaluation of New Hampshire's Submittal</HD> EPA has reviewed New Hampshire's revised Env-A 300 and has determined that it is consistent with the NAAQS in 40 CFR part 50 for all standards except the PM <E T="52">2.5</E> primary annual standard. On March 6, 2024, EPA strengthened the PM <E T="52">2.5</E> primary annual standard to 9.0 μg/m <SU>3</SU> (89 FR 16202). Pursuant to a May 16, 2024, letter to EPA from NH DES, within a year from the effective date of EPA's conditional approval of the December 2022 submittal, the State commits to submitting a revision to Env-A 300 that includes the current primary annual standard for the PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS. Therefore, EPA proposes to approve all of New Hampshire's revised rule, except for the primary annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standard, which we propose to conditionally approve. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Proposed Action</HD> EPA proposes to approve most of New Hampshire's revised Env-A 300, “Ambient Air Quality Standards,” submitted by the State on December 22, 2022, as a revision to the New Hampshire SIP. We propose to conditionally approve the primary annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standard, provided that the State submits in a timely manner the portion of Env-A 300 that includes the current EPA PM <E T="52">2.5</E> primary annual NAAQS of 9.0 μg/m <SU>3</SU> . EPA is soliciting public comments on the issues discussed in this proposal or on other relevant matters. These comments will be considered before EPA takes final action. Interested parties may participate in the Federal rulemaking procedure by submitting comments to this proposed rule by following the instructions listed in the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section of this <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . Under section 110(k)(4) of the Act, EPA may conditionally approve a plan based on a commitment from the State to adopt specific enforceable measures by a date certain, but not later than 1 year from the date of approval. If EPA conditionally approves the commitment in a final rulemaking action, the State must meet its commitment to submit a revision to Env-A 300 that includes the current PM <E T="52">2.5</E> primary annual NAAQS. If the State fails to do so, this action will become a disapproval one year from the date of final approval. EPA will notify the State by letter that this action has occurred. At that time, this commitment will no longer be a part of the approved New Hampshire SIP. EPA subsequently will publish a document in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notifying the public that the conditional approval automatically converted to a disapproval. If the State meets its commitment, within the applicable time frame, the conditionally approved submission will remain a part of the SIP until EPA takes final action approving or disapproving the new legislative authority. If EPA disapproves the new submittal, the conditionally approved regulation will also be disapproved at that time. If EPA approves the submittal, the regulation will be fully approved in its entirety and replace the conditionally approved program in the SIP. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Incorporation by Reference</HD> In this document, the EPA is proposing to include in a final EPA rule regulatory text that includes incorporation by reference. In accordance with requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is proposing to incorporate by reference New Hampshire's regulation Env-A 300, as discussed in Sections I and II of this preamble. The EPA has made, and will continue to make, these documents generally available through <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and at the EPA Region 1 Office (please contact the person identified in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section of this preamble for more information). <HD SOURCE="HD1">V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</HD> Under the CAA, the Administrator is required to approve a SIP submission that complies with the provisions of the Act and applicable Federal regulations. <E T="03">See</E> 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a). Thus, in reviewing SIP submissions, EPA's role is to approve State choices, provided that they meet the criter ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 14k characters. 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