Partial Approval and Partial Disapproval of Air Quality State Implementation Plans; Arizona; 2015 Ozone Infrastructure Requirements

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Parts 52 and 81</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R09-OAR-2022-0326; FRL-9693-02-R9]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Partial Approval and Partial Disapproval of Air Quality State Implementation Plans; Arizona; 2015 Ozone Infrastructure Requirements</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 in part and disapproving in part State implementation plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of Arizona pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA) for the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of the 2015 ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS or “standard”). In addition to our partial approval and partial disapproval of Arizona's SIP revision, the EPA is approving rules in the Arizona Revised Statutes and Pima County Code related to public availability of emissions reports into the Arizona SIP and reclassifying regions in Arizona with respect to emergency episode plans for ozone. Additionally, this final action includes an error correction to amend regulatory text related to the nonattainment designation of the Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona area for the 2015 ozone NAAQS. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective October 4, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-2022-0326. All documents in the docket are listed on the <E T="03">https://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">https://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. 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> Ben Leers, Planning and Analysis Branch (AIR-2), Air and Radiation Division, EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, (415) 947-4279, or by email at <E T="03">leers.ben@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="FP1-2">A. Statutory Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. State Submittals</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. EPA's Proposal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Public Comments and EPA Responses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Final Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Partial Approvals and Partial Disapprovals</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Incorporation of Rules Into Arizona's State Implementation Plan</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Reclassification of Regions for Ozone Episode Plans</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Error Correction to 40 CFR 81.303</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</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Statutory Requirements</HD> Section 110(a)(1) of the CAA requires each State to submit to the EPA, within three years after the promulgation of a primary or secondary NAAQS or any revision thereof, a SIP revision that provides for the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of such NAAQS. Section 110(a)(2) of the CAA contains the infrastructure SIP requirements that generally relate to the information, authorities, compliance assurances, procedural requirements, and control measures that constitute the “infrastructure” of a State's air quality management program. These infrastructure SIP requirements (or “elements”) required by section 110(a)(2) are as follows: • Section 110(a)(2)(A): Emission limits and other control measures. • Section 110(a)(2)(B): Ambient air quality monitoring/data system. • Section 110(a)(2)(C): Program for enforcement of control measures and regulation of new and modified stationary sources. • Section 110(a)(2)(D)(i): Interstate pollution transport. • Section 110(a)(2)(D)(ii): Interstate and international pollution abatement. • Section 110(a)(2)(E): Adequate resources and authority, conflict of interest, and oversight of local and regional government agencies. • Section 110(a)(2)(F): Stationary source monitoring and reporting. • Section 110(a)(2)(G): Emergency episodes. • Section 110(a)(2)(H): SIP revisions. • Section 110(a)(2)(J): Consultation with government officials, public notification, prevention of significant deterioration (PSD), and visibility protection. • Section 110(a)(2)(K): Air quality modeling and submittal of modeling data. • Section 110(a)(2)(L): Permitting fees. • Section 110(a)(2)(M): Consultation/participation by affected local entities. Two elements identified in section 110(a)(2) are not governed by the three-year submittal deadline of section 110(a)(1) and are therefore not addressed in this action. These two elements are: (i) section 110(a)(2)(C), to the extent that it refers to permit programs required under part D (nonattainment new source review (NSR)), and (ii) section 110(a)(2)(I), pertaining to the nonattainment planning requirements of part D. As a result, this action does not address requirements for the nonattainment NSR portion of section 110(a)(2)(C) or the whole of section 110(a)(2)(I). This action also does not address the interstate transport requirements under section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I), referred to as “prongs 1 and 2” of section 110(a)(2)(D)(i), or the requirements of section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(II) pertaining to interference with visibility protection in other States, referred to as “prong 4” of section 110(a)(2)(D)(i). The EPA has proposed action on Arizona's SIP with respect to prongs 1, 2 and 4 of section 110(a)(2)(D)(i) for the 2015 ozone NAAQS in separate rulemakings. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  The EPA proposed to approve Arizona's SIP with respect to prongs 1 and 2 of section 110(a)(2)(D)(i) on June 24, 2022 (87 FR 37776). However, based on updated photochemical modeling, the EPA issued a supplemental proposal on February 16, 2024, proposing to approve Arizona's SIP with respect to prong 1 and to disapprove Arizona's SIP with respect to prong 2 (89 FR 12666). The EPA proposed to disapprove Arizona's SIP with respect to prong 4 of section 110(a)(2)(D)(i) on May 31, 2024 (89 FR 47398). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. State Submittals</HD> The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) submitted two SIP revisions to address the infrastructure SIP requirements in CAA sections 110(a)(1) and 110(a)(2) for the 2015 ozone NAAQS. On September 24, 2018, ADEQ submitted the “Arizona State Implementation Plan Revision under Clean Air Act Sections 110(a)(1) and 110(a)(2) for the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards.”  <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> On February 10, 2022, ADEQ submitted the “State Implementation Plan Revision: Clean Air Act Section 110(a)(2) for the 2012 Fine Particulate & 2015 Ozone NAAQS” (“2022 I-SIP supplement”). <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> These submittals collectively address Arizona's obligation to satisfy infrastructure SIP requirements for the 2015 ozone NAAQS. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> We refer to them collectively herein as “Arizona's ozone I-SIP submittals.” <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  Letter dated September 24, 2018, from Timothy S. Franquist, Director, Air Quality Division, ADEQ, to Michael Stoker, Regional Administrator, EPA Region IX, Subject: “Submittal of the Arizona State Implementation Plan Revision under Clean Air Act Sections 110(a)(1) and 110(a)(2) for the 2015 Ozone NAAQS.” </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Letter dated February 10, 2022, from Daniel Czecholinski, Director, Air Quality Division, ADEQ, to Martha Guzman, Regional Administrator, EPA Region IX, Subject: “Submittal of the Arizona State Implementation Plan Revision under Clean Air Act Sections 110(a)(2) for the 2012 Fine Particulate and the 2015 Ozone NAAQS.” </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  The 2022 I-SIP supplement also addresses certain infrastructure SIP requirements for the 2012 fine particulate matter (PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ) NAAQS. We are not taking action on the portions of the 2022 I-SIP supplement addressing the 2012 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS in this rulemaking. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. EPA's Proposal</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD3">1. Approvals and Partial Approvals</HD> We evaluated Arizona's ozone I-SIP submittals and the existing provisions of the Arizona SIP for compliance with the infrastructure SIP requirements of CAA section 110(a)(2) and the applicable regulations in 40 CFR part 51 (“Requirements for Preparation, Adoption, and Submittal of State Implementation Plans”). Based on the evaluation presented in the proposed rulemaking and in the accompanying technical support document (TSD), on December 5, 2022, we proposed to partially approve Arizona's ozone I-SIP submittals with respect to the 2015 ozone NAAQS for the requirements of the following sections of the CAA. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> Partial approvals are indicated by the parenthetical “(in part).” <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  87 FR 74349 (December 5, 2022). The TSD supporting our proposed rulemaking is available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 43k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━