Air Plan Disapproval; Texas; Control of Air Pollution From Visible Emissions and Particulate Matter

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R06-OAR-2021-0029; FRL-12218-01-R6]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Disapproval; Texas; Control of Air Pollution From Visible Emissions and Particulate Matter</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> Pursuant to the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA, the Act), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to disapprove a revision to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of Texas through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on August 20, 2020. The SIP submittal addresses emissions during planned Maintenance, Startup and Shutdown (MSS) activities for certain Electric Generating Units (EGUs) and includes requirements intended to address visible emissions (opacity) and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions during planned MSS activities The requirements are included in eight Agreed Orders (AOs) issued by TCEQ to the affected EGUs and provided in the SIP revision. EPA is proposing to determine that the requirements contained in these AOs do not meet the CAA requirements that emission limitations must be practically enforceable and must apply on a continuous basis. We are taking this action in accordance with section 110 of the Act. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before October 3, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket No. EPA-R06-OAR-2021-0029 at <E T="03">https://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> . 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 Mr. Michael Feldman, (214) 665-9793, <E T="03">Feldman.Michael@epa.gov.</E> 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> <E T="03">Docket:</E> The index to the docket for this action is available electronically at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> and in hard copy at the EPA Region 6 Office, 1201 Elm Street, Suite 500, Dallas, Texas 75270. While all documents in the docket are listed in the index, some information may be publicly available only at the hard copy location ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> copyrighted material), and some may not be publicly available at either location ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> CBI). <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Mr. Michael Feldman, Regional Haze and SO <E T="52">2</E> Section, EPA Region 6 Office, 1201 Elm Street, Suite 500, Dallas, Texas 75270, (214) 665-9793, <E T="03">Feldman.Michael@epa.gov.</E> We encourage the public to submit comments via <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Please call or email the contact listed above if you need alternative access to material indexed but not provided in the docket. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> Throughout this document “we,” “us,” and “our” means the EPA. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Texas Chapter 111—Control of Air Pollution From Visible Emissions and Particulate Matter</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. August 20, 2020 SIP Submittal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Applicability of Opacity and PM Limitations in 30 TAC 111</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Evaluation of Emission Limitations in the SIP Revision</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. SIP Requirements for Emissions Limitations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Environ. Comm. Fl. Elec. Power v. EPA, 94 F.4th 77 (D.C. Cir. 2024)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Evaluation of Alternative Emission Limits</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. EPA Recommendations for Development of Alternative Emission Limitations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. EPA's Evaluation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Proposed Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Environmental Justice Considerations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VII. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Texas Chapter 111—Control of Air Pollution From Visible Emissions and Particulate Matter</HD> Texas promulgated rules for the control of visible emissions (opacity) and particulate matter emissions for inclusion in its SIP on January 28, 1972, and EPA first approved those rules into the SIP on May 31, 1972 (37 FR 10895) at 40 CFR 52.2270(b). In the original codification, Texas' rules concerning visible emissions and emission restrictions for particulate matter emissions were contained in TACB Regulation I—Control of Smoke, Visible Emissions and Particulate Matter, Rule 103.1 and 105.31. In developing these original rules, the state has noted that it relied in part on the findings of a study conducted by the Radian Corporation (Radian Report)  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> on behalf of the Texas Air Control Board (TACB), <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> a predecessor state agency to the TCEQ. The Radian Report provided information on the steady-state performance of electrostatic precipitator (ESPs) that the state used as part of establishing the Opacity and PM restrictions in TACB Regulation I. The control and performance efficiencies documented in the Radian Report for visible emissions and particulate matter for coal fired EGUs equipped with ESPs did not consider startup and shutdown periods when the EGU boiler exhaust gas is below the minimum temperature required to ensure the effective and safe operation of an ESP as a control device for particulate matter emissions and opacity. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Radian Corporation, Technical Basis for Texas Air Control Board Particulate Regulations, Delbert Max Ottmers, Jr and Ben R. Breed, August 20, 1971 (included in TCEQ's SIP submittal in the Docket for this proposed rulemaking). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  The Texas Air Control Board, abolished by Texas S.B. 2, 72nd Leg., 1st C.S., effective September 1, 1993, duties transferred to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission which was formed from a merger with other state agencies including the Texas Water Commission and which was later renamed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Agency 582. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  TCEQ's SIP submittal identifies additional studies conducted by the EPA and predecessor agencies as early as 1970 on ESP design and operation (available in the docket for this action): An Electrostatic Precipitator Systems Study: Final Report to The National Air Pollution Control Administration, Southern Research Institute, Contract CPA 22-69-73, October 30, 1970; Effects of Transient Operating Conditions on Steam- Electric Generator Emissions, EPA-600/2-75-022, August 1975; Controlling Particulate Emissions from Coal-Fired Boilers, EPA-600/8-79-016, June 1979. </FTNT> Since the original EPA approval of Rules 103.1 and 105.31 in 1972, there have been several subsequent state rule revision actions and EPA-approved SIP revisions which renumbered and recodified Rules 103.1 and 105.31 to what they are today—namely, 30 TAC 111.111 (for opacity) and 30 TAC 111.153(b) (for particulate matter) of the EPA-approved SIP. See 74 FR 19144 (April 28, 2009). However, none of the subsequent rulemakings and SIP revisions were substantive in nature and the record for those actions do not suggest a change to the original scope and application of Rules 103.1 and 105.31. In 2009, Texas recodified Regulation I, Rules 103.1 and 105.31, in a new location, 30 TAC 111.111 (Approved by EPA. April 28, 2009 (74 FR 19144) effective May 28, 2009, <E T="03">Regulations.gov</E> docket ID NO. EPA-R06-OAR-2005-TX-0028). Despite the changed numbering, the requirements in the rules remain the same. For opacity, 30 TAC 111.111 requires that the affected sources “shall not exceed 30 percent averaged over a six-minute period” (for any source on which construction or operation was begun on or before January 31, 1972), and “shall not exceed 20 percent averaged over a six-minute period for any source on which construction was begun after January 31, 1972.”  <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> For particulate matter, 30 TAC 111.153(b) requires that no affected source “may cause, suffer, allow, or permit emissions of particulate matter from any solid fossil fuel-fired steam generator to exceed 0.3 pound of total suspended particulate per million BTU heat input, averaged over a two-hour period.”  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  See section 111.111 Requirements for Specified Sources, <E T="03">https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=30&pt=1&ch=111&rl=111, also https://www.epa.gov/sips-tx/current-texas-sip-approved-regulations#1A1</E> . </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  See section 111.153 Emission Limits for Steam Generators, <E T="03">https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=30&pt=1&ch=111&rl=153</E> . See also <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/sips-tx/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 89k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━