Air Plan Revisions; California; San Diego County Air Pollution Control District and Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R09-OAR-2024-0418; FRL-12225-01-R9]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Revisions; California; San Diego County Air Pollution Control District and Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District</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 the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District (SDCAPCD) and Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District (MDAQMD) portions of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern negative declarations for the Control Techniques Guidelines (CTG) for the Oil and Natural Gas Industry (Oil and Natural Gas CTG). We are taking comments on this proposal to approve the SDCAPCD and MDAQMD negative declarations into the California SIP. We plan to follow with a final action. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before October 23, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-2024-0418 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> Eugene Chen, EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105. By phone: (415) 947-4304 or by email at <E T="03">chen.eugene@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 documents did the State submit?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Are there other versions of this/these documents?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. What is the purpose of the submitted documents?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. How is the EPA evaluating the documents?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Do the documents meet the evaluation criteria?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Proposed Action and Public Comment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. The State's Submittal</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. What documents did the State submit?</HD> Table 1 lists the documents addressed by this proposal with the dates that they were adopted by the local air agencies and submitted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). <GPOTABLE COLS="4" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="xs60,r100,12,12"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Submitted Documents</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Local agency</CHED> <CHED H="1">Document</CHED> <CHED H="1">Adopted</CHED> <ENT>2020 Reasonably Available Control Technology Demonstration for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone in San Diego County (“2020 RACT SIP”)—Negative Declaration for Oil and Natural Gas CTG</ENT> <ENT>10/14/2020</ENT> <ENT>12/28/2020</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">MDAQMD</ENT> <ENT>70 ppb Ozone Standard Implementation Evaluation: RACT SIP Analysis; Federal Negative Declarations; and Emission Statement Certification—Negative Declaration for Oil and Natural Gas CTG</ENT> <ENT>10/28/2019</ENT> <ENT>12/20/2019</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> For the SDCAPCD submittal, we are only proposing action on the negative declaration for the Oil and Natural Gas CTG in Attachment B and are not proposing action on any other elements of the submittal. Similarly, for the MDAQMD submittal, we are only proposing action on the negative declaration for the Oil and Natural Gas CTG in Table 2 and are not proposing action on any other elements of the submittal. In both cases, the negative declaration for the Oil and Natural Gas CTG was submitted for the 2008 and 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). <E T="51">1 2</E> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Page 10 of MDAQMD 70 ppb O3 Evaluation, Final Staff Report. <SU>2</SU>  Page B-10 of SDCAPCD 2020 RACT SIP, Attachment B. </FTNT> On May 6, 2021, the EPA determined that the SDCAPCD negative declaration for the Oil and Natural Gas CTG met the SIP submittal completeness criteria in 40 CFR part 51, appendix V. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> On June 20, 2020, the MDAQMD submittal, including the Oil and Gas CTG negative declaration, was deemed by operation of law to meet the SIP completeness criteria in 40 CFR part 51, appendix V. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  See Docket Item B-01, Letter dated May 6, 2021, from Elizabeth J. Adams, Director, Air Division, EPA Region IX, to Richard W. Corey, Executive Officer, CARB. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Are there other versions of these documents?</HD> There are no other versions of the SDCAPCD submittal, but we previously approved the negative declarations from the 2020 RACT SIP for the CTGs titled <E T="03">Control of Volatile Organic Emissions from Manufacture of Synthesized Pharmaceutical Products</E> (EPA-450/2-78-029), <E T="03">Control of Volatile Organic Emissions from Miscellaneous Metal and Plastic Parts Coatings</E> (EPA-453/R-08-003), Tables 3 through 6, and <E T="03">Control Techniques Guidelines for Fiberglass Boat Manufacturing Materials</E> (EPA-453/R-08-004). <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> There are no other versions of the MDAQMD submittal, and we have not previously taken action on any elements of the submittal. <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  87 FR 38665 (June 29, 2022). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. What is the purpose of the submitted documents?</HD> Volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NO <E T="52">X</E> ) in the presence of sunlight can lead to the formation of ground-level ozone or “smog,” which can result in significant impacts to human health and the environment. Section 110(a) of the CAA requires states to submit regulations that control VOC emissions. Clean Air Act (CAA) sections 182(b)(2) and (f) require that SIPs for ozone nonattainment areas classified as “Moderate” or above implement reasonably available control (RACT) for any source covered by a Control Techniques Guidelines (CTG) document and for any major source of VOCs or NO <E T="52">X</E> . On October 26, 2015, the EPA finalized action to revise the 8-hour ozone NAAQS from 0.075 to 0.070 ppm. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> On June 4, 2018, the EPA originally designated San Diego County as Moderate nonattainment for the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> San Diego County has subsequently been reclassified from Moderate to “Severe” nonattainment. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> On June 4, 2018, the EPA also designated the West Mojave Desert area, which includes portions of San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties, as Severe nonattainment for the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS. The SDCAPCD has jurisdiction over the entirety of San Diego County, and the MDAQMD has jurisdiction over the San Bernardino County portion of the West Mojave Desert nonattainment area. <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  80 FR 65292. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  83 FR 25776. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>  86 FR 29522. San Diego County voluntarily requested reclassification from Moderate to Severe nonattainment. The applicable attainment date would be as expeditious as practicable but no later than August 3, 2033 for the 2015 ozone NAAQS. </FTNT> As a result of their Severe classifications for the 2015 ozone NAAQS, SDCAPCD, and MDAQMD must, at a minimum, adopt RACT-level controls for all sources covered by a CTG document and for all major non-CTG sources of VOCs or NO <E T="52">X</E> within their respective nonattainment areas. Any stationary source that emits or has the potential to emit at least 25 tons per year (tpy) of VOCs or NO <E T="52">X</E> is considered a major stationary source in a Severe ozone nonattainment area. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>  CAA sections 182(d) and (f) and 302(j). </FTNT> Section III.D of the preamble to the EPA's final rule to implement the 2008 ozone NAAQS discusses RACT requirements. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> It states, in part, that RACT SIPs must contain adopted RACT regulations and certifications (where appropriate) that existing provisions meet the RACT requirement. <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> Alternatively, for a source category covered by a CTG document where a District has no applicable stationary sources or emitting facilities, a District may adopt and submit a negative declarati ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 19k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━