Air Plan Approval; Delaware; Motor Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program Certification

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R03-OAR-2025-0133; FRL-11841-01-R3]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Approval; Delaware; Motor Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program Certification</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 a state implementation plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Delaware. This SIP revision addresses Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements for the enactment of a Basic vehicle emissions inspection and maintenance (I/M) program for the Delaware portion ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> New Castle County) of the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, Pa-NJ-MD-DE Nonattainment Area (Philadelphia NAA) for the 2015 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Written comments must be received on or before July 11, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R03-OAR-2025-0133 at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> or via email to <E T="03">gordon.mike@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, 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">www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Adam Lewis, Planning & Implementation Branch (3AD30), Air & Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1600 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. The telephone number is (215) 814-2026. Mr. Adam Lewis can also be reached via electronic mail at <E T="03">Lewis.Adam@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> On February 14, 2024, Delaware submitted the “Basic Performance Standard Certification for New Castle County Inspection and Maintenance Program” (I/M Certification SIP) as a revision to the Delaware SIP. This Basic I/M certification SIP revision was submitted prior to the reclassification of the Philadelphia NAA from Moderate to Serious nonattainment for the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS (89 FR 61025, July 30, 2024). CAA section 182(c)(3) requires states with areas designated as Serious or above to submit SIP revisions that provide for the implementation of an Enhanced I/M program in certain urbanized areas of the NAA. That requirement will be addressed at a later date. On October 1, 2015, the EPA revised the primary and secondary NAAQS for ozone to a level of 0.70 parts per million (ppm) (based on the annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour average concentration, averaged over three years) to provide increased protection of human health and the environment. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> The 2015 ozone NAAQS retains the same general form and averaging time as the 0.75 ppm NAAQS set in 2008, but is set at a more protective level. On June 4, 2018 (effective August 3, 2018), the EPA designated the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, PA-NJ-MD-DE area (including Delaware's New Castle County) as Marginal nonattainment for the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> Areas designated as Marginal nonattainment were required to attain the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS by no later than August 3, 2021 (three years from the effective date of designation). <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  80 FR 65292 (October 26, 2015). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  83 FR 25776 (June 4, 2018). </FTNT> On October 7, 2022, the EPA determined that the Philadelphia NAA failed to attain the 2015 ozone NAAQS by its August 3, 2021 attainment date and reclassified the area from Marginal to Moderate nonattainment. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> Moderate areas were required to attain the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS by no later than six years after the effective date of initial designation, or August 3, 2024. CAA section 182 outlines SIP requirements applicable to ozone nonattainment areas specific to each classification category. The requirements for a Moderate ozone nonattainment area include a Basic vehicle I/M program. CAA section 182(b)(4). The Basic I/M requirements are further articulated in the EPA's I/M Rule at 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 51, subpart S. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> The Federal performance standards  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> for a Basic I/M program are outlined in 40 CFR 51.352. Consistent with the I/M Rule, areas with existing I/M programs need to conduct and submit a performance standard modeling analysis as well as make any necessary program revisions as part of their Moderate area SIP submissions to ensure that I/M programs are operating at or above the Basic I/M performance standard level for the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS. These areas may determine through the performance standard modeling analysis that an existing SIP-approved program would meet the performance standard for purposes of the 2015 ozone NAAQS without modification. In this case, the state could submit a SIP revision with the associated performance modeling and a written statement certifying their determination in lieu of submitting new revised regulations. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  87 FR 60897 (October 7, 2022). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  See 40 CFR 51.350(a)(4) for nonattainment area population I/M criteria applicability. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  An I/M performance standard is a collection of program design elements which defines a benchmark program to which a state's proposed I/M program is compared in terms of its potential to reduce emissions of the ozone precursors, nitrogen oxides (NO <E T="52">X</E> ) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  See section II.E of the October 7, 2022 final rule (87 FR 60897, 60906) and the April 13, 2022 proposal (87 FR 21842). </FTNT> To address this Basic I/M requirement for the Delaware portion of the 2015 ozone Philadelphia NAA required for the Moderate classification, Delaware submitted the February 14, 2024, SIP revision. Due to more stringent nonattainment classifications under previous ozone NAAQS and Delaware's inclusion as part of the Ozone Transport Region (OTR), <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> Delaware already implements an Alternate Low Enhanced I/M program in New Castle County and Kent County. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> The EPA recently approved (via a final rule published November 4, 2024) updates to Delaware's prior approved I/M SIP submitted in March 2023. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> This previous I/M program revision included regulatory updates made between the inception of Delaware's current Alternate Low Enhanced I/M program and March 2023. In approving this March 2023 SIP revision, the EPA's November 2024 action determined that the current I/M program in New Castle County (and Kent County) met the applicable CAA requirements for an Alternate Low Enhanced I/M program, a more stringent standard than a Basic program for which Delaware now seeks certification. For that Alternate Low Enhanced I/M program Delaware availed itself of flexibility in EPA's I/M rule that allows an Enhanced I/M subject area to adopt a program that meets an Alternate Low Enhanced I/M performance standard if the area: (1) has an approved SIP pursuant to CAA requirements for Reasonable Further Progress (for the period from 1990-1996); (2) does not have a disapproved plan for Reasonable Further Progress for the period after 1996; and (3) does not have a disapproved plan for attainment of the air quality standards for ozone or carbon monoxide. <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> Delaware's Alternate Low Enhanced I/M program (applicable to Kent and New Castle Counties) was codified at Delaware Code Title 7, Regulation 31. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>  The Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton NAA was previously classified as severe nonattainment under the now revoked 1979 ozone NAAQS. CAA Section 184(b)(1)(A) provides that an area within a state in an ozone transport region and with a metropolitan statistical area population of 100,000 or more must implement an enhanced I/M program. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>  See 40 CFR 51.351(g) for the Alternate Low Enhanced Performance Standard. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>  See 89 FR 87500 (November 4, 2024) and 89 FR 66295 (August 15, 2024) for these actions and a summary of the Delaware specific CAA requirements for I/M Programs, additional background on the Ozone NAAQS, and resulting Delaware Area Ozone Nonattainment Designation. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>  40 CFR 51.351(g). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>  Recodified by the State as 7 DE Admin. Code 1131 in 2012. </FTNT> Delaware's Alternate Low Enhanced I/M program applicable to the Delaware portion of the Philadelph ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 33k characters. 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