Air Quality Plans; Guam; Guam Environmental Protection Agency; New Source Review

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R09-OAR-2025-0216; FRL-12613-01-R9]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Quality Plans; Guam; Guam Environmental Protection Agency; New Source Review</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 approval of a revision to the Guam State Implementation Plan (SIP). This revision governs the Guam Environmental Protection Agency's (GEPA's) issuance of permits for stationary sources and focuses on the preconstruction review and permitting of major sources and major modifications under part D of title I of the Clean Air Act (CAA or “the Act”). We are taking comments on this proposal and plan to follow with a final action. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before July 18, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-2025-0216 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 the disclosure of which 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">http://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 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> Cecelia Working, EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105; by phone: (213) 244-1911; or by email to <E T="03">working.cece@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 rule did the State submit?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Are there other versions of this rule?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. What is the purpose of the submitted rule?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. What is the background for this proposal?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. How is the EPA evaluating the rule?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Does the rule meet the evaluation criteria?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Proposed Action and Public Comment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Incorporation by Reference</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. The State's Submittal</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. What rule did the State submit?</HD> Table 1 lists the rule addressed by this proposal, including the date on which it was adopted by Guam, the State effective date, and the date on which it was submitted to the EPA by the GEPA. The GEPA is the air pollution control agency for Guam and the designated State  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> lead agency for submitting revisions of the Guam SIP to the EPA. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  CAA section 302(d) defines the term “State” to include Guam. </FTNT> <GPOTABLE COLS="6" OPTS="L2,nj,i1" CDEF="s25,r50,r100,12C,12C,12C"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Submitted Rule</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Air agency</CHED> <CHED H="1">Rule or regulation No.</CHED> <CHED H="1">Rule title</CHED> <ENT>Title 22, Division 1, Chapter 1, Article 8</ENT> <ENT> Guam Air Pollution Standards and Regulations New Source Review Requirements for New and Modified Major Sources in SO <E T="0732">2</E> Nonattainment Areas Adopted on October 17, 2022 </ENT> <ENT>12/28/22</ENT> <ENT>12/29/22</ENT> <ENT>03/13/25</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> This document proposes to approve Guam Administrative Rules and Regulations (GAR) Title 22, Division 1, Chapter 1, Article 8 (“Article 8”) into the GEPA portion of the Guam SIP. This rule was submitted to the EPA by the GEPA on March 13, 2025, by a letter of the same date. The rule was adopted into the GAR on December 28, 2022, and became effective on December 29, 2022. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> We find that GEPA's March 13, 2025 SIP submittal for Article 8 meets the completeness criteria in 40 CFR part 51 Appendix V, which must be met before formal EPA review. <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  The Guam Governor signed the law completing the multi-step process for adopting Article 8 into the GAR on December 28, 2022, following an earlier rulemaking process by the GEPA that concluded on October 17, 2022 and a subsequent legislative approval process that concluded on December 16, 2022. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Are there other versions of this rule?</HD> There are no previous versions of Article 8 in the Guam SIP. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. What is the purpose of the submitted rule?</HD> Article 8 is intended to address the CAA's statutory and regulatory requirements for Nonattainment New Source Review (NNSR) permit programs for major sources emitting nonattainment air pollutants, The NNSR requirements are applicable to Guam as a result of the designation of the Piti-Cabras area in Guam as nonattainment for the 2010 1-hour sulfur dioxide (SO <E T="52">2</E> ) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. What is the background for this proposal?</HD> The EPA's January 2018 designation of the Piti-Cabras area of Guam as a nonattainment area for the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS  <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> triggered the requirement for the GEPA to develop and submit an NNSR program to the EPA for SIP approval pursuant to CAA sections 172(c)(5) and 173 and 40 CFR 51.160-51.165. Because the Piti-Cabras portion of Guam is designated nonattainment for the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS, the GEPA's NNSR program must satisfy the NNSR requirements applicable to SO <E T="52">2</E> nonattainment areas. This action and the EPA's evaluation of the GEPA's submitted NNSR rule specifically address whether the rule satisfies the applicable NNSR requirements associated with the designation of the Piti-Cabras area as nonattainment for the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> standard. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  83 FR 1098, 1171 (January 9, 2018); see 40 CFR 81.353. </FTNT> Additional information regarding Guam's SO <E T="52">2</E> nonattainment status and attainment/nonattainment designations for other criteria pollutants is included in our Technical Support Document (TSD), which may be found in the docket for this rule. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. How is the EPA evaluating the rule?</HD> The EPA reviewed Article 8 for compliance with CAA requirements for: (1) stationary source preconstruction permitting programs as set forth in CAA part D, including CAA sections 172(c)(5) and 173; (2) the review and modification of major sources in accordance with 40 CFR 51.160-51.165 as applicable to the area in Guam designated as nonattainment for the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS; (3) SIPs in general as set forth in CAA section 110(a)(2), including 110(a)(2)(A) and 110(a)(2)(E)(i);  <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> and (4) SIP revisions as set forth in CAA section 110(l)  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> and 193. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> Our review evaluated the submittal for compliance with the NNSR requirements applicable to SO <E T="52">2</E> nonattainment areas, and it specifically ensured that the submittal addressed the NNSR requirements applicable to Guam for the 1-hour 2010 SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS. <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  CAA section 110(a)(2)(A) requires that regulations submitted to the EPA for SIP approval be clear and legally enforceable, and CAA section 110(a)(2)(E)(i) requires that states have adequate personnel, funding, and authority under state law to carry out their proposed SIP revisions. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  CAA section 110(l) requires SIP revisions to be subject to reasonable notice and public hearing prior to adoption and submittal by states to EPA and prohibits EPA from approving any SIP revision that would interfere with any applicable requirement concerning attainment and reasonable further progress or any other applicable requirement of the CAA. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  CAA section 193 prohibits the modification of any SIP-approved control requirement in effect before November 15, 1990, in a nonattainment area, unless the modification ensures equivalent or greater emission reductions of the relevant pollutants. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Does the rule meet the evaluation criteria?</HD> With respect to procedural requirements, CAA sections 110(a)(2) and 110(l) require that revisions to a SIP be adopted by the state after reasonable notice and public hearing. Based on our review of the public process documentation included in the March ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 17k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━