Air Plan Approval; New Jersey; Northern New Jersey and Southern New Jersey Counties' Second 10-Year Limited Maintenance Plan for the 2006 24-Hour PM2.5 Standard

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R02-OAR-2024-0288; FRL-12047-01-R2]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT> Air Plan Approval; New Jersey; Northern New Jersey and Southern New Jersey Counties' Second 10-Year Limited Maintenance Plan for the 2006 24-Hour PM <E T="0735">2.5</E> Standard </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, under the Clean Air Act (CAA), the limited maintenance plan (LMP) for the 2006 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for the New Jersey portion of both of New Jersey's multi-state maintenance areas: the Northern New Jersey portion of the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT (Northern New Jersey) maintenance area and the New Jersey portion of the Philadelphia-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE (Southern New Jersey) maintenance area. This LMP was submitted on July 6, 2023, and supplemented on June 6, 2024, by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). The plan addresses the second 10-year maintenance period for particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to a nominal 2.5 micrometers, known as PM <E T="52">2.5</E> . The EPA is proposing approval of New Jersey's LMP submission because it provides for the maintenance of the 2006 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS through the end of the second 10-year portion of the maintenance period. In addition, the EPA completed the adequacy review process of this New Jersey PM <E T="52">2.5</E> LMP for transportation conformity purposes on June 7, 2024. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Written comments must be received on or before September 2, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID Number EPA-R02-OAR-2024-0288 at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> . Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, <E T="03">e.g.,</E> Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) (formerly referred to as 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 electronically through <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 CUI 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, the full EPA public comment policy, information about CUI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets</E> . <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Ysabel Banon, Environmental Protection Agency, Air Programs Branch, Region 2, 290 Broadway, New York, New York 10007-1866, at (212) 637-3782, or by email at <E T="03">banon.ysabel@epa.gov</E> . </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Background and Purpose</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> A. The PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Regulatory Actions in Northern New Jersey and Southern New Jersey Counties</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. The Limited Maintenance Plan Option</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Demonstration of Maintenance Using the Limited Maintenance Plan Option</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Transportation Conformity Under Limited Maintenance Plan Option</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. General Conformity Under Limited Maintenance Plan Option</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. The EPA's Analysis of the State's Submittal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Demonstration of Qualification for the Limited Maintenance Plan Option</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Attainment Emission Inventory</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Air Quality Monitoring Network</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Verification of Continued Attainment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Contingency Provisions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Proposed Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background and Purpose</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2"> A. The PM <E T="54">2.5</E> NAAQS </HD> The EPA has established NAAQS for particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers, known as PM <E T="52">2.5</E> , to protect human health and the environment. In 1997, the EPA established the first PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standards based on significant scientific evidence and health studies demonstrating the serious health effects associated with exposure to PM <E T="52">2.5</E> . The EPA set an annual standard of 15.0 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m <SU>3</SU> ) and a 24-hour (daily) standard of 65 µg/m <SU>3</SU> . In 2006, the EPA strengthened the 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS by revising it to 35 µg/m <SU>3</SU> and retained the level of the annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standard at 15.0 µg/m <SU>3</SU> . Subsequently, in 2012, the EPA established an annual primary PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS at 12.0 µg/m <SU>3</SU> and retained the 2006 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS at 35 µg/m <SU>3</SU> . In early 2024, the EPA strengthened the level of the annual primary PM <E T="52">2.5</E> standard to 9.0 µg/m <SU>3</SU> and retained the 2006 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS at 35 µg/m <SU>3</SU> . <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Regulatory Actions in Northern New Jersey and Southern New Jersey Counties</HD> Hereafter, “Northern New Jersey” means the New Jersey portion of the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT maintenance area (for the 2006 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS), which is comprised of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, and Union Counties, and “Southern New Jersey” means the New Jersey portion of Philadelphia-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE maintenance area (for the 2006 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS), which is comprised of Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties. The EPA promulgated the designations for Northern New Jersey and Southern New Jersey as PM <E T="52">2.5</E> nonattainment areas for the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS on January 5, 2005 (70 FR 944, January 5, 2025) and the 2006 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS on November 13, 2009 (74 FR 58688, November 13, 2009), due to measured violations of the standards. These designations became effective on April 5, 2005, and December 14, 2009, respectively. On December 26, 2012, the NJDEP submitted a request to the EPA to redesignate the Northern New Jersey and Southern New Jersey nonattainment areas to attainment for both the 1997 annual and 2006 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS. This submittal included a maintenance plan to provide for maintenance of both of the PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS in the areas for 10 years. The EPA redesignated Northern New Jersey and Southern New Jersey to attainment for the 1997 and 2006 PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS on September 4, 2013 (78 FR 54396, September 4, 2013) and approved the associated maintenance plan into the New Jersey State Implementation Plan (SIP). The purpose of the NJDEP's July 6, 2023 (supplemented on June 6, 2024) LMP submission is to fulfill the second 10-year planning requirement of CAA section 175A(b), thus ensuring PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS compliance through the end of the maintenance period. In the LMP submittal, the NJDEP indicates that it seeks approval of the LMP for both the 2006 24-hour standard as well as the 1997 annual standard. However, as explained in the PM <E T="52">2.5</E> SIP Requirements Rule (81 FR 58009, October 24, 2016), a second 10-year maintenance plan for the revoked 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS is not required. Therefore, the EPA will only proceed with proposing approval of the LMP for the 2006 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. The Limited Maintenance Plan Option</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Demonstration of Maintenance Using the Limited Maintenance Plan Option</HD> Section 175A of the CAA, 42 U.S.C. 7505a, sets forth the elements of a maintenance plan. Under section 175A, a state must submit a revision to the SIP that provides for maintenance of the applicable NAAQS for at least 10 years after an area is redesignated to attainment. Section 175A also requires that eight years into the first maintenance period, the state must submit a second maintenance plan demonstrating that the area will continue to attain for the following 10-year period. The EPA has published long-standing guidance for states on developing maintenance plans. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> The Calcagni Memo provides that states may generally demonstrate maintenance by either performing air quality modeling to show that the future mix of sources and emission rates will not cause a violation of the NAAQS or by showing that future emissions of a pollutant and its precursors will not exceed the level of emissions during a year when the area was attaining the NAAQS ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> attainment year ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 48k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━