Air Plan Approval; Tennessee; Second Planning Period Regional Haze Plan

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R04-OAR-2019-0308; FRL-10404-01-R4]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Approval; Tennessee; Second Planning Period Regional Haze Plan</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 regional haze State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation (TDEC), dated February 23, 2022, as satisfying the applicable requirements under the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and EPA's Regional Haze Rule (RHR) for the program's second planning period. Tennessee's SIP submission addresses the requirement that states must periodically revise their long-term strategies for making reasonable progress toward the national goal of preventing any future, and remedying any existing, anthropogenic impairment of visibility, including regional haze, in mandatory Class I Federal areas. The SIP submission also addresses other applicable requirements for the second planning period of the regional haze program. EPA is proposing this action pursuant to sections 110 and 169A of the Act. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Written comments must be received on or before October 20, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04-OAR-2019-0308, 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> . 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. 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 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> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Estelle Bae, Air Permits Section, Air Planning and Implementation Branch, Air and Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8960. Ms. Bae can be reached via telephone at (404) 562-9143 or electronic mail at <E T="03">bae.estelle@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. What action is EPA proposing?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Background and Requirements for Regional Haze Plans</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Regional Haze Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Roles of Agencies in Addressing Regional Haze</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Requirements for Regional Haze Plans for the Second Planning Period</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Long-Term Strategy (LTS) for Regional Haze</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Reasonable Progress Goals (RPGs)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Monitoring Strategy and Other Implementation Plan Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Requirements for Periodic Reports Describing Progress Towards the RPGs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Requirements for State and Federal Land Manager (FLM) Coordination</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. EPA's Evaluation of Tennessee's Regional Haze Submission for the Second Planning Period</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Identification of Class I Areas</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Calculations of Baseline, Current, and Natural Visibility Conditions; Progress to Date; and the Uniform Rate of Progress (URP)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. LTS for Regional Haze</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. RPGs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Monitoring Strategy and Other Implementation Plan Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Requirements for Periodic Reports Describing Progress Towards the RPGs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Requirements for State and FLM Coordination</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Other Measures Proposed for Incorporation Into Tennessee's SIP</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Incorporation by Reference</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VII. Proposed Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VIII. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. What action is EPA proposing?</HD> On February 23, 2022, TDEC submitted a SIP to address regional haze for the second planning period (“Haze Plan” or “2022 Plan”). <E T="51">1 2</E> <FTREF/> TDEC made the SIP submission to satisfy the requirements of the CAA's regional haze program pursuant to CAA sections 169A and 169B and 40 CFR 51.308. On February 9, 2023, Tennessee also submitted a separate SIP revision to adopt source-specific SO <E T="52">2</E> emission limits and compliance parameters into the Tennessee SIP for Eastman (“2023 Plan”). <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> EPA is proposing to approve Tennessee's Haze Plan as satisfying applicable statutory and regulatory requirements for the regional haze second planning period. EPA is also proposing to incorporate by reference into Tennessee's SIP permit conditions included in the 2023 Plan for Eastman. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> EPA is not proposing to take action to approve or disapprove other portions of the 2023 Plan in this Notice. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Tennessee's February 23, 2022, SIP submission, is included in the docket for this action. <SU>2</SU>  On December 20, 2024, Tennessee sent EPA a letter requesting that EPA incorporate certain permit conditions applicable for Eastman Chemical Company (Eastman) into Tennessee's SIP to support the State's Haze Plan and to strengthen Tennessee's SIP. This letter, received December 20, 2024, is included in the docket for this proposed action. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Tennessee's February 9, 2023, SIP submission, is included in the docket for this action. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Tennessee submitted the 2023 Plan as an SO <E T="52">2</E> attainment demonstration SIP for Sullivan County. On December 20, 2024, Tennessee submitted a letter to EPA stating that Tennessee supports EPA adopting certain permit conditions from the 2023 Plan into Tennessee's SIP to support the Haze Plan and to further strengthen Tennessee's SIP. While EPA is proposing to adopt permit conditions from the 2023 Plan into Tennessee's SIP to strengthen Tennessee's SIP, EPA is not proposing to approve, disapprove, or otherwise take action on the 2023 Plan itself. Whether the 2023 Plan is approvable under the CAA—including the permit conditions included with the 2023 Plan—will be the subject of a separate rulemaking process. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background and Requirements for Regional Haze Plans</HD> A detailed history and background of the regional haze program is provided in prior EPA proposal actions. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> For additional background on the 2017 RHR revisions, please refer to Section III. Overview of Visibility Protection Statutory Authority, Regulation, and Implementation of “Protection of Visibility: Amendments to Requirements for State Plans” of the 2017 RHR. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> The following is an abbreviated history and background of the regional haze program and 2017 RHR as it applies to the current proposed action. <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 90 FR 13516 (March 24, 2025). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 82 FR 3078 (January 10, 2017), located at <E T="03">https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/10/2017-00268/protection-of-visibility-amendments-to-requirements-for-State-plans#h-16.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Regional Haze Background</HD> In the 1977 CAA Amendments, Congress created a program for protecting visibility in the nation's mandatory Class I Federal areas, which include certain national parks and wilderness areas. <FTREF/> <SU>7</SU> <E T="03">See</E> CAA section 169A. The CAA establishes as a national goal the “prevention of any future, and the remedying of any existing, impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I Federal areas which impairment results from manmade air pollution.” <E T="03">See</E> CAA section 169A(a)(1). Regional haze is visibility impairment that is produced by a multitude of anthropogenic sources and activities which are located across a broad geographic area and that emit pollutants that impair visibility. Visibility impairing pollutants include fine and coarse particulate matter (PM) ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> sulfates, nitrates, organic carbon, elemental carbon, and soil dust) and their precursors ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> sulfur dioxide (SO <E T="52">2</E> ), nitrogen oxides (NO <E T="52">X</E> ), and, in some cases, volatile organic compounds (VOC) and ammonia (NH <E T="52">3</E> )). Fine particle precursors react in the atmosphere to form fine particulate matter (particles less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers (µm) in diameter, PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ), which impairs visibility by scattering and absorbing light. Visibility impairment reduces the perception of clarity and color, as well as visible distance. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>  Areas statutorily designated as mandatory Class I Federal areas consist of national parks exceeding 6,000 acres, wilderness areas and national memorial parks exceeding 5,000 acres, and all international parks that were in existence on August 7, 1977. <E T=" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 182k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━