Air Plan Approval; GA; Removal of Emissions Statements Requirement and Updates To Permit by Rule

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R04-OAR-2025-0045; FRL-12937-01-R4]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Approval; GA; Removal of Emissions Statements Requirement and Updates To Permit by Rule</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 Georgia, through the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA EPD), on June 27, 2024, seeking to revise a source monitoring and reporting regulation by, among other things, removing the requirement for emissions statements in counties formerly designated as nonattainment for ozone and to revise the permit by rule regulation. EPA is proposing to approve these revisions pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act). </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before September 11, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04-OAR-2025-0045 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> . 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> Weston Freund, Air Regulatory Management 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. The telephone number is (404) 562-8773. Mr. Freund can also be reached via electronic mail at <E T="03">freund.weston@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> EPA is proposing to approve changes to the Georgia SIP submitted by the State on June 27, 2024, to revise a source monitoring and reporting regulation and the permit by rule regulation. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> Specifically, the changes address Rules 391-3-1-.02(6), <E T="03">Source Monitoring,</E> and 391-3-1-.03(11)(b)7, <E T="03">Coating and/or Gluing Operations.</E> <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  On July 9, 2025, EPA received a letter from GA EPD clarifying that the changes to 391-3-1-.03(11)(b)7.(i). do not include the language, “or enforceable as a practical matter limiting the source to below Part 70 or Part 63 major source thresholds.” This phrase was originally submitted to EPA on December 15, 2011, and was subsequently included in a partial withdrawal letter dated January 8, 2019. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  The June 27, 2024, submittal also contains changes to Rules 391-3-1-.02(1), <E T="03">General Requirement;</E> 391-3-1-.02(2)(nnn), <E T="03">NOX Emissions from Large Stationary Gas Turbines;</E> 391-3-1-.03(1), <E T="03">Construction (SIP) Permit;</E> 391-3-1-.03(6)(j), <E T="03">Construction Permit Exemption for Pollution Control Projects;</E> 391-3-1-.03(8), <E T="03">Permit Requirements;</E> and 391-3-1-.03(13), <E T="03">Emission Reduction Credits.</E> EPA will address these changes in a separate rulemaking. </FTNT> Effective August 3, 2018, EPA designated seven counties in and around metropolitan Atlanta as nonattainment and classified them as a “marginal” nonattainment area for the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS (hereinafter referred to as the Atlanta 2015 8-hour Ozone Area). <FTREF/> <SU>3</SU> <E T="03">See</E> 83 FR 25776 (June 4, 2018). In 2022, EPA redesignated the Atlanta 2015 8-hour Ozone Area to attainment for the 2015 8-hour ozone standard. <E T="03">See</E> 87 FR 62733 (October 17, 2022). <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  The Atlanta 2015 8-hour Ozone Area consists of the following counties: Bartow, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, and Henry. The 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS is set at 0.070 ppm based on an annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour average concentration averaged over three years. </FTNT> Prior to the redesignation to attainment for the 2015 ozone NAAQS, Georgia was required to submit SIP revisions to include certain ozone nonattainment provisions within its SIP, including nonattainment new source review (NNSR) and emissions statements provisions. <E T="03">See generally</E> CAA section 172(c)(5) (addressing NNSR); CAA section 173 (same); 40 CFR 51.1314 (addressing NNSR for 2015 ozone NAAQS nonattainment areas); CAA section 182(a)(3)(b) (addressing emissions statements). In 2022, EPA approved Georgia's SIP revisions addressing NNSR and emissions statements requirements for the 2015 ozone NAAQS for the Atlanta 2015 8-hour Ozone Area. <E T="03">See</E> 87 FR 3677 (January 25, 2022), 87 FR 13179 (March 9, 2022). No nonattainment areas now exist for any criteria pollutant in Georgia. <E T="03">See</E> 40 CFR 81.311. As a result of the redesignation of the Atlanta 2015 8-hour Ozone Area to attainment for the 2015 8-hour ozone standard, Georgia's SIP is not required to contain emissions statements requirements for this standard within this geographic area. Georgia's June 27, 2024, revision, as discussed in more detail below, would therefore remove the emissions statements rules from Georgia's SIP as obsolete. The revision also seeks to make minor changes to the portion of the permit by rule regulation for coating and/or gluing operations that applies in certain counties formerly designated as nonattainment for ozone. Georgia's submittal includes a demonstration, pursuant to CAA section 110(l), that the revision would not interfere with any applicable requirement concerning attainment of the NAAQS and reasonable further progress (RFP) or any other applicable requirement of the CAA. EPA's analysis of Georgia's June 27, 2024, SIP revision and the Agency's rationale for proposing to approve these changes are provided below. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. EPA's Analysis of the State's Submittal</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Subparagraph 391-3-1-.02(6)(a), Specific Monitoring and Reporting Requirements for Particular Sources</HD> CAA section 182(a)(3)(B) requires states with an ozone nonattainment area to submit a SIP revision requiring stationary sources in the nonattainment area emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or oxides of nitrogen (NOX) to provide certified annual emissions statements to the state showing actual VOC and NOX emissions from the source, with an exemption for stationary sources that emit less than 25 tons per year of VOCs or NOX provided that the SIP revision meets certain requirements. On March 9, 2022, EPA approved Georgia's SIP revision addressing the emissions statements requirement for the 2015 ozone NAAQS for the Atlanta Area. <E T="03">See</E> 87 FR 13179. That requirement exists in the SIP at Rule 391-3-1-.02(6)(a)4., “Emission Statements.” The June 27, 2024, revision requests the removal of Rule 391-3-1-.02(6)(a)4. from the Georgia SIP. Additionally, the submission replaces “section” and “paragraph” with “paragraph” and “subparagraph,” respectively, throughout Rule 391-3-1-.02(6)(a). Section 110(l) of the CAA prevents EPA from approving a SIP revision that would interfere with any applicable requirement concerning attainment and RFP, or any other applicable CAA requirement. EPA proposes to approve the revisions to Rule 391-3-1-.02(6)(a) described above because they will not interfere with any CAA requirement. Georgia has no areas designated by EPA as in nonattainment of the NAAQS, and therefore, the CAA emissions statements requirements for nonattainment areas are not applicable at this time. Furthermore, the revisions will not interfere with attainment of the NAAQS or RFP. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Subparagraph 391-3-1-.03(11)(b)7., Coating and/or Gluing Operations</HD> Rule 391-3-1-.03(11), <E T="03">Permit by Rule,</E> sets forth conditions for permits by rule. Subparagraph (b)7., <E T="03">Coating and/or Gluing Operations,</E> is a permit by rule regulation with specific conditions for coating and/or gluing operations, including more stringent conditions for sources located in the 13 counties previously designated as nonattainment for the 1979 1-hour ozone NAAQS. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Specifically, as approved into the SIP, coating and/or gluing operations in Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Paulding, and Rockdale Counties must utilize coatings with less than 5 tons of any individual hazardous air pollution (HAP), less than 12.5 tons of collective HAPs, and less than 25 tons of VOCs in any rolling 12-month period. Sources seeking coverage under the permit by rule located outside these specific counties can utilize coatings containing up to 50 tons of VOCs in a rolling 12-month period. <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Some of these counties were designated as nonattainment for the 1997, 2008, and 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS. These counties are currently designated as attainment for all ozone ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 16k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━