MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT: Guidance on the Reasonably Available Control Measures (RACM)

Requirement and Attainment Demonstration Submissions for

Ozone Nonattainment Areas

FROM: John S. Seitz, Director

 Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards

TO: Regional Air Division Directors

 Regions I-X

Attached is guidance that clarifies EPA’s policy on what constitutes “as expeditiously as

practicable” for the purposes of attaining the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for

ozone nonattainment areas. The guidance contains information on EPA’s determination of

whether a State’s submission provides for all RACM needed for attainment and whether

implementation of those measures occurs as expeditiously as practicable. This guidance should

be used by ozone nonattainment areas that are subject to the Clean Air Act requirement to submit

an attainment demonstration and to submit RACM.

If you have any questions on this guidance, please contact Sharon Reinders at 919/54l5284.

Attachment

cc: Bill Becker, STAPPA/ALAPCO
Guidance on the Reasonably Available Control Measures (RACM) Requirement 

and Attainment Demonstration Submissions for Ozone Nonattainment Areas

Preface

The purpose of this guidance is to set forth EPA’s current interpretation of the

relationship of the “as expeditiously as practicable” requirement and the attainment

demonstration requirement for ozone nonattainment areas. While EPA intends to proceed under

the guidance that it is setting out today, the EPA will finalize this interpretation only when it

applies in the appropriate context of individual rulemakings addressing specific attainment

demonstrations for ozone nonattainment areas. At that time and in that context, judicial review of

the EPA’s interpretation would be available.

Background

Sections 172(a)(2)(A) and 181(a) of the Act require ozone nonattainment areas for to

attain the ozone NAAQS as expeditiously as practicable and provide outer-limit dates for

attainment based on an area’s classification. Furthermore, section 172(c)(1), provides for “the

implementation of all reasonably available control measures as expeditiously as practicable.” This

policy addresses how EPA interprets these requirements with respect to the adoption of control

measures within the intrastate portion of the modeling domain for ozone nonattainment areas.

To ensure compliance with the Act, EPA will review each attainment demonstration

submission for the ozone NAAQS to determine whether it provides for all RACM necessary to

attain the standard as expeditiously as practicable and provides for implementation of those

measures as expeditiously as practicable. The State’s submission needs to contain sufficient

information for EPA to make such determinations.

In order for the EPA to determine whether a State has adopted all RACM necessary for

attainment as expeditiously as practicable, the State will need to provide a justification as to why

measures within the arena of potentially reasonable measures have not been adopted. The

justification would need to support that a measure was not “reasonably available” for that area

and could be based on technological or economic grounds. Sources of potentially reasonable

measures include measures adopted in other nonattainment areas and measures that the EPA has

identified in guidelines or other documents.

In order for the EPA to determine whether an area has provided for implementation as

expeditiously as practicable, the State must explain why the selected implementation schedule is

the earliest schedule based on the specific circumstances of that area. Such claims cannot be

general claims that more time is needed but rather should be specifically grounded in evidence of

economic or technologic infeasibility. While it may be appropriate for some control measures to

be implemented shortly after adoption, the EPA recognizes that other measures may need a longer

period. 
The EPA will review the State’s submission to ensure that sufficient information is

provided for the EPA to determine whether the State has adopted all RACM necessary for

attainment as expeditiously as practicable and provided for implementation of those measures as

expeditiously as practicable. The EPA will make those determinations based on the information

provided by the State and any other information available to the EPA at the time the Agency

approves or disapproves the attainment demonstration.