Georgia Department of Natural Resources 

'JUN. ! 1 2012 

Ms. Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming 

Regional Administrator 

U.S. EPA, Region 4 

61 Forsyth Street, S.W. 

Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3104 

Environmental Protection Division • Air Protection Branch 

4244 International Parkway • Suite 120 • Atlanta • Georgia 30354 

404/363-7000 • Fax: 404/363-7100 

Mark Williams, Commissioner 

Judson H. Turner, Director 

RE: Maintenance Plan and Redesignation Request for the Rome, Georgia (Floyd County), 

Annual PM2.5 Nonattainment Area 

Dear Ms. Fleming: 

With this letter, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) is submitting for approval 

and incorporation the proposed revisions to Georgia's State Implementation Plan (SIP) to 

include a plan, consistent with §175A of the Clean Air Act to provide for maintenance of the 

1997 Annual PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) in the Rome area. This 

submittal also serves as a request that the Rome Nonattainment Area be redesignated as an 

area attaining the 1997 Annual PM2.5 NAAQS. 

On April 5, 2011, EPA published a final rule determining that the Rome Area had attained the 

1997 fine particulate matter standards. On September 8, 2011, EPA published a final rule 

making a determination that the Rome Area had attained the 1997 annual PM2.5 standard prior 

to the April 5, 2010, attainment date. Georgia EPD withdrew its previous submittal of 

nonattainment planning documents for the Rome Area in a letter to EPA dated June 29, 2011. 

The emissions inventory submitted with the October 20, 2009, SIP revision to comply with the 

Clean Air Act requirements of §172 for nonattainment areas was not affected by the June 20, 

2011, request. 

The public notice for the proposed SIP revision was advertised using the EPD Air Protection 

Branch listserv mailing list for public notices. No comments were received. However, Georgia's 

Heavy Duty Diesel Engines rule [391-3-1-.02(2)(ooo)] was removed from Section 2.3.2 of the 

prehearing SIP, which is the discussion of state measures that have contributed to permanent 

and enforceable emissions reductions in the Rome Area. Rule (ooo) was removed because the 

version currently in the approved SIP is identical to the requirements of national rule and the 

most recent rule revision has not been approved by EPA. 

As required by the federal SIP-processing regulations, we have enclosed certifications that the 

required public notices were provided and that a public hearing was held. We have also 

enclosed the administrative and technical support checklists to satisfy the SIP submittal 

completeness criteria. This submittal includes one paper copy of each of the relevant 

documents and a compact disk with an electronic version of the documents. The electronic 

version is an exact duplicate of the paper copy. 
Ms. Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming 

Page 2 

OON 21 ZOI~ 

We look forward to your review and approval of these revisions. Should you or your staff have 

any questions, please feel free to contact Jimmy Johnston at (404) 363-7014. 

/Sincerely, j 

t l,,j~ ., ll 

(/;:::~vn~.) Turner 

Director 

JHT:JK:klc 

Enclosures: 

- Maintenance plan (one paper and one CD) 

- Administrative checklist 

- Technical checklist 

Certification of public hearing 

- Copy of public notice 

Copy w/o encl: 

Scott Davis, EPA Region 4 

Lynorae Benjamin, EPA Region 4 

James A Capp, Branch Chief, EPD Air Protection Branch