20198 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 70 / Friday, April 11, 2014 / Notices 

1EPA issued conformity regulations to implement 

the 1997 PM2.5 NAAQS (69 FR 40004, July 1, 2004 

and 70 FR 24280, May 6, 2005, respectively). Those 

actions were not part of the final rule recently 

remanded to EPA by the Court of Appeals for the 

District of Columbia in NRDC v. EPA, No. 08–1250 

(January 4, 2013), in which the Court remanded to 

EPA the implementation rule for the PM2.5 NAAQS 

because it concluded that EPA must implement that 

NAAQS pursuant to the PM-specific 

implementation provisions of subpart 4 of Part D of 

Title I of the CAA, rather than solely under the 

general provisions of subpart 1. 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–9909–38–Region–3] 

Adequacy Status of the Submitted 

Maintenance Plan for the West Virginia 

Portion of the MartinsburgHagerstown, WV–MD 1997 Fine 

Particulate Matter National Ambient Air 

Quality Standard Nonattainment Area 

for Transportation Conformity 

Purposes 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of adequacy. 

SUMMARY: In this notice, the 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

is notifying the public that EPA has 

found that the Motor Vehicle Emissions 

Budgets (MVEBs) in the West Virginia 

Portion of the Martinsburg-Hagerstown, 

WV–MD 1997 Fine Particulate Matter 

(PM2.5) National Ambient Air Quality 

Standard (NAAQS) Nonattainment Area 

Maintenance Plan (Martinsburg 

Maintenance Plan), submitted as a State 

Implementation Plan (SIP) revision by 

the West Virginia Department of 

Environmental Protection (WVDEP), are 

adequate for transportation conformity 

purposes. As a result of EPA’s finding, 

the State of West Virginia must use the 

2017 and 2025 MVEBs from the 

Martinsburg Maintenance Plan for 

future conformity determinations for the 

1997 PM2.5 NAAQS. 

DATES: This notice is effective on April 

28, 2014. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Asrah Khadr, Environmental Engineer, 

Office of Air Program Planning (3AP30), 

United States Environmental Protection 

Agency, Region III, 1650 Arch Street, 

Philadelphia, PA 19103, (215) 814– 

2071; khadr.asrah@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Today’s 

notice is simply an announcement of a 

finding that EPA has already made. EPA 

Region III sent a letter to WVDEP on 

March 6, 2014, stating that EPA has 

found that the MVEBs in the 

Martinsburg Maintenance Plan for 

budget years 2017 and 2025, submitted 

on August 5, 2013 by WVDEP, are 

adequate for transportation conformity 

purposes. As a result of EPA’s finding, 

the State of West Virginia must use the 

2017 and 2025 MVEBs from the August 

5, 2013 Martinsburg Maintenance Plan 

for future conformity determinations in 

the West Virginia Portion of the 

Martinsburg-Hagerstown, WV–MD 1997 

PM2.5 NAAQS Nonattainment Area. 

Receipt of the submittal was announced 

on EPA’s transportation conformity Web 

site. No comments were received. The 

findings letter is available at EPA’s 

conformity Web site: http://

www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/

transconf/adequacy.htm. The adequate 

direct particulate matter (PM)X and 

nitrogen oxides (NOx) MVEBs are 

provided in Table 1. 

TABLE 1—MARTINSBURG MAINTENANCE PLAN MVEBS FOR DIRECT PM AND NOX

Budget years 

Mobile vehicle 

emissions budget 

for direct PM-tons 

per year 

Mobile vehicle 

emissions budget 

for 

NOX-tons 

per year 

2017 ............................................................................................................................................................. 83 2,621 

2025 ............................................................................................................................................................. 50 1,660 

Transportation conformity is required 

by section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act 

(CAA). EPA’s conformity rule requires 

that transportation plans, transportation 

improvement programs, and projects 

conform to SIPs and establishes the 

criteria and procedures for determining 

whether or not they do. Conformity to 

a SIP means that transportation 

activities will not produce new air 

quality violations, worsen existing 

violations, or delay timely attainment of 

the national ambient air quality 

standards. 

The criteria by which we determine 

whether a SIP’s MVEBs are adequate for 

conformity purposes are outlined in 40 

CFR 93.118(e)(4). EPA described the 

process for determining the adequacy of 

submitted SIP budgets in a July 1, 2004 

preamble starting at 69 FR 40038 and 

used the information in these resources 

in making this adequacy determination. 

West Virginia did not provide emission 

budgets for sulfur dioxide (SO2), volatile 

organic compounds (VOCs), or ammonia 

for the West Virginia Portion of the 

Martinsburg-Hagerstown, WV–MD 1997 

PM2.5 NAAQS Nonattainment Area 

because it concluded that emissions of 

these precursors from motor vehicles are 

not significant contributors to the area’s 

PM2.5 air quality problem. The 

transportation conformity rule provision 

at 40 CFR 93.102(b)(2)(v) indicates that 

conformity pdoes not apply for these 

precursors, due to the lack of MVEBs for 

these precursors and the State’s 

conclusion that motor vehicle emissions 

of SO2, VOCs, and ammonia do not 

contribute significantly to the area’s 

PM2.5 nonattainment problem. This 

provision of the transportation 

conformity rule predates and was not 

disturbed by the January 4, 2013 

decision in the litigation on the PM2.5

implementation rule.1 EPA has 

preliminarily concluded that the State’s 

decision to not include budgets for SO2, 

VOCs, and ammonia is consistent with 

the requirements of the transportation 

conformity rule. That decision does not 

affect EPA’s adequacy finding for the 

submitted direct PM and NOX MVEBs 

for the West Virginia Portion of the 

Martinsburg-Hagerstown, WV–MD 1997 

PM2.5 NAAQS Nonattainment Area. 

Please note that an adequacy review 

is separate from EPA’s completeness 

review, and should not be used to 

prejudge EPA’s ultimate approval action 

for the SIP. Even if EPA finds the 

budgets for the Martinsburg 

Maintenance Plan adequate, the SIP 

could later be disapproved. The finding 

and the response to comments are 

available at EPA’s conformity Web site: 

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/

stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm. 

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401–7671q. 

W.C. Early, 

Acting Regional Administrator, Region III. 

[FR Doc. 2014–08248 Filed 4–10–14; 8:45 am] 

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