ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R09-OAR-2011-0547; FRL-]

Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, San 

Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVUAPCD)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the San 

Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVUAPCD) portion 

of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These 

revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) and oxides of 

nitrogen (NOx), and particulate matter (PM) emissions from open 

burning. We are approving a local rule that regulates these 

emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA 

or the Act). We are taking comments on this proposal and plan 

to follow with a final action. 

DATE: Any comments must arrive by [Insert date 30 days from the 

date of publication in the Federal Register].

ADDRESSES: Submit comments, identified by docket number EPAR09-OAR-2011-0547, by one of the following methods:

1. Federal eRulemaking Portal: www.regulations.gov. Follow 

the on-line instructions.

2. E-mail: steckel.andrew@epa.gov.
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3. Mail or deliver: Andrew Steckel (Air-4), U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San 

Francisco, CA 94105-3901. 

Instructions: All comments will be included in the public docket 

without change and may be made available online at

www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 

provided, unless the comment includes Confidential Business 

Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Information that you consider CBI or 

otherwise protected should be clearly identified as such and 

should not be submitted through www.regulations.gov or e-mail. 

www.regulations.gov is an “anonymous access” system, and EPA 

will not know your identity or contact information unless you 

provide it in the body of your comment. If you send e-mail 

directly to EPA, your e-mail address will be automatically 

captured and included as part of the public comment. If EPA 

cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties and 

cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to 

consider your comment. 

Docket: Generally, documents in the docket for this action are

available electronically at www.regulations.gov and in hard copy 

at EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, 

California. While all documents in the docket are listed at 
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www.regulations.gov, some information may be publicly available 

only at the hard copy location (e.g., copyrighted material, 

large maps), and some may not be publicly available in either 

location (e.g., CBI). To inspect the hard copy materials, 

please schedule an appointment during normal business hours with 

the contact listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joanne Wells, EPA Region IX, 

(415) 947-4118, wells.joanne@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, “we,” “us”

and “our” refer to EPA.

Table of Contents 

I. The State’s Submittal

A. What rule did the State submit?

B. Are there other versions of this rule?

C. What is the purpose of the submitted rule and rule 

revisions? 

II. EPA’s Evaluation and Action.

A. How is EPA evaluating the rule?

B. Does the rule meet the evaluation criteria?

C. EPA recommendations to further improve the rule.

III. Proposed Action.

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
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I. The State’s Submittal

A. What rule did the State submit?

Table 1 lists the rule and portion of District Staff Report 

addressed by this proposal with the dates that they were adopted 

by the local air agency and submitted by the California Air 

Resources Board (CARB).

Table 1 - Submitted Rules

Local 

Agency

Rule # Rule Title Adopted Submitted

SJVUAPCD 4103 Open Burning 04/15/10 04/05/11

SJVUAPCD Table 9-1, Final Staff 

Report and Recommendations 

on Agricultural Burning

05/20/10 04/05/11

On May 6, 2011, EPA determined that the submittal for 

SJVUAPCD Rule 4103 met the completeness criteria in 40 CFR Part 

51 Appendix V, which must be met before formal EPA review. 

B. Are there other versions of this rule?

We approved an earlier version of Rule 4103 into the SIP on 

November 10, 2009 (74 FR 57907). The SJVUAPCD adopted revisions 

to the SIP-approved version on April 15, 2010 and CARB submitted 

them to us on April 5, 2011.

C. What is the purpose of the submitted rule and rule 

revisions?
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VOCs and NOx help produce ground-level ozone and smog, which 

harm human health and the environment. PM emissions also harm

human health and the environment by causing, among other things, 

premature mortality, aggravation of respiratory and 

cardiovascular disease, decreased lung function, visibility 

impairment, and damage to vegetation and ecosystems. Section 

110(a) of the CAA requires States to submit regulations that 

control VOC, NOx, and PM emissions. SJVUAPCD Rule 4103 limits 

emissions of air pollutants, including VOC, NOx and PM, that 

result from the open burning of agricultural waste and other 

materials. 

Rule 4103 was revised largely to implement portions of 

California Health and Safety Code (CH&SC) sections 41855.5 and 

41855.6. CH&SC section 41855.5 requires SJVUAPCD to prohibit 

specific crop categories from open burning according to a 

schedule, the final phase of which began on June 1, 2010. CH&SC 

section 41855.6 authorizes SJVUAPCD to postpone the burn 

prohibition for specific crop categories if all of the 

conditions listed in section 41855.6 are met. 

Specific revisions to the previous version of the rule 

include:

New or revised definitions are provided in Section 3.0 for 

the following terms: Air Pollution Control Officer, Board, 
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Environmental Protection Agency, Field Crops, Orchard 

Removals, Other Materials, Other Weeds and Maintenance, 

Prunings, Surface Harvested Prunings, Vineyard Removal 

Materials, Vineyard Materials and Weed Abatement.

Section 5.5.1 was amended to include all agricultural crops 

and materials listed in CH&SC Section 41855.5, thereby 

prohibiting the open burning of all materials not subject 

to a postponement under Section 5.5.2.

Section 5.5.2 was revised to include criteria that SJVUAPCD 

must satisfy to postpone a burn prohibition under CH&SC 

Section 41855.6.

New Section 6.3 requires the SJVUAPCD Air Pollution Control 

Officer (APCO) to prepare and present to the Board for 

review and approval a “Staff Report and Recommendations on 

Agricultural Burning” for any Board determination under 

section 5.5.2. The APCO must also review and update this 

Report at least every five years.

On May 20, 2010, the SJVUAPCD Board approved and 

incorporated by reference a “Staff Report and 

Recommendations on Agricultural Burning” prepared pursuant 

to section 6.3 of the rule. The Staff Report recommended 

complete or partial postponement of the burn prohibition 

for a number of crop categories. These recommendations are 
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summarized in Table 9-1 of the Staff Report. 

EPA’s technical support document (TSD) has more information 

about these rule revisions.

II. EPA’s Evaluation and Action

A. How is EPA evaluating the rule?

Generally, SIP rules must be enforceable (see section 

110(a) of the Act)and must not relax existing requirements (see 

sections 110(l) and 193). Section 172(c)(1) of the Act also 

requires implementation of all reasonably available control 

measures (RACM) as expeditiously as practicable in nonattainment 

areas. Because the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) area is designated 

nonattainment for the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) National 

Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and designated and 

classified as extreme nonattainment for the ozone NAAQS (see 40 

CFR 81.305), the RACM requirement in CAA section 172(c)(1) 

applies to this area. 

Guidance and policy documents that we use to evaluate 

enforceability and RACM requirements consistently include the 

following:

1. “Issues Relating to VOC Regulation Cutpoints, Deficiencies, 

and Deviations,” EPA, May 25, 1988 (the Bluebook).

2. “Guidance Document for Correcting Common VOC & Other Rule 

Deficiencies,” EPA Region 9, August 21, 2001 (the Little 
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Bluebook). 

3. “State Implementation Plans; General Preamble for the 

Implementation of Title I of the Clean Air Act Amendments 

of 1990,” 57 FR 13498 (April 16, 1992); 57 FR 18070 (April 

28, 1992).

4. Preamble, “Final Rule to Implement the 8-Hour Ozone National 

Ambient Air Quality Standard—Phase 2,” 70 FR 71612 

(November 29, 2005).

5. Preamble, “Clean Air Fine Particle Implementation Rule for 

the 1997 PM2.5 NAAQS,” 72 FR 20586 (April 25, 2007). 

B. Does the rule meet the evaluation criteria? 

We believe this rule is consistent with the applicable CAA 

requirements and guidance regarding enforceability, RACM, and 

SIP revisions. The TSD has more information on our evaluation.

C. EPA recommendations to further improve the rule.

The TSD describes additional rule revisions that we 

recommend for the next time the local agency modifies the rule.

III. Proposed Action.

Because EPA believes the submitted rule fulfills all 

relevant requirements, we are proposing to fully approve it

under section 110(k)(3) of the Act. We will accept comments 

from the public on this proposal for the next 30 days. Unless 

we receive convincing new information during the comment period, 
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we intend to publish a final approval action that will 

incorporate this rule into the federally enforceable SIP.

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

 Under the Clean Air Act, the Administrator is required to 

approve a SIP submission that complies with the provisions of 

the Act and applicable Federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 

40 CFR 52.02(a). Thus, in reviewing SIP submissions, EPA’s role 

is to approve State choices, provided that they meet the 

criteria of the Clean Air Act. Accordingly, this action merely 

approves State law as meeting Federal requirements and does not 

impose additional requirements beyond those imposed by State 

law. For that reason, this action:

• is not a “significant regulatory action” subject to review 

by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive 

Order 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993);

• does not impose an information collection burden under the 

provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 

et seq.);

• is certified as not having a significant economic impact on 

a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory 

Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.);
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• does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or 

uniquely affect small governments, as described in the 

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-4);

• does not have Federalism implications as specified in 

Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999);

• is not an economically significant regulatory action based 

on health or safety risks subject to Executive Order 13045 

(62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997);

• is not a significant regulatory action subject to Executive 

Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001);

• is not subject to requirements of Section 12(d) of the 

National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 

(15 U.S.C. 272 note) because application of those 

requirements would be inconsistent with the Clean Air Act; 

and

• does not provide EPA with the discretionary authority to 

address disproportionate human health or environmental 

effects with practical, appropriate, and legally 

permissible methods under Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 

7629, February 16, 1994).

In addition, this rule does not have tribal implications as 

specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 

2000), because the SIP is not approved to apply in Indian 
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country located in the State, and EPA notes that it will not 

impose substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt 

tribal law.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

Environmental protection, Air pollution control, 

Intergovernmental relations, Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, 

Particulate matter, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, 

Volatile organic compounds.

AUTHORITY: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.

June 29, 2011 _____/s/____________

Dated: Jared Blumenfeld,

Regional Administrator,

Region IX.