UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

REGION IX AIR DIVISION

Technical Support Document

EPA’s Direct Final Rulemaking

for the

California State Implementation Plan

Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District Rule 421 (excluding section 402) , Mandatory Episodic Curtailment of Wood

and Other Solid Fuel Burning

Prepared by: Christine Vineyard

November 20142

RULE IDENTIFICATION

Agency: Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD)

SIP Approved Rule: There are no previous versions of this rule in the SIP

Superseded Submittals: There are no previous submittals of this rule

Subject of this TSD: Rule 421

– Mandatory Epi sodic Curtailment of Wood and Other Solid Fuel Burning

A mended

- September 24, 2009

Submitted

- September 21, 2012 Determined Complete

- October 11, 2012

RULE SUMMARY

Rule 421 establishes the following requirements:

1. During the burning season (November

– February), the APCO can declare a voluntary or mandatory curtailment of wood burning activity as follows:

 Voluntary Curtailment: This type of curtailment will be declared when the APCO

determines that the 24

- hour av erage PM2.5 concentration may exceed 25 μg/m3, but not likely to exceed 31 μg/m3.

 Stage 1 Mandatory Curtailment: This type of curtailment will be declared when the

APCO determines that the 24

- hour average PM2.5 concentration may exceed 31 μg/m3, but will n ot likely to exceed 35 μg/m3. During this type of curtailment only U.S. EPA Phase II certified wood burning stoves and pellet

- fueled heaters that do

not emit visible smoke can be used.

 Stage 2 Mandatory Curtailment: This type of curtailment will be declar ed when the

APCO determines that the 24

- hour average PM2.5 concentration may exceed 35 μg/m3. During this type of curtailment all residential wood burning, except for limited exemptions as described in the rule, are banned.

2. Public notice of mandatory c urtailment periods are made via recorded telephone message, on the District website, email to interested parties, notification of television and radio stations, or other methods as determined effective by APCO.

3. The rule includes exemptions to curtailm ent for devices that operate exclusively on gaseous fuel, cook stoves, wood burning devices that are the sole source of heat in a residence, and fires used as part of religious ceremony. Also, the rule includes a financial hardship exemption. The APCO ma y issue a waiver from the rule if there are compelling economic reasons and the waiver will not have adverse impacts on air quality . Submitted3

as non

- regulatory supplemental material, the Financial Hardship Exemption Decision Tree, outlines the criteria f or the APCO to grant a waiver. 1

We are not acting on Section 402 which includes a penalty provision for first

- time violators: $50 fine or wood burning awareness course. Future violations are consistent with penalty process used in other prohibitory rules

. This provision is a part of the District’s local regulation, but will be excluded from the Applicable

- SIP

EVALUATION CRITERIA

- The following criteria were used to evaluate the submitted

rule.

1. Enforceability

- The Bluebook ( Issues Relating to VOC Regulation Cutpoints, Deficiencies, and Deviations , EPA, May 25, 1988) and the Little Bluebook ( Guidance Document for Correcting Common VOC & Other Rule Deficiencies, EPA Region 9, August 21, 2001) were used to help evaluate compliance with the CAA §110(a) (2)(A) requirement for enforceability.

2

. SIP Revisions

- CAA § 110(l) prohibits EPA from approving any SIP revision that would interfere with any applicable requirement concerning attainment and reasonable further progress (RFP) or any other applicable requirement of the CAA. In addition, CAA § 193 prohibits the modification of any SIP

- approved control requirement in effect before November 15, 1990, in a nonattainment area.

3. Rule Stringency

– Effective December 14, 2009, EPA designated SMAQMD as

nonattainment for the 2006 24

- Hour PM 2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). 40 C.F.R. § 81.305 (2010); 74 FR 58688, 58705

- 58706 (November 13, 2009). Consequently, by December 14, 2012, California must submit a revision to the State Implementati on Plan (SIP) for this nonattainment area that provides for, among other things, implementation of all Reasonably Available Control Measures (RACM) as expeditiously as practicable, including Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) for existing sourc es. CAA § 172(b) & (c)(1), 74 FR at 58689. For purposes of implementing the 2006 PM 2.5 NAAQS, EPA recommends that states evaluate potential RACM/RACT control measures for sources of direct PM 2.5 (including condensable PM), SO 2 , and NO
x in the specific nona ttainment area, consistent with the approach to evaluating RACM/RACT provided in EPA’s implementing regulations for the 1997 PM 2.5 NAAQS at 40 CFR part 51, subpart Z.

See Memorandum from Stephen D. Page, Director, EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Sta ndards to Regional Air Directors, Regions I

- X, “Implementation

Guidance for the 2006 24

- Hour Fine Particle (PM 2.5 ) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).” Accordingly, the SMAQMD will need to adopt as RACM/RACT any potential PM 2.5 , SO 2 , or NO
x con trol measures that are reasonably available considering technological and economic feasibility and that would, considered collectively, advance the attainment date by one year or more in the SMAQMD nonattainment area. Id. Because Ru le 421 regulates direct PM 2.5 emissions from residential wood

- burning devices, the SMAQMD should consider whether reasonably available control measures for these emission sources could, in

1 Letter dated, October 7, 2014, “SMAQMD Rule 421 Supplemental Materials” from Kevin Williams.4 combination with other reasonably available control measures, advance att ainment

of the 2006 PM 2.5 NAAQS in the area by at least one year. As necessary, i n separate rulemakings, EPA will act on the State’s RACM demonstration for the

2006 PM 2.5 standard based on an evaluation of the control measures submitted as a

whole and the ir overall potential to advance the applicable attainment date in SMAQMD.

On March 18, 2002, EPA officially determined that Sacramento County had

attained the PM

- 10 NAAQS by the attainment deadline based on PM

- 10 air quality monitoring data recorded du ring 1998 to 2000 (67 FR 7082). Accordingly, SMAQMD is not currently subject to the requirement to implement Best Available Control Measures (BACM) for PM

- 10 and PM

- 10 precursors in CAA § 189(b) and (e). Therefore, we are not evaluating this rule for compl iance with BACM requirements.

EPA EVALUATION

1. Enforceability

- The rule requirements and applicability are clear, and the monitoring, recordkeeping, reporting and other provisions sufficiently ensure that affected sources and regulators can evaluate and de termine compliance with Rule

421 consistently.

2

. SIP Revisions

– We propose to determine that our approval of the submitted rule would comply with CAA §110(l) because the SMAQMD portion of the California SIP does not contain any control requ irement for wood

- burning devic es, and our approval of Rule 421 into the SIP would neither alter any existing SIP requirement

nor interfere with the on

- going process for ensuring that requirements for RFP and attainment of the NAAQS are met. Section 193 of the Act does not apply to our proposed action because this is a new rule to the SIP and does not modify any SIP

approved control requirement in effect before November 15, 1990, in a

nonattainment area.

3. Rule Stringency

– We believe the current rule requires all control measures that are “reasonably available” considering technologic and economic feasibility, for reasons including the following:

 We have compared the c ontrol requirements in Rule 421 with analogous rules

in other local districts and st ates and believe that Rule 421 is as stringent as or more stringent than those other rules. 2

2 See, e.g. Bay Area Air Quality Management District Rule 6

- 3 (Adopted July 9, 2008); South Coast Air Quality Management District Rule 445 (Adopted March 7, 2008); and San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District Rule 4901 (Amended October 16, 2008). Note: pr ovisions regarding requirements for the sale, installation, or transfer of residential wood burning devices are detailed in SMAQMD Rule 417 (Adopted October 26, 2006), submitted to EPA September 21, 2012. This rule will be addressed in a separate, rulemaki ng.5

As necessary, in separate rulemakings, EPA will take action on the State’s RACM

demonstration for PM 2.5 and ozone based on an evaluation of the control measures submitted as a whole and their overall potential to advance the applicable attainment dates in the SMAQMD. See 40 CFR §§ 51.1010, 51.912(d).

RULE DEFICIENCIES

No deficiencies with Rule 421 were identified that would be sufficient for EPA to propose

les s than full approval.

EPA ACTION

We propose to determine that SMAQMD Rule 421 fulfils the applicable CAA §110 requirements . Therefore, under section 110(k) of the CAA, EPA staff recommend s full approval of SMAQMD Rule 421

.

REFERENCES

1

. “Issues Relating to VOC Regulation Cutpoints, Deficiencies, and Deviations,” (a.k.a., Bluebook) EPA OAQPS, May 25, 1988 (web citation).

2

. “Guidance Document for Correcting Common VOC & Other Rule Deficiencies,” (a.k.a., Little Bluebook), EPA Region 9, August 21, 2001 ( http://www.epa.gov/region09/air/sips/littlebluebook2001.pdf ).

3

. “Memorandum from Stephen D. Page, Director, EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards to Regional Air Directors, Regions I

- X, “Implementation

Guidance for the 2006 24

- Hour Fine Particle (PM 2.5 ) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

4

. “Technical Information Document for Residential Wood Combustion Best Available Control Measures”, EPA

- 450/2

- 92

- 0 02, September 1992.

5. “ General Preamble ” , Appendix C2

-- Available Residential Wood Combustion Control Measures, 57 FR 18072, April 28, 1992

. 6

. “Strategies for Reducing Residential Wood Smoke”, EPA Document # EPA

456/B

- 09

- 001, October 2009.

7

. Bay Area AQMD Regulation 6, Rule 3 (July 9, 2008).

8

. South Coast AQMD Rule 445 (March 7, 2008).

9

. San Joaquin Valley Unified AQCD Rule 4901 (October 16, 2008).

1 0. Letter from Kevin Williams, Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management

District.

.6