August 16, 2010

Air Docket

Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0443

Environmental Protection Agency

Mail Code: 6102T

1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Washington, D. C. 20460

RE: EPA’s Lead NAAQS Nonattainment proposal for Hayden Area, AZ

Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0443

To Whom It May Concern:

On July 8, 2010, the United States Environmental Agency (“EPA”) published in the Federal 

Register a notice of availability and public comment period concerning the EPA’s responses to 

State and Tribal 2008 lead National Ambient Air Quality Standard (“NAAQS”) attainment status 

designation recommendations. In the notice, the EPA invited the public to comment on the 

responses.

The Town of Winkelman, County of Gila and Pinal, Arizona hereby provides its comments 

concerning the EPA’s proposal to designate the Hayden area in Arizona as being in 

nonattainment of NAAQS for lead. The EPA’s proposal is available at:

http://www.epa.gov/leaddesignations/ 2008standards/rec/region9R.html. 

In reference to the reason explained below, the Town of Winkelman believes the Hayden area 

lead nonattainment proposal is unwarranted. We are in receipt of the Zephyr Environmental

Corporation (Zephyr) report dated August 10, 2010 commission by ASARCO LLC (Asarco) to 

review documents relevant to EPA’s nonattainment designation proposal and are in the process 

of conducting our own review of the report. Based on the Town of Winkelman’s preliminary 

review of the Zephyr report, it is clear the ambient air quality data that are the foundation of the 

EPA’s nonattainment designation proposal were not collected in accordance with applicable

quality assurance and quality control (“QA/QC”) requirements of regulations that implement the 

Clean Air Act. These rules do not allow data that have not been collected in accordance with the 

applicable QA/QC regulations to be used to support a nonattainment designation.

To the extent necessary to preserve the Town of Winkelman remedies in any future proceeding 

regarding the nonattainment proposal, the Town of Winkelman incorporates herein by reference 

the August 10, 2010 Zephyr report (being submitted to the air monitoring data, and adopts the 

report’s comments as the Town of Winkelman’s own.
EPA’s Lead NAAQS Nonattainment Proposal for Hayden, AZ

August 16, 2010

Page 2

The Town of Winkelman is sending this letter with the public health and public welfare of our 

citizens foremost in mind. We note:

(a) The nonattainment proposal is based on a report 0.17μg/m3 “design value,” which 

exceeds the lead NAAQS of 0.15 μ/m3 by only 0.02 μ/m3;

(b) According to the EPA, the reported exceedance occurred only once, during the 

July through September 2008 three-month averaging period.

(c) Accordance to the EPA, there have been no reported exceedances of the lead 

NAAQS since July through September 2008 period; and 

(d) The documents from the record indicate the reported exceedance is based on data 

that were generated via the collection and analysis of ambient air samples in a manner that 

neither did nor satisfy QA/QC regulations that, at the time, governed the collection and analysis 

of the samples.

The above indicates the data are not a valid representation of the air quality of the 

Hayden area. Therefore, aside from the regulations that preclude such data from being used to 

support a nonattainment designation, it appears the data do not represent a risk to the public 

health. Conversely, the economic consequences of an unwarranted NAAOS nonattainment 

designation could potentially be significant to the Town of Winkelman, in terms of cost to 

businesses required to comply with a nonattainment designation, employment and local and state 

tax receipts.

Based on forgoing, the Town of Winkelman believes the only appropriate course of 

action with respect to the lead NAAQS attainment status of the Hayden area would be for the 

EPA to designate the area unclassifiable pending the collection of ambient air quality data that 

satisfy the applicable quality assurance requirement.

Sincerely,

Vice-Mayor Nolberto Waddell

Town of Winkelman

cc: (fax) Jered Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator

U.S. EPA Agency, Region IX