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 lea d National A mbient 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

c oncerning the EPA’s proposal to designate the Hayden area in Arizona a s being in nonattainment of NAAQS for lead. The EPA’s proposal is available at: http://www.epa.gov/l eaddesignations/ 2008standards/rec/region9R.html

.

In reference to the reason explained below, the Town of Winkelman b elieves 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 re p ort, it is clear the ambient air qu ali ty 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 ”) requirement s of regulati ons 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 Winkel man remedies in any future proceeding regarding the nonattainment proposal, the Town of Winkelman incorporate s herein by reference

the A ugust 10, 2010 Zephyr report (being submitted to the air monitoring data, and adopts the report’s comments as the Town o f Winkelman’s own.EPA’s Lead NAAQS Nonattainment Proposal for Hayden, AZ August 16, 2010

P age 2

The Town of Winkelman is sending this letter with the public health a n d public welfare of our

citizens foremost in mind. We note:

(a) The nonattainment proposal is based on a report 0.17μg / m 3 “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 colle ction 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 unwarran ted NAAOS nonattainment designation could potentially b e 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 appl icable quality assurance requirement.

Sincerely,

Vice

- Mayor Nolberto Waddell

Town of Winkelman

cc: (fax) Jered Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator U.S. EPA Agency, Region IX