Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 181 / Friday, September 18, 2015 / Notices 56577 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OAR–2015–0216; FRL–9932–42– 

OAR] 

RIN 2060–ZA22 

Release of Draft Control Techniques 

Guidelines for the Oil and Natural Gas 

Industry 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is announcing the 

availability of a draft Control 

Techniques Guidelines (CTG) document 

for select oil and natural gas industry 

emission sources. This document, when 

finalized, will provide state, local, and 

tribal air agencies (air agencies) 

information to assist them in 

determining reasonably available 

control technology (RACT) for volatile 

organic compound (VOC) emissions 

from such sources. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before November 17, 2015. 

ADDRESSES: The draft Control 

Techniques Guidelines for the Oil and 

Natural Gas Industry is available 

primarily via the Internet at http://

www.epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/

index.html. 

Submit your comments, identified by 

Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2015– 

0216, to the Federal eRulemaking 

Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 

Follow the online instructions for 

submitting comments. Once submitted, 

comments cannot be edited or 

withdrawn. The EPA may publish any 

comment received to its public docket. 

Do not submit electronically any 

information you consider to be 

Confidential Business Information (CBI) 

or other information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Multimedia 

submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be 

accompanied by a written comment. 

The written comment is considered the 

official comment and should include 

discussion of all points you wish to 

make. The EPA will generally not 

consider comments or comment 

contents located outside of the primary 

submission (i.e. on the web, cloud, or 

other file sharing system). For 

additional submission methods, the full 

EPA public comment policy, 

information about CBI or multimedia 

submissions, and general guidance on 

making effective comments, please visit 

http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/

commenting-epa-dockets. 

Instructions. Direct your comments to 

Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2015– 

0216. The EPA’s policy is that all 

comments received will be included in 

the public docket without change and 

may be made available online at http:// 

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided, unless 

the comment includes information 

claimed to be Confidential Business 

Information (CBI) or other information 

whose disclosure is restricted by statute. 

Do not submit information that you 

consider to be CBI or otherwise 

protected through http://

www.regulations.gov or email. The 

http://www.regulations.gov Web site is 

an ‘‘anonymous access’’ system, which 

means the EPA will not know your 

identity or contact information unless 

you provide it in the body of your 

comment. If you send an email 

comment directly to the EPA without 

going through http://

www.regulations.gov, your email 

address will be automatically captured 

and included as part of the comment 

that is placed in the public docket and 

made available on the Internet. If you 

submit an electronic comment, the EPA 

recommends that you include your 

name and other contact information in 

the body of your comment and with any 

CD you submit. If the EPA cannot read 

your comment due to technical 

difficulties and cannot contact you for 

clarification, the EPA may not be able to 

consider your comment. Electronic files 

should avoid the use of special 

characters, avoid any form of encryption 

and be free of any defects or viruses. For 

additional information about the EPA’s 

public docket, visit the EPA Docket 

Center homepage at http://

www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm. 

For additional instructions on 

submitting comments, go to section I.A 

of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

section of this document. 

Docket. All documents in the docket 

are listed in the http://

www.regulations.gov index. Although 

listed in the index, some information is 

not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other 

information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Certain other 

material, such as copyrighted material, 

will be publicly available only in hard 

copy. Publicly available docket 

materials are available either 

electronically at http://

www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at 

the U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency, EPA Docket Center, EPA WJC 

West Building, Room 3334, 1301 

Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, 

DC. The Public Reading Room is open 

from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday 

through Friday, excluding legal 

holidays. The telephone number for the 

Public Reading Room is (202) 566–1744, 

and the telephone number for the Air 

Docket is (202) 566–1742. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. 

Charlene Spells, U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency, Office of Air Quality 

Planning and Standards, Sector Policies 

and Programs Division (E143–05), 

Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; 

telephone number:(919) 541- 5255; fax 

number:(919) 541–3470; 

email:spells.charlene@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information 

A. What should I consider as I prepare 

my comments? 

Submitting CBI. Do not submit this 

information to the EPA through http:// 

www.regulations.gov or email. Clearly 

mark the part or all of the information 

that you claim to be CBI. For CBI 

information in a CD that you mail to the 

EPA, mark the outside of the CD as CBI 

and then identify electronically within 

the CD the specific information that is 

claimed as CBI. In addition to one 

complete version of the comment that 

includes information claimed as CBI, a 

copy of the comment that does not 

contain the information claimed as CBI 

must be submitted for inclusion in the 

public docket. Information so marked 

will not be disclosed except in 

accordance with procedures set forth in 

40 CFR part 2. Send or deliver 

information identified as CBI only to the 

following address: Tiffany Purifoy, 

OAQPS Document Control Officer 

(C404–02), U.S. EPA, Research Triangle 

Park, NC 27711, Attention Docket ID 

No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2015–0216. 

II. Information About the Document 

Section 172(c)(1) of the Clean Air Act 

(CAA) provides that State 

Implementation Plans (SIPs) for 

nonattainment areas must include 

‘‘reasonably available control 

measures’’, including ‘‘reasonably 

available control technology’’ (RACT), 

for existing sources of emissions. 

Section 182(b)(2)(A)of the CAA requires 

that for Moderate ozone nonattainment 

areas, states must revise their SIPs to 

include RACT for each category of VOC 

sources covered by a CTG document 

issued between November 15, 1990, and 

the date of attainment. CAA section 

182(c) through (e) applies this 

requirement to States with ozone 

nonattainment areas classified as 

Serious, Severe and Extreme. 

The CAA also imposes the same 

requirement on States in ozone 

transport regions (OTR). Specifically, 

CAA Section 184(b) provides that states 

in the Ozone Transport Region (OTR) 

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56578 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 181 / Friday, September 18, 2015 / Notices 

must revise their SIPs to implement 

RACT with respect to all sources of 

VOCs in the state covered by a CTG 

issued before or after November 15, 

1990. CAA section 184(a) establishes a 

single OTR comprised of Connecticut, 

Delaware, Maine, Maryland, 

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New 

Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode 

Island, Vermont and the Consolidated 

Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA) 

that includes the District of Columbia. 

The EPA defines RACT as ‘‘the lowest 

emission limitation that a particular 

source is capable of meeting by the 

application of control technology that is 

reasonably available considering 

technological and economic feasibility’’ 

(44 FR 53761, September 17, 1979). The 

EPA is developing this CTG to provide 

air agencies information to assist them 

in determining RACT for VOC from 

select oil and natural gas emission 

sources. In developing the CTG, the 

EPA, among other things, evaluated the 

sources of VOC emissions from the oil 

and natural gas industry and the 

available control approaches for 

addressing these emissions, including 

the costs of such approaches. Based on 

available information and data, the EPA 

is providing draft recommendations for 

RACT for select oil and natural gas 

industry emission sources. The VOC 

RACT recommendations contained in 

this draft CTG were made based on a 

review of the 1983 CTG, the oil and 

natural gas NSPS, existing state and 

local VOC emission reduction 

approaches, and information on costs, 

emissions and available emission 

control technologies obtained since 

issuance of these guidelines and rules. 

For instance, the EPA released for 

external peer review five technical 

white papers on potentially significant 

sources of emissions in the oil and gas 

sector. We considered information 

included in the white papers, along 

with the input we received from the 

peer reviewers and the public, when 

evaluating and recommending a RACT 

level of control for emission sources. 

Upon finalization of the CTG, air 

agencies can use the recommendations 

in the CTG to inform their 

determinations as to what constitutes 

RACT for VOC for these oil and natural 

gas industry emission sources in their 

particular areas. The information 

contained in the CTG is provided only 

as guidance. This guidance does not 

change, or substitute for, requirements 

specified in applicable sections of the 

CAA or the EPA’s regulations; nor is it 

a regulation itself. The CTG does not 

impose any legally binding 

requirements on any entity. It provides 

only recommendations for air agencies 

to consider in determining RACT. Air 

agencies are free to implement other 

technically-sound approaches that are 

consistent with the CAA and the EPA’s 

regulations. 

The recommendations contained in 

the CTG are based on data and 

information currently available to the 

EPA. These general recommendations 

may not apply in all situations. 

Regardless of whether a state chooses to 

implement the recommendations 

contained in a CTG through state rules, 

or to issue state rules that adopt 

different approaches for RACT for VOC 

from oil and natural gas industry 

emission sources, states must submit 

their RACT rules to the EPA for review 

and approval as part of the SIP process. 

The EPA will evaluate the rules and 

determine, through notice and comment 

rulemaking in the SIP review process, 

whether the submitted rules meet the 

RACT requirements of the CAA and the 

EPA’s regulations. To the extent a state 

adopts any of the recommendations in 

this CTG, upon its finalization, into its 

state RACT rules, interested parties can 

raise questions and objections about the 

substance of this guidance and the 

appropriateness of the application of 

this guidance to a particular situation 

during the development of the state 

rules and the EPA’s SIP review process. 

Section 182(b)(2) of the CAA requires 

that a CTG issued between November 

15, 1990, and the date of attainment 

provide the period for submitting SIP 

revisions in response to such CTG. In 

the draft CTG, the EPA is providing a 

two-year period, from the date of final 

issuance, for the required submittal. 

The Tribal Authority Rule (63 FR 

7254, February 12, 1998) (TAR) 

identifies CAA provisions for which it 

is appropriate to treat Indian tribes in 

the same manner as states (TAS). 

Pursuant to the TAR, tribes may apply 

for TAS for purposes of CAA section 

110 and Part D planning requirements 

in CAA section 172. As a result, tribes 

may, but are not required to, apply for 

TAS for the purpose a developing a 

tribal implementation plan (TIP) 

addressing RACT for sources located in 

a Moderate (or higher) nonattainment 

area for ozone within the tribe’s 

jurisdiction. If the EPA grants that status 

and approves the TIP, the tribe would 

implement RACT in Moderate (or 

higher) ozone nonattainment areas 

within the geographic scope of the TAS 

designation. If a tribe does not seek and 

obtain the authority from the EPA to 

establish a plan, the EPA will be 

responsible for establishing CAA section 

110 and 172 plans for reservations and 

trust lands if the EPA determines that 

such a plan is necessary or appropriate 

to protect air quality in such areas. 

III. Specific Comments Solicited 

In addition to providing an 

opportunity to review and comment on 

the draft CTG, the EPA is also soliciting 

specific comment on the following: 

1. Information on costs associated 

with retrofitting an existing storage 

vessel to allow routing of emissions to 

a control device. 

2. Information on the implementation 

of a monitoring plan that includes the 

use of optical gas imaging for fugitive 

emissions at existing well sites. 

3. Interaction of the CTG with new 

builds in areas affected by the CTG. 

Refer to materials in the docket (EPA– 

HQ–OAR–2015–0216). 

4. The appropriateness of a daily 

average of 15 barrel equivalents as a 

representative threshold to define low 

production wells for purposes of 

requiring a fugitive emissions program 

and information on fugitive air 

emissions associated with low 

production wells. 

Dated: August 18, 2015. 

Gina McCarthy, 

Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2015–21027 Filed 9–17–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

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