Colleen W. McKaughan

Associate Director, Air Division

USEPA, Region 9

(520) 498-0118

Forwarded by Colleen McKaughan/R9/USEPA/US on 04/11/2012 03:38 PM

From: “Marshall K. Cheung, Ph.D.” <tribal-epa@att.net>

To: Colleen McKaughan/R9/USEPNUSEPA

Date: 04/11/2012 03:27 PMSubject: RE: West Mojave Desert Reclassification or “Bump-up”

Good news Colleen,

Ijust spoke with Chairman Darrell Mike and he approves bumping up for 29 Palms. If you need

anything more from us, please let us know.

Marshall

From: Colleen McKaughan [mailto:McKaughan .Colleen@epamail.epa.gov]

Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 7:27 AM

To: tribal-epa@att.net

Cc: Amy Zimpfer; Doris Lo; Elizabeth Adams; Maeve Foley

Subject: RE: West Mojave Desert Reclassification or “Bump-up”

Hi, Marshall,If you could talk to the Council and get their feedback, you could send us an email by April 16th with their

response and that would suffice for us to proceed. Thanks again for all your help on this issue.Colleen W. McKaughan

Associate Director, Air Division

USEPA, Region 9

(520) 498-0118

From: “Marshall K. Cheung, Ph.D.” <tribal-epaaft.net>

To: Colleen McKaughari/R9/USEPA/US@EPA

Cc: Elizabeth AdamstR9/USEPAIUS@EPA, Amy Zimpfer/R9/USEPAIUSEPA, Doris Lo/R9/USEPAIUS@EPA, Maeve
Thank you Colleen,

Base on your info, bumping up seems like it’s the best way to go for the Tribe. I will attempt to present this to

Chairman Darrell Mike and/or the Tribal Council ASAP. If the Tribe agrees, what would you need from them and

when?

Marshall

From: Colleen McKaughan [mailto: McKaughan.ColleencepamaiLeDa.aov1 Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 3:05 PM

To: tribal-epaatt.net

Cc: Elizabeth Adams; Amy Zimpfer; Doris Lo; Maeve FoleySubject: West Mojave Desert Reclassification or “Bump-up”

Dear Marshall,

We appreciated the opportunity to speak with you about the reclassification (or ‘bump up”) of the Western Mojave Desert ozone nonattainment area from moderate to severe yesterday. As you know, the air

quality in this area is poor. This bump up will give California more time to attain both the current and the

new ozone standards. The bump up will shift the attainment date for the new ozone standard from 2018

to 2027. We are planning to bump up this area within the next few weeks and will include the Twenty Nine Palms tribal land in San Bemadino County unless your tribal leadership does not agree and would

like further consultation.

The state of California has recently requested the bump up for the Western Mojave ozone nonattainment

area and under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required to grant their request. The approval of the bump up

must be completed shortly in order to complete the final ozone designations by the end of April. The state

cannot request a bump up for tribal land, but EPA can bump up tribal lands, therefore we are interested in

your input.

EPA believes that being bumped up along with the surrounding area would be the best option for Twenty

Nine Palms. This is for several reasons:

1. If you are bumped up with Western Mojave you can rely on the air quality controls, plans and limits that the state and local air district impose on the surrounding Western Mojave area in order to bring the Tribe’s

air quality into attainment. Sources on tribal lands would not be regulated by these state rules.

2. Most importantly for Twenty Nine Palms, the bump up does not change your major source permitting threshold for any new sources such as a casino, industry or other future project that may produce ozone. The current threshold is 25 tons per year, and that permitting requirement will stay the same even with the bump up to the new classification. The permitting threshold of 25 tons will apply to the rest of the Western

Mojave ozone nonattainment area, as well.

3. The only change would be to large federally funded and/or approved construction projects. These
the area was bumped up in 2010.

If you do not want to be bumped up along with the surrounding area, your tribal lands in San Bernadino

County will be designated as a separate nonattainment area for the new ozone standard and will not be

able to rely on the controls or plans that the state submits for the Western Mojave area. Therefore, the Tribe, or EPA, may need to develop plans or control measures in order for your reservation land to

achieve both the current and the new ozone standardsnine years earlier than the surrounding Western Mojave area.

Please let us know if you have any questions or if further consultation is needed. You can contact

Elizabeth Adams, at 415-972-3183, if you have any additional questions or concerns. We apologize for the expedited nature of this request, but we will need to finalize these actions in the next week, so we are

hoping you can get back to us by April 16. Thank you so very much.

Colleen W. McKaughan

Associate Director, Air Division

USEPA, Region 9

(520) 498-0118