UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460

The Honorable Donald L. Shalifoe, Sr. President Keweenaw Bay Indian Community 16429 Beartown Road B araga, Mi chi gan 4 9908
Dear President Shalifoe : 

## MAR 2 02015

OFFICE OF AIR AND RADIATI ON

I am writing to update you on the status of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's progress in implementing the primary National Ambient Air Quali ty Standard (NAAQS) for sulf ur dioxide (S02) set in 2010 at 75 parts per billion (ppb) as a 1

-hour average. In July 2013, the EPA identified areas in 16 states as nonattainment and expressed the intent to address designations for the remainder of the country in separate future action s.
On March 2 , 20I5 , the U

. S

. District Court for the Northern District of Ca li fo rnia accepted as an enforceable order an agreement between the EPA and Sierra C lub and Natural Re sources Defense Council to resolve litigation concerning the deadline for completing the designations. The court's order directs the EPA to complete designations in three additional rounds: the first round by July 2, 2016, the second round by December 3I, 20 I7 , and the final round by December 3I , 2020. The EPA will complete these designations by designating areas as either nonattainment, uncla ssifiable /attainment, or unclassifiable

. In the first round of designations, the EPA will designate two groups of areas: I) areas that have newly monitored violations of the 20 I 0 S02 s tandard, and 2) areas that contain any s tationary source that according to the EPA's Air Markets Database either emitted more than 16,000 tons of S02 in 20 12 or emitted more than 2 , 600 tons ofS02 and had an emission rate of at least 0.45 lbs S021 mmbtu in 2012 and that has not been announced (as of March 2 , 20I5) for retirement. In the enclosure to this letter, the EPA provides the schedu le we intend to follow to meet the July 2, 20I6 , deadline

. While there are currently no violating monitors and no sources meeting the above criteria on your tribal land, the EPA has identified the following electric power plant source in M ichigan as meeting the criteri a established in the court's order. This source may potentia ll y be impacting your tribal land:

State County Facility Name 20 12 S02 Emissions 2012 S02 Emissions (tons) Rate (lb/mmBtu) MI Marquette Presque Isle 6,028 0

. 513 Power Plant

I n ternet Address (URL) • h ttp ://www.epa

.gov Recycled/Recyclable • Printed with Vegetab l e O i l Based Inks on 100% Postconsumer. Process Chlorine Free Recycled PaperYou may wish to discuss the designation for this area with representatives of Mich i gan , and provide your own designation recommendation for the potentially affected area on your t riba l land. The EPA will use the most recent available information when making area designation and boundary decis i ons for the indicated area . If you would like to submit information or recommendations for the potentially affected area on your tribal land, we request that you do so by September 18, 20 1 5. The EPA has updated its March 24, 2011, designation guidance for the 2010 S02 standard to support analysis of designations and boundar i es for these next rounds of designations. The updated gu id ance can be found on the EPA's website at http :/l epa . gov / airquality / sulfurdioxide / guidance.html. The EPA has also provided two technical ass i stance documents that provide advice on the use of modeling and monitoring data when determining if an area i s meeting or not meeting the 2010 S02 standard. These documents can be found on the EPA's webs i t e at http :// epa.gov l airquality l sulfurdioxide l implement . html. The court ' s order directs the EPA to complete the second round of area designations by December 31, 2017. T hese designations would address areas w h ere states have not i nstalled and begun operating a new

S02 monitoring network meeting the E PA's specifications referenced in our proposed rule titled , " Data Requirements Rule for the 1-hour S02 primary NAAQS" . This rule, which was proposed in the Federal Register on May 13 , 2014, wou ld direct state and tribal air agencies to provide data to characterize

curren t air quality in areas with large sources of S0 2 if such areas do not have sufficient air quality monitoring in place to i dentify maximum S02 concentrations. The data collected as a result of this

proposed rule would be used in the designat i ons process . Lastly , t he court ' s order d i rects the EPA to designate all remaining areas by December 31 , 2020. The EPA will provide states with additional information on the designations process assoc i ated with these l ater dead li nes at a later date. We l ook forward to continued d i a l ogue with you and your staff as we work together to implement the

20 1 0 S02 standard and achieve its intended public health protection. For additional information regarding designations for the 2010 S02 standard, please visit our website at www . epa.gov / so2designations . S h ould you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ca ll me or Scott Mathias of my staff at 919-541
- 5310 and mathias.scott @ epa.gov . Sincerely , Janet G. McCabe Acting Assistant Admin i strator E nclosure cc : Susan Hedman EPA Region 5 AdministratorENCLOSURE
TIMELINE FOR 2010 PRIM ARY S02 NAAQS DESIGNATION PROCESS FOR AREAS ASSOCIATED WITH JULY 2, 2016, COURT-ORDERED DEADLINE* Milestone Date** Court Order March 2, 20 15 States may submit updated recommendations No later than September 18 ,20 15 and supporting information for area designations to the E PA The EPA notifies states concerning any o/a January 22, 2016 , but absolutely no later intended modifications to their than 120 days prior to final designations, i.e. , recommendations ( 1 20-day letters) March 2, 2016 The EPA publi shes public notice of state o/a February 3, 2016 recommendations and the EPA's intended modifications and initiate s 30-day public comment period End of 30-day public comment period o / a March 4 , 2016 States provide additional information to o/a April 8 , 2016 demonstrate why an EPA modification is inappropriate The EPA promulgate s final S02 area No later than July 2 , 2016 designations (no later than 16 months from Court Order)

.. 

## * The court's order directs the EPA to promul gate add ttlonal rounds of destgnatiOns by December 31 , 20 17 , and by December 31 , 2020. 

## ** o/a = on or about