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

Dr. Keith Kawaoka Deputy Director Environmental Health Administration Hawaii Department ofHealth 9 19 Ala Moana Boulevard Honolulu, Hawaii 96814-4920
Dear Dr. Kawaoka: 

## MAR 2 0

## 2015

OFFICE OF AIR AND RADIATION

I am writing to update you on the status of the U.S. Enviro nmental Protection Agency ' s progress in implementing the primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for sulfur dioxide (S02 ) set in 20 1 0 at 75 parts per bi II ion (ppb) as a 1-hour average. In July 2013, the EPA identified areas in 1 6 states as nonattainment and expressed the intent to address designation s for the remainder of the country in separate fu ture actions.
On March 2, 2015 , the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accepted as an enforceable order an agreement between the EPA and Sierra Club and Natural Resources 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 31 , 2017, and the final round by December 31, 2020. The EPA will complete these designations by designating areas as either nonattainment, unclassifiable/attainment, or unclassifiable.
In the first round of des ignations, the EPA will designate two groups of areas: 1) areas that have newly monitored vio lations of the 20 I 0 S02 standard, and 2) areas that contain any stationary source that according to the EPA ' s Air Markets Database either emitted more than 16,000 tons of S02 in 2012 or emitted more than 2 ,600 tons of S02 and had an emission rate of at least 0.45 lbs S02 / mmbtu in 2012 and that has not been announced (as ofMarch 2 , 20 15) for retirement. In the enclosure to this letter, the EPA provides the schedu le we intend to follow to meet the July 2, 2016, deadline.
While there are currently no so urces in Hawaii me eting the emissions criteria established in the court's order, the EPA has identifi ed the fo llo wing areas in your sta te as those th at may have newly recorded violati ons of the S02 stand ard based on preliminary air quality monitoring data co llected between 2012 and 2014:

I nternal Address (URL) • http ://www.epa.gov Recycled/Recyclable • Prin ted with Vegetable Oil Based I nks on 100°o Postconsumer, Process Chlorine Free Recycled PaperState County Air Quality Systems Monitor Location · 2012-2014 Monitor Identification Preliminary S02 N umber Design Value (ppb) HI Hawaii 15-001-0005 Hawaii Volcanoes 1196 National Par k HI Hawaii 15-001-0007 Hawaii Volcanoes 1403 National Park HI Hawaii 15-001-1006 . 1 099 Waianuenue 175 A venue; Hilo, HI HI Hawaii 15-001-2016 96-3150 Pikake St; 712 Pahala, HI HI Hawaii 15-001-2020 Orchid Parkwa y, 553 Hawaiian Ocean View Estates; Ocean View, HI HI Hawaii 15-001-2023 18-1235 Volcano Rd; 240 Mountain View, HI The EPA will use the most recent available information when making designation and boundary decisions for the indicated areas. In your most recent recommendation letter, you have requested that the EPA exclude data from these monitors from being considered for designations purposes under the EPA's Except ional Events Rule due to S02 emissions from an active volcano(s). . If you would like to s ubmit updated recommendations and supporting information for the EPA to consider for the affected areas in your state , we request that you do so by September 18, 2015.

The EPA has updated it s March 24, 2011, designation guidance for the 2010 S0 2 standard to sup por t ana lysi s of designations and boundaries for these nex t rounds of designations. T he updated guidance can

be foun d on the EPA's website at http: //ep a.gov/airqualitv!sulfurdioxide/guidance.html. The EPA has also provided two technical assis tance documents that provide advice on the use of modeling and monitoring da ta when determining i f an area is meeting or not meetin g the 201 0 S02 standard. These documents can be found on the EPA's website at http://epa.gov/airqualitv!sul(urdioxide/implement.html. The court's order directs th e EPA to complete the second round of area designations by December 31 , 2017. These de signat ions would address areas where states have not in stalled and begun operating a new

S02 monitoring network meeting the EPA's specificat ions referenced in our proposed rule titled , "Data Requirements Rule for the 1-hour S0 2 primary NAAQS". Thi s rule, which was proposed in the Federal Register on May 13, 2014 , would direct state and tribal air agencies to provide data to characterize

current air quality in areas with large sources of S02 if such areas do not have sufficient air quality monitoring in place to identi fy maximum S02 concentrations. The data collected as a result of this proposed rule would be used in the designations process . La stly, the court's order directs the EPA to designate a ll remainin g areas by December 31, 2020. The EPA w ill provide states w i th additional information on the designations process associated with these later deadlines at a later date.We look forward to continued dialogue with you and your staff as we work together to implement the 2010 S02 standard and achieve its intended public hea lth protection. For additional information regarding designations for the 2010 S02 standard , please visit our website at 

### www.epa.gov/so2designations. Should you have any questions, please do not hes itate to call me or Scott Mathias of my staff at 91-9-541-5310 and 

### mathias.scott@e pa.gov. Sincerely,

Janet G. McCabe Acting Assistant Administrator
E nc lo sure

cc: .Jared Blumenfeld EPA Region 9 AdministratorENCLOSURE


### TIMELINE FOR 2010 PRIMARY S02 NAAQS DESIGNATION PROCES S FOR AREAS ASSOCIATED WITH JULY 2, 2016, COURT-ORDERED DEADLINE* Milestone Date** 

### Court Order March 2, 20 1 5 States may submit updated recommendations No later than September 18 , 2015 and supporting information for area designations to the EPA The EPA notifies states concerning any o/a January 22 , 2016, but absolutely no lat er intended modifications to their than 120 days prior to final designations , i. e. , recommendations ( 120-day letters) March 2 , 20 16 The EPA publi shes pub li c notice of state o/a Febru ary 3, 2016 recommendations and the EPA's intended modifications and initiates 30-day public comment peri od End of 30-day publi c comment period o/a March 4 , 20 16 States provide additional informat ion to o/a April 8, 2016 demonstrate why an EPA modification is inappropria te The EPA promulgates final S02 area No later than Jul y 2, 20 16 designations (no la ter th an 16 months from Court Order)

.. 

### * The court's order dtrects the EPA to promulgat e addttlonal rounds of destgnat10ns by December 31 , 2017 , and by December 31 , 2020.
** o/a 

### = on or about