janice K. Brewer 

Governor 

BY EMAIL 

July 20, 2012 

Thomas Webb 

ARIZONA DEPARTMENT 

OF 

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY 

1110 West Washington Street • Phoenix, Arizona 85007 

(602) 771-2300 • www.azdeq .gov 

EPA Region 9, Air Division (AIR-2) 

75 Hawthorne Street 

San Francisco, California 94105 

Henry R. Darwin 

Director 

Re: Request for Extension of Comment Period and Hearing Date- Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking, 77 Fed. Reg. 42834 (July 20, 2012), Docket ID No. EPA-R09-0AR-2011-

0021; Announcement of Public Hearing, 77 Fed. Reg. 40317 (July 9, 2012) 

Dear Mr. Webb: 

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) hereby requests that the deadline for 

the submission of comments on the proposed federal implementation plan (FIP) contained in the 

above-referenced notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) be extended from August 31, 2012 to 

October 18, 2012. 

The proposed FIP would impose best available retrofit technology (BART) requirements 

necessitating the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars in control costs on three Arizona 

power plants. ADEQ believes the 42-day comment period provided in the NPRM is 

unreasonable given: 

• the extraordinary economic impact of the proposal; 

• the complexity of the legal and technical issues presented by EPA's BART analysis; and 

• the fact that technical support document on which EPA's BART determinations were 

based was not available until July 18, 2012. . 

A comment period of90 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register would be 

much more consistent with the import and complexity of EPA's proposal. 

In addition, EPA states in the NPRM: 

If Arizona submits a SIP revision that addresses the deficiencies in sufficient time 

for EPA to review the submission, then we would prefer to act on that submittal, 

if such action is consistent with our obligations under the CAA and applicable 

court orders. 

Southern Regional Office 

400 West Congress Street • Suite 433 • Tucson , AZ 85701 

(5 20) 628-6 733 

Printed on recycled paper 
Page 2 of3 

ADEQ, however, cannot possibly prepare and submit a SIP to serve as a substitute for the 

proposed FIP in the 42 days allowed by the NPRM. If ADEQ is to have any chance in submitting 

a credible SIP, we would need a minimum of90 days from the date all of the relevant technical 

information became available. 

ADEQ also requests that EPA move the date for the public hearing on the proposal from July 31 , 

2012 to Monday, August 20, 2012, in order to provide ADEQ and other commenters at least 30 

days to review the TSD before presenting their testimony. 

Finally, ADEQ notes that the extreme costs imposed by EPA's proposal could result in shutdowns of some affected units and could therefore have a profound economic impact on the 

nearby communities. Further, both the costs of BART compliance and potential shutdowns could 

have a significant impact on the rate payers living in these communities, particularly those living 

in the relatively small area served by the AEPCO plant. Members of these communities should 

not have to travel the 160 to 220 miles from their homes to Phoenix in order to present their 

concerns in person to EPA. ADEQ therefore requests that EPA schedule hearings in each ofthe 

affected towns: Benson, Joseph City and St. Johns, Arizona. 

The requests presented in this letter should not be construe9 as a waiver of ADEQ's claims that: 

• EPA's adoption of a FIP at this stage would violate the principles of federalism embodied 

in the Clean Air Act. As noted in the State of Arizona's opposition to the consent decree 

filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1: 11-cv-0 1548, 

EPA has not met the prerequisites of section 11 0( c) of the Clean Air Act for adoption of a 

complete regional haze FIP. EPA's 2009 finding that Arizona failed to submit certain 

specific elements of a section 309 SIP does not give the agency authority to adopt any of 

the elements of a section 308 plan, such as BART. 

• EPA cannot split this decision on BART for three power plants from its decision on the 

remaining elements of Arizona's regional haze SIP. The Clean Air Act does not provide 

authority for such a split decision. In aadition, EPA cannot adequately evaluate the 

impact of BART on visibility without taking the remainder of Arizona's regional haze 

plan into account. 

• EPA must act on Arizona's 2010 regional haze SIP submission in its entirety by the 

deadline established in the Clean Air Act, i.e. August 28, 2012. 
Page 3 of3 

If you have any questions about this letter, please contact Eric Massey, Director of the ADEQ 

Air Quality Division, at 602-771-2288. 

Director 

cc: "-..... Jared Blumenfeld 

Deborah Jordan