## Puerto Rico

Area Designations for the

2012 Primary Annual PM 2.5 

## National Ambient Air Quality Standard

Technical Support Document

1.0 Summary

In accordance with Section 107(d) of the Clean Air Act (CAA), the EPA must promulgate designations for all areas of the country. In particular, EPA must identify those areas that are violating a National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) or contributing to a violation of the NAAQS in a nearby area. Additionally, through the designation process, the EPA identifies areas that are meeting the NAAQS and those areas without sufficient data for the Agency to make a determination. The EPA uses a designation cat egory of "unclassifiable/attainment" for areas where air quality monitoring data indicate attainment of the NAAQS and for areas that do not have monitors but for which the EPA has reason to believe are likely to be in attainment and are not contributing to nearby violations. The EPA reserves the category of "unclassifiable" for areas where the EPA cannot determine based on available information whether the area is meeting or not meeting the NAAQS or where the EPA has not determined that the area contributes to a nearby violation. The EPA must complete this process within 2 years of promulgating a new or revised NAAQS, or may do so within 3 years under circumstances not relevant to these designations 1 . This technical support document (TSD) describes
EPA’s de cision to d esignate the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as "unclassifiable" for the 2012 primary annual fine particle NAAQS (2012 annual PM2.5 NAAQS) 2

.
Under section 107(d), states are required to submit area designation recommendations to the EPA for the 2012
annual PM 2.5 NAAQS no later than 1 year following promulgation of the standard, or by December 13, 2013. In
December 2013

, Puerto Rico recommended that all areas in the C ommonwealth identified in Table 1 be designated as “unclassifiable

, ” for the 2012 annual PM 2.5 NAAQS because of insufficient air quality data from
2010

- 2012

.
After considering these recommendations and based on EPA’s technical analysis as described in this TSD, the EPA is designating the entire Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as "unclassi fiable" for the 2012 annual PM 2.5

1 Section 107(d) of th e CAA requires the EPA to complete the initial designation process within 2 years of promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS

, unless the Administrator has insufficient information to make initial designation decisions in the

2

- year time frame. In such circumstances

, the EPA m ay take up to 1 additional year to make initial area designation decisions (i.e., no later than 3 years after promulgation of the standard)

. 2 On December 14, 2012, the EPA promulgated a revised primary annual PM 2.5 NAAQS (78 FR 3086, January 15, 2013).

In that action, the EPA revised the primary annual PM 2.5 standard, strengthening it from 15.0 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m 3 ) to 12.0 μg/m

3

.NAAQS. Although air monitoring data from prior years have indicated minimal potential for violation, because

curre nt data are incomplete EPA cannot determine based on available information whether the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is meeting or not meeting the NAAQS. EPA's technical analysis is provided below.

Table 1

. The EPA’s Designated Unclassifiable Areas for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for the 2012
annual PM 2.5 NAAQS

Area Puerto Rico's

Recommended
Unclassifiable
Area EPA’s Designated Unclassifiab le Area

Puerto Rico Entire

C ommonwealth Entire Commonwealth

2 .0 Technical Analysis

In this technical analysis, EPA us ed the latest data and information available to EPA (and to the states and tribes through the PM 2.5 Designations Mapping Tool 3 and the EPA PM Designations Guidance and Data web page 4 ) and/or data provided to EPA by states or tribes. This technical analysis i s limited to an air quality data analysis

, which involve s examining available ambient PM 2.5 air quality monitoring data. This include s reviewing the design value s (DV) calculated for each monitoring location in the area based on air quality data for the mo st recent complete 3 consecutive calendar years of quality

- assured, certified air quality data in the EPA’s Air Quality System (AQS). In general, EPA identifies violations using data from suitable Federal Reference Method (FRM), Federal Equivalent Method (FEM), and/or Approved Regional Method (ARM) monitors sited and operated in accordance with 40 CFR Part 58. 5 Procedures for using the air quality data to determine whether
a violation ha s occurred are given in 40 CFR p art 50 Appendix N, as revised by a fin al action published in the Federal Register on January 15, 2013 (78 FR 3086). 6

Figure 1 : M ap of Puerto Rico's U nclas sifiable Area

.

3 EPA’s PM 2.5 Designations Mapping Too l can be found at http://geoplatform2.epa.gov/PM_MAP/index.html

. 4 EPA’s PM Designations Guidance and Data web page can be found at http://www.epa.gov/pmdesignations/2012standards/techinfo.htm

. 5 Suitable monitors include all FEM and / or ARMs except those specific continuous FEMs / ARMs used in the monitoring agency's netwo rk where the data are not of sufficient quality such that data are not to be compared to the NAAQS in accordance with 40 CFR part 58.10(b)(13) and approved by the EPA Regional Administrator per 40 CFR part 58.11(e).

6 As indicated in Appendix N to 40 CFR part 50, Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM 2.5 , section 3(a) indicates “Except as otherwise provided in this appendix, all valid FRM/FEM/ARM PM 2.5 mass concentration data produced by su itable monitors that are required to be submitted to AQS, or otherwise available to EPA, meeting the requirements of part 58 of this chapter including appendices A, C, and E shall be used in the DV (design value) calculations. Generally, EPA will only use such data if they have been certified by the reporting organization (as prescribed by § 58.15 of this chapter); however, data not certified by the reporting organization can nevertheless be used, if the deadline for certification has passed and EPA judges the data to be complete and accurate.”Air Quality Data

All data collected during the year are important when determining contributions to an annual standard such as
the 2012 annual PM 2.5 NAAQS. Compliance with an annual NAAQS is dependent upon monitor readings throughout the year, including days with monitored ambient concentrations below the level of the NAAQS. For
the 2012 annual PM 2.5 NAAQS , the annual mean is calculated as the mean of quarterly means. A high quarter can drive the mean for an entire year, which, in turn, can drive an elevated 3

- year DV.

PM 2.5 Design Values

– As part of the designation process, EPA calculate d DVs based on air quality data fo r the most recent 3 consecutive calendar years of quality

- assured, certified air quality data from suitable
FEM/FRM/ARM monitor ing sites in the EPA’s Air Quality System (AQS). For this designation analysis, EPA
used data for the 201 1

- 201 3 period (i.e., the 201 3 DV )

. A monitor’s DV is the metric or statistic that indicates whether that monitor attains a specified air quality standard. The 2012 annual PM 2.5 NAAQS is met at a
monitor ing site when the 3

- year average annual mean concentration i s 12.0 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m 3 )
or less (e.g., 12.1 μg/m 3 or greater is a violation)

. A DV is only valid if minimum data completeness criteria are

met or when other regulatory data processing provisions are satisfied (See 40 CFR part 50 Appendix N )

. None of the regulatory monitors in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico had complete monitoring data for the 2011

- 2013 period. Therefore, EPA could not calculate valid DVs. Table 2 summarizes the available data for allmonitor i

ng s ites in the area of analysis for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

. 7 There were no addition al FEM/FRM/ARM monitoring sites in Puerto Rico

.

Table 2. Air Quality Data collected at Regulatory Monitors

County, State Monitor Site

ID State

Rec
NA 2009

- 2011 Design

Value 2010

-

2012

Design

Value 2011

- 2013

Design
Value 2011

Complete

Quarters 2012

Complete Quarters 2013

Complete

Quarters

Adjuntas Muncipio, PR 720010002 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 0 2 2

Bayamon , PR 720210009 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 0 4 2

Fajardo , PR 720530003 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 3 1 0

Guayama Muncipio, PR 720570008 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 3 4 2

Guaynabo, PR 720610005 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 3 4 4

Ponce Muncipio, PR 721130004 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 0 3 4

Guayanilla Muncipio, PR 720590016 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 0 3 4

Humacao , PR 720690001 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 0 4 4

Mayagüez Municipio, PR 72097006 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 2 4 2

7 In certain circumstances, one or more monitoring locations within a monitoring network may not meet the network technical requirements set forth in 40 CFR 58.11(e), which states, “ State and local governments must a ssess data from

Class III PM 2.5 FEM and ARM monitors operated within their network using the performance criteria described in table C

4 to subpart C of part 53 of this chapter, for cases where the data are identified as not of sufficient comparability to a collocated FRM, and the monitoring agency requests that the FEM or ARM data should not be used in comparison to the NAAQS. These assessments are required in the monitoring agency's annual monitoring network plan described in §58.10(b) for cases where the FEM or ARM is identified as not of sufficient comparability to a collocated FRM ....”San Juan, PR 721270003 No Not Valid Not Valid Not Valid 1 2 0

Conclusion for Puerto Rico

Based on the assessment described above, EPA is designating the entire Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as "unclassifiable" for the 2012 annual PM2.5 NAAQS because current air quality data are incomplete. There is

not sufficient data for EPA to make an attainment or nonattainment designation.