61236 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 221 / Monday, November 17, 1997 / Rules and Regulations

Date: November 6, 1997.

Bruce A. Lehman,

Assistant Secretary of Commerce and

Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks.

[FR Doc. 97–30118 Filed 11–14–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–16–P

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[AL–036–1 9715; FRL–5922–4]

Revocation of the Section 182(f)

Oxides of Nitrogen (NOX) Exemption

Granted to the Birmingham Ozone

Nonattainment Area

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Final rule; informational notice.

SUMMARY: The EPA has rescinded its

previous approval of the State of

Alabama’s exemption from NOX

provisions for the Birmingham marginal

nonattainment area. The exemption was

originally approved by EPA in 1993. It

is now rescinded because the conditions

which formed the basis of the original

approval no longer exist; and there is no

other showing from the State of

Alabama that reductions of NOX would

not contribute to attainment of the

ozone standard for the area.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This action was

effective September 19, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to

Kimberly Bingham at the EPA Region 4

address listed below. Copies of the

material submitted by the Alabama

Department of Environmental

Management (ADEM) may be examined

during normal business hours at the

following locations:

Environmental Protection Agency,

Region 4, Air Planning Branch, 61

Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, Georgia

30303–3104.

Alabama Department of Environmental

Management, 1751 Congressman W.

L. Dickinson Drive, Montgomery,

Alabama 36109.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kimberly Bingham, Regulatory Planning

Section, Air Planning Branch, Air,

Pesticides and Toxics Management

Division, Region 4, Environmental

Protection Agency, 61 Forsyth Street,

SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. The

telephone number is (404) 562–9038.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Section 182(f)(1)(A) of the Clean Air

Act (CAA) provides for an exemption

from New Source Review (NSR) offsets

for NOX emissions in ozone

nonattainment areas where a state

shows and EPA agrees that additional

NOX reductions would not contribute to

attainment of the ozone standard in that

area. At the time of the request

submitted by the State of Alabama

through the Alabama Department of

Environmental Management (ADEM),

the Birmingham area was required to

attain the National Ambient Air Quality

Standards (NAAQS) for ozone by

November 15, 1993. Given this

deadline, offsets from new sources of

NOX emissions applying for a permit to

locate in the Birmingham area after

November 15, 1992, would not in

practice have been achieved prior to the

expected ozone attainment date. Based

on this information, the EPA

determined that the application of the

NOX provisions would not have

contributed to the timely attainment of

the ozone standard and, therefore,

approved the NOX exemption for the

Birmingham area. (58 FR 45439).

Moreover, the area had ambient air

quality data that demonstrated

attainment of the ozone NAAQS on

November 15, 1993.

Accordingly, on August 30, 1993, the

EPA announced in the Federal Register

(58 FR 45439) that it had determined,

pursuant to the State’s request according

to the provisions of section 182(f) of the

CAA, that additional reductions of NOX

would not contribute to attainment of

the NAAQS for ozone in the

Birmingham nonattainment area. In that

same notice, the EPA approved a

request from ADEM for an exemption

from the CAA requirements for NSR

offsets for NOX. In addition to

exempting the Birmingham ozone

nonattainment area from NOX NSR, this

action also exempted the Birmingham

ozone nonattainment area from

applicable transportation and general

conformity requirements for NOX in

accordance with 58 FR 62188 and 58 FR

63214. Because the EPA previously

issued an area wide exemption under

section 182(f) of the CAA, Region 4

acknowledged on November 21, 1994,

that additional exemptions from the

conformity requirements automatically

applied to the Birmingham area.

On March 16, 1995, ADEM submitted

a request for redesignation of the

Birmingham marginal ozone

nonattainment area to attainment status.

However, prior to the close of the

administrative record on the

redesignation request, the Birmingham

area registered a violation of the ozone

standard on August 18, 1995. EPA

proposed disapproval of the

redesignation request and the associated

maintenance plan on April 30, 1997. On

September 19, 1997, EPA published in

the Federal Register, a final rulemaking

which disapproved the ozone

redesignation request for the

Birmingham area (See 62 FR 49154). In

light of the fact that the Birmingham

area continued to violate the NAAQS for

ozone in 1996, the EPA could no longer

conclude that additional NOX

reductions would not contribute to

attainment of the ozone standard for this

area. For those reasons, the NOX

exemption for the Birmingham marginal

ozone nonattainment area has been

revoked.

This determination was made as of

the effective date of the redesignation

disapproval, September 19, 1997,

because the basis of the disapproval is

the violation of the ozone NAAQS. A

letter dated September 11, 1997,

provided ADEM official notification that

the waiver for Birmingham would be

revoked as of the aforementioned date.

As a result of the NOX waiver being

rescinded for the Birmingham marginal

ozone nonattainment area, the State will

be required to implement New Source

Review for major stationary sources of

NOX. Furthermore, the State will no

longer have a waiver for the

Birmingham ozone nonattainment area

which exempts the area from CAA

requirements to satisfy the general and

transportation conformity requirements

for NOX. Consequently, the Birmingham

Metropolitan Planning Organization and

the Alabama Department of

Transportation must demonstrate that

the future long-range transportation

plan (LRTP) and the transportation

improvement program (TIP) conformity

analyses satisfy the applicable VOC and

NOX requirements in section 93.109 of

the transportation conformity rule, as

amended on August 15, 1997. The

approved conformity determination for

the existing 2015 LRTP demonstrated

that the ‘‘Action’’ scenarios for 2005 and

2015 will have NOX emissions over the

respective ‘‘Baseline’’ scenarios.

Without an NOX waiver, any new LRTP

and/or TIP for the Birmingham area

which shows such increases would not

satisfy the emission reduction

requirements of section 93.119 of the

transportation conformity rule and

would not be in conformance with the

Alabama State Implementation Plan.

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401–7671q.

Dated: October 31, 1997.

A. Stanley Meiburg,

Acting Regional Administrator.

[FR Doc. 97–30137 Filed 11–14–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P