UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONAGENCY REGION IX 75 Hawthorne Street San Francisco,CA 94105 May 25,2006 Kurt Karperos, Chief Air Quality & Transportation Planning Branch CaliforniaAir Resources Board P.O. Box 2815 Sacramento, CA 95812-281 5 Subject: Sample Language for Negative Declaration for use with 8-hour Ozone Reasonably Available Control Technology

- State Implementation Plan (RACT SIP) Certification Dear Mr. Karperos; My March 9,2006letter discussed the general requirements for the RACT SIP submittal, and offered toprovide additional informationto assist the Districts. On April 4, 2006 Iprovided a list of Control Technique Guideline (CTG) documents. This letter provides suggested text for Districts to use where they have no sources and do not anticipate any sources subject to a CTG category (i.e., a 'hegative declaration" for RACT SIPcertification). Districts should submit a negative declaration regardless ofwhether such negative declarations were made for anearlier SIP. This is necessary since there may now be sources in the nonattainrnent area that previously did not exist. If you have any questions or if there is other assistance EPA canprovide to help CARB and the Districts fulfill their obligation, please feel free to contact me (415) 947-41 15or Stanley Tong at (4

### 15) 947-4122.

~nYdrew Steckel Chief, Rulemaking Office

cc: Air Pollution Control Officers for Amador, Antelope Valley, Bay Area, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Feather River, Imperial, Kern, Mariposa, Mojave, Northern Sierra, Placer, Sacramento, San Diego, San Joaquin, South Coast, Tuolumne, Ventura, and Yolo Solano Air Pollution Control DistrictsIAir Quality Management Districts. Enclosure

### EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The federal 

### CleanAirAct (CAA) requires certain sources in ozone non-attainment areas to implement control methods called 

### reasonably available control technology (RACT). EPA defines RACT asthe lowest emission limitation that aparticular source is capable of meeting by the application of control technology (i.e., devices, systems, process modification, or other apparatus or techniques that reduce air pollution) that is reasonably available considering technological and economic feasibility. The RACTrequirement is meant to ensure that all moderate and above nonattainment areas, have in place all RACT for source categories covered by a 

### Control Techniques Guideline (CTG) document and for major sources that are not subjectto a CTG. A local air agency adopts the control methods if it has a source in its area subjectto a CTG. Alternatively, the local agency may declare that there are no sources in its area subject to a RACTrequirement, and then the requirement to adopt arule for those sources isno longer applicable. This Board action declares that the [Air District] does not have any sources, and does not anticipate any sources, subject to a CTG. 

### DISCUSSION 1. Background Sections 182(b)(2)and 182(f)ofthe federal CAA requires the [Air District] to submit a revision to the State Implementation Plan to implement RACT for each category of

### volatile organic compound (VOC) sources covered by a CTG document and for any major1 stationary source not covered by a CTG document. Alternatively, areas may adopt a negative declaration documentingthat the air district has no stationary sources or emitting facilities subjectto the U.S. EPA CTG documents. Statesand Air Districts shall submit negative declarations for those source categories for which they arenot adopting CTG-based regulations (because they have no sources above the CTGrecommended threshold) regardless of whether such negative declarations were made for an earlier SIP. This is necessary sincethere may now be sources in the nonattainment area that previously did not exist, or in areas where the boundaries ofthe nonattainment area have expanded, there may be sources in the new portion of the nonattainment area which should not be overlooked. The negative declaration must gothrough the same public review requirements as any other SIP submittal.

The definition of a major source is dependent on the severity of the air quality problem in a region. For [Air District], [a moderate/serious/extreme] non attainment area, the major source threshold is the potential to emit [50 / 25/ 101tons per year of VOC or NOx. Enclosure (1) 12. 

### Findings and Staff Recommendation The District has reviewed itspermit files and the emission inventory for its federal CleanAir Plan, [includeany other information sources searched such as SIC Codes and telephone yellowpages], and has determined that there are no stationary sources or emitting facilities for the following CTG categories. The District also does not anticipate these sources in the future. 

# I I I GUIDANCE DOCUMENT TITLE DOCUFT DOCUMENT NUMBER 

# 1 Control of Refinery Vacuum Producing Systems, 

### ( CTG 

# I EPA-45012-77-025 

# I

Wastewater Separators, and Process Unit Turnarounds

Enclosure (1)