110 West C Street, Suite 900 San Diego, CA 92101

Ms. Gina McCarthy Assistant Administrator Environmental Protection Agency Office of Air and Radiation Ariel Rios Building 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20460 Email: mccarthy.gina@epa.gov

January 5, 2012

Subject: Reclassification of San Diego County to Serious Nonattainment Area for the 1997

Ozone Standard

Dear Ms. McCarthy,

On behalf of our members, the Industrial Environmental Association (IEA) is writing to express

our concern abo ut the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recent decision to move forward with reclassifying San Diego County as a "serious nonattainment area" for the 1997 National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ground

- level ozone.

IEA was formed in 198 3 to promote responsible, cost

- effective environmental laws and regulations, facilitate environmental compliance among member companies and provide related education activities for the community at large. IEA actively insists on strong environmental compl iance efforts among member companies as a matter of written policy. Consequently, IEA urges reliance on scientific, analytical data to evaluate the regulations necessary to protect the public and the environment.

We urge you to reconsider this decision, a s EPA's ruling is unnecessary and would generate tremendous negative economic and regulatory impacts on businesses in our region without providing any air quality benefits. This reclassification is contrary to the fact that San Diego County has already att ained this standard (i.e., 84 parts per billion) with an ozone value of 82 ppb based on data collected in 2009

- 2011. Some of these impacts are described below.110 West C Street, Suite 900 San Diego, CA 92101

A serious nonattainment classification would lower the applicability threshold for the Title V Operating Permit program by 50% from 100 tons per year (tpy) to 50 tpy. This change would require approximately one dozen businesses to apply for Title V Operating Permits. In addition, many businesses in the region would potentially need to apply for synt hetic minor permits. The process of preparing, applying, reviewing and negotiating a Title V permit could cost a facility from $50,000 to $100,000. Affected businesses would also incur significant ongoing expenses for recordkeeping, reporting, monitoring, and permit renewals. This is clearly an unnecessary expenditure of resources with no air quality benefits, in very tough economic times.

Businesses in San Diego County are already subject to operating permits from San Diego Air

Pollution Control District (SDAPCD), as required by state law. These local permits limit emissions and require specific actions to ensure compliance with applicable air pollution control requirements. The additional federal operating permit requirement, resulting from a ruling that appears to be strictly administrative

- based, would be surplus to the local permits with no added

value or emissions reductions and would come with considerable cost s

.

The serious nonattainment classification would also lower the General Conformity thres hold to 50 tpy, significantly affecting the military’s mission and possibly postponing or diverting planned actions in the region, again resulting from an unnecessary classification for a standard

that San Diego County ha s already attained.

In addition to the regulatory and economic burden s , the reclassification would introduce uncertainty to businesses in San Diego County. In summer of 2012, San Diego County is expected to be classified by EPA as a marginal nonattainment area for the 2008 ozone standard ( i.e., 75 ppb). The marginal reclassification will not alter the current major source threshold in the region and will not affect regulatory requirements for businesses operating in the region

. If

the EPA proceeds with reclassification of the region to seri ous nonattainment for the 1997 standard, businesses would be faced with having to plan and budget resources for a temporary reduction in major source threshold and its associated regulatory impact for an unknown period of time. This type of uncertainty cou ld dissuade businesses from locating or expanding their operations in the region and thus prevent the creation of new jobs in San Diego County.

The reclassification would also divert SDAPCD’s already overextended resources from focusing on beneficial reg ulatory efforts to unnecessary rulemaking efforts to require the federal permits, and subsequent review and approval of the permit applications. In light of the region’s110 West C Street, Suite 900 San Diego, CA 92101

attainment with the 1997 standard and the upcoming marginal classification expected f or the 2008 standard, all effort expended by SDAPCD staff towards addressing the serious nonattainment classification of San Diego County would be essentially wasted effort.

In summary, IEA believes that reclassification to serious nonattainment area for an ozone standard that our region has already attained is a move that introduces significant regulatory and economic burden to businesses in our region. This decision diverts resources to senseless regulatory efforts; resources that could otherwise be use d for business expansion, job creation, and beneficial regulatory actions. San Diego County has attained the 1997 federal ozone standard and, therefore, IEA requests that EPA withdraw its ruling to classify the region as a

serious nonattainment area. Inst ead, EPA should find that the region has attained the standard after the monitoring data are analyzed and approved.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this important matter. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the under signed at 619

- 544

- 9684 or iea@iea.sdcoxmail.com

.

Sincerely,

Vilmarie Rodriguez

IEA President

cc: Senator Barbara Boxer

- faxed Senator Diane Feinstein

- faxed Congressman Darrel Issa

- faxed Congressman Brian Bilbray

- faxed Congressman Bob Filner

- faxed Congressman Duncan Hunter

- faxed Congres swoman Susan Davis

- faxed Amy Zimpfer, Associate Director USEPA Region 9, Air Division

- emailed Supervisor Greg Cox

- emailed Supervisor Diane Jacobs

- emailed Supervisor Ron Roberts

- emailed Supervisor Bill Horn

- emailed Supervisor Pam Slater

- Price

- emailed Mary Nichols, CARB

- emailed Bob Kard , Air Pollution Control Office r

- emailed