***Public Notice***

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Extension of Public Comment Period

Draft General Permit under the Clean Air Act Federal Indian Country Minor New Source Review 

Program – Gasoline Dispensing Facilities

Extension of Comment Period: On September 30, 2016, the United States Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA) provided notice of, and requested public comment on, the EPA’s draft general permit for gasoline 

dispensing facilities for use in Indian country within California pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA) Federal Indian 

Country Minor New Source Review (NSR) program for new and modified minor sources at 40 CFR 49.151

through 49.161. 

The EPA is extending the deadline for submitting comments on this action until January 31, 2017. Any person 

may submit written comments on the draft permit during the public comment period. These comments must 

raise any reasonably ascertainable issue with supporting arguments by the close of the public comment period. 

All written comments on the draft general permit must be received or postmarked by January 31, 2017.

Comments must be sent or delivered in writing to Lisa Beckham at one of the following addresses:

E-mail: R9airpermits@epa.gov

Online Docket: www.regulations.gov, Docket ID: EPA-R09-OAR-2016-0580 

U.S. Mail: Lisa Beckham (AIR-3)

U.S. EPA Region 9

75 Hawthorne Street

San Francisco, CA 94105-3901

Please see our previous notice for additional information about this action, which is available through the 

online docket here: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-R09-OAR-2016-0580-0005. 

As detailed in our previous notice, the EPA has scheduled a public hearing for this action on November 30, 2016 

from 2:00 to 3:30pm at U.S. EPA Region 9, 1st Floor Conference Center, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, 

California. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact Stacy Johnson, EPA Region 9 Reasonable 

Accommodations Coordinator, by November 21, 2016 at (415) 947-4500, or johnson.stacyd@epa.gov. Please 

note that our previous notice for this action announced a deadline of November 16, 2016 for requesting an 

additional public hearing; this deadline has passed and is not being extended. 

The draft general permit and other supporting information about this action are available through this webpage:

https://www.epa.gov/caa-permitting/california-tribal-gasoline-permits. If you have questions, or if you wish to 

obtain further information, please contact Lisa Beckham at (415) 972-3811, toll-free at (866) 372-9378, via email 

at R9airpermits@epa.gov, or at the mailing address above. If you would like to be added to our mailing list to 

receive future information about this draft permit decision or other permit decisions issued by the EPA Region 9, 

please contact Lisa Beckham, or visit the EPA Region 9's website at http://www2.epa.gov/caa-permitting/tribalnsr-permits-region-9.

Summary of Proposed Action: The draft general permit is for a single source category, gasoline dispensing 

facilities (GDFs), and would be available in certain areas of Indian country that are within the geographical 

boundaries of California. This includes areas located in an Indian reservation or in another area of Indian country 

(as defined in 18 U.S.C. 1151) over which an Indian tribe, or the EPA, has demonstrated that the tribe has 

jurisdiction and where there is no EPA-approved minor NSR program in place. The EPA is proposing this general 
***Public Notice***

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permit as an option for CAA minor NSR preconstruction permitting to help streamline the EPA’s permitting of 

certain minor sources that construct or modify in Indian country and belong to the GDF source category. 

The primary pollutant of concern for GDFs that may use this general permit is volatile organic compounds (VOC), 

which are emitted from storage tanks and gasoline dispensing units at GDFs. Some GDFs may also have 

emergency engines, but only those sources with emergency engines that are exempt from minor NSR permitting 

requirements may use this general permit. Emissions of all other regulated NSR pollutants from new or 

modified GDF sources that may use the general permit are expected to be below the minor NSR permitting 

thresholds in 40 CFR 49.153. 

This draft general permit regulates VOC emissions from GDFs, and includes emission limitations that require 

each GDF to control emissions from storage tanks during unloading of the gasoline cargo from the tanker truck, 

using what are known as Stage I controls. In addition, the draft general permit requires GDFs in ozone 

nonattainment areas to limit VOC emissions resulting from vehicle refueling by recovering vapors displaced from 

the vehicle fuel tank, using pump-based controls known as Stage II controls. There are also limits on the amount 

of gasoline each GDF can dispense in a 12-month period: 25,000,000 million gallons in ozone attainment areas, 

and marginal and moderate ozone nonattainment areas; and 15,000,000 gallons in serious, severe, and extreme 

ozone nonattainment areas. The emission limitations in the draft general permit are expected to limit emissions 

of VOC from a new or modified GDF to less than 30 tons per year (tpy) in attainment areas and marginal and

moderate ozone nonattainment areas and 8 tpy in serious, severe, and extreme ozone nonattainment areas. 

The detailed emission limitations are included in the draft permit and discussed in detail in our Technical 

Support Document for this draft permit, and are available for review here: https://www.epa.gov/caapermitting/california-tribal-gasoline-permits.

***Please bring the foregoing notice to the attention of all persons who would be interested in this matter. ***