## Certification of State Implementation Plan Adequacy Regarding Clean Air Act Section 110(a)(1) and (2)

December 2007

Prepared by 

## The New

Hampshire Department of Environmental Services

~~ " ~NEW

HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF 

# 4PEnvironmental

Services

### Certification of New Hampshire's State Implementation Plan Adequacy Regarding Clean Air Act Sections 110(a)(1) and (2) The purpose ofthis document is to provide the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with certification that New Hampshire's State Implementation Plan (SIP) for air quality adequately meets the "infrastructure" requirements of sections 110(a)(1) and (2) ofthe Clean Air Act (CAA) . This certification was requested in an October 2, 2007 EPA memofromWilliam Harnett, Director of EPA's Air Quality Policy Division. As discussed in the Harnett memo, on July 18, 1997, the EPApromulgated new and revised National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone and particulate matter (PM) . For ozone, EPA revised the NAAQS to provide an 8-hour averaging period (versus a 1- hour averaging period for the pre-existing NAAQS), and set the level ofthe standard at 0.08 ppm (versus 0.12 ppmfor the pre-existing NAAQS) . For PM, EPA promulgated a new24-hour and a new annual NAAQSfor PM2.5 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to a nominal 2.5 micrometers) . Under sections 110(a)(1) and (2) ofthe CAA, all States are required to submit plans SIPs to provide for the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement ofthe 8-hour ozone and PM2.5 standards. Sections 110(a)(1) and (2) require States to address basic SIP requirements, including emissions inventories, monitoring, and modeling to assure attainment and maintenance ofthe standards. By statute, SIPs meeting the requirements ofsections 110(a)(1) and (2) are to be submitted by States within 3 years after promulgation ofa new or revised standard. This being the case, States were required to submit such SIPs for the 1997 standards to EPAno later than July 2000

. However, intervening litigation over the 1997 8-hour ozone and PM2.5 NAAQS created uncertainty about how to proceed and, to date, states have not submitted SIPs to meet the basic or infrastructure requirements enumerated in sections 110(a)(1) and (2) . In March of 2004, Earth Justice initiated a lawsuit against EPAfor failure to take action against States that had not made SIP submissions to meet the requirements of sections 110(a)(1) and (2), i .e., failure to make a "finding offailure to submit ." On March 10, 2005, EPAentered into a Consent Decree with Earth Justice that obligated EPA to determine whether States have made SIP submissions required to meet CAA section 110(a)(2)(D)(i) relating to interstate 

### transportby no later than March 15, 2005. TheConsent Decree also obligated EPAto make a determination whether States have made submissions necessary to meet the remaining requirements of sections 110(a)(1) and (2) by December 15, 2007, for the 8-hour ozone NAAQS, and by October 5, 2008, for the PM2,5 NAAQS. To theextentthat existing SIPs for ozoneand particulate matter already meet these requirements, States need only certify that fact to the EPA . The New

Hampshire Department of Environmental Services is submittingthis document to certify that its SIP already meets most ofthese requirements. The State of New Hampshire Implementation Plan, officially submitted to EPAon January 27, 1972 and numerous subsequent revisions, explicitly fulfilled most ofthese requirements. Other section 110(a)(2) requirements are fulfilled in sections fromthe New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated (RSA) pertaining to the duties and powers ofthe Commissioner ofthe Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) as well as the New Hampshire Rules Governing the Control ofAir Pollution, NH Admin. Rules Env-A 100etseq., which have been incorporated into the New Hampshire SIP in 40 CFRPart 52 Subpart EE.Adraft ofthe Revision to the New Hampshire State Implementation Plan, addressing the Interstate Air Pollution Transport Requirements of CAAsection 110(a)(2)(D)(i), was submitted to EPA on November 1, 2007. The remainder ofthis document outlines how the New

Hampshire programfulfills the requirements of CAA section I 10(a)(1) and (2) .