MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT: Emission Statement Requirement Under 8-hour Ozone NAAQS Implementation

FROM: Thomas C. Curran, Director

Air Quality Assessment Division (C304-02) 

TO: Regional Air Division Directors

SUMMARY

This memorandum clarifies that the Emission Statement requirement under the Clean Air Act 

(“Act”) section 182(a)(3)(B), is applicable to all areas designated nonattainment for the 8-hour 

ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) and classified marginal or higher under 

subpart 2, part D, title I of the Act.

BACKGROUND

Section 182(a)(3)(B) requires a State to revise its State implementation plan (SIP) for ozone 

nonattainment areas that are classified marginal or higher to:

. . . require that the owner or operator of each stationary source of oxides of nitrogen or 

volatile organic compounds provide the State with a statement, in such form as the 

Administrator may prescribe (or accept an equivalent alternative developed by the State), 

for classes or categories of sources, showing the actual emissions of oxides of nitrogen 

and volatile organic compounds from that source. The first such statement shall be 

submitted within 3 years after the date of the enactment of the Clean Air Act 

Amendments of 1990. Subsequent statements shall be submitted at least every year

thereafter. The statement shall contain a certification that the information contained in the 

statement is accurate to the best knowledge of the individual certifying the statement . . .

On April 30, 2004, EPA published in the Federal Register the Phase 1 rule to implement the 8-

hour ozone NAAQS (69 FR 23951). The Phase 1 implementation rule set forth provisions to 

have some 8-hour ozone nonattainment areas covered under subpart 1 of part D of title I of the 

Act, and the remainder to be covered under subpart 2 of the same part and title of the Act, and 

classified accordingly. On the same date, EPA set forth nonattainment and attainment 

designations for the 8-hour ozone NAAQS (69 FR 23858), and classified the areas covered under 

subpart 2 as marginal and above. The Phase 1 rule also provided for revoking the 1-hour ozone 

NAAQS and anti-backsliding provisions related to the transition from the 1-hour to the 8-hour 

ozone standard.

On November 29, 2005, EPA published the Phase 2 rule to implement the 8-hour ozone NAAQS 

(70 FR 71612), which covered the remaining issues related to implementation, such as the 

requirement for nonattainment SIPs to contain an emission inventory, attainment demonstration, 

and provisions for reasonably available control technology (RACT) and reasonable further
progress (RFP). Neither the Phase 1 nor Phase 2 implementation rules addressed how the section

182(a)(3)(B) requirement for emission statements would apply in areas classified under subpart

2. In this memorandum, we are clarifying that we plan to interpret this requirement for the 8-

hour standard in the same manner in which we interpreted it for the 1-hour standard. We note 

that under section 182(a)(3)(B)(ii), the State may waive the emissions statement requirement for 

any class or category of stationary sources which emit less than 25 tons per year of volatile 

organic compounds or oxides of nitrogen if the State provides an inventory of emissions from 

such class or category of sources, based on the use of the emission factors established by EPA or 

other methods acceptable to EPA.

Regional Offices should advise their respective States of this requirement and remind them to 

submit their SIP revisions to address the emissions statement requirements of the Act.

Consistent with EPA’s interpretation of the submission period for other subpart 2 obligations, the

2-year submission period for the emission statement rule for the 8-hour ozone standard will run 

from the date an area was designated nonattainment and classified under subpart 2 for the 8-hour 

standard. Thus, States should submit their emission statement rule by June 15, 2006, and the rule 

should provide that sources submit their first emission statements to the State by no later than 

June 15, 2007 (for the 2006 calendar year). If an area has a previously approved emission 

statement rule for the 1-hour standard that covers all portions of the designated 8-hour 

nonattainment area, such rule should be sufficient for purposes of the emissions statement 

requirement for the 8-hour standard.