Department of Environmental

Conservation

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER

Post Office Box 111800 

410 Willoughby Avenue, Suite 303 

Juneau, Alaska 99811-1800 

Main: 907.465.5066 

Fax: 907.465.5070 

www.dec.alaska.gov

Mr. Dennis McLerran 

U.S. EPA Region 10

Regional Administrator’s Office, RA-140 

1200 Sixth Avenue, Suite 900 

Seattle, WA 98101

Dear Mr. McLerran:

This letter provides for your approval amendments to Alaska’s State Air Quality Control Plan or 

State Implementation Plan (SIP), adopted by reference into the Alaska Administrative Code (AAC) 

at 18 AAC 50.030, with an effective date of April 17, 2015.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is submitting the enclosed SIP 

revision for the following:

• Update adoption by reference dates and adoptions.

• Set a baseline date for PM-2.5 in the Northern Alaska Intrastate Air Quality Control 

Region.

• Clarify significant impact level requirements.

• Revise and add definitions.

• Meet federal transportation conformity regulations (40 CFR 93). DEC is withdrawing 

its previous transportation conformity SIP submittal (18 AAC 50 Article 7), dated 

April 9, 2010, and is repealing its General Conformity SIP, originally approved by 

EPA September 27, 1995 (60 FR 49765).

• Meet Clean Air Act section 110(a) (2) infrastructure requirements for the 2010 1-hour 

nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) National Ambient Air Quality 

Standards (NAAQS). Please note that DEC is reformatting its Clean Air Act Section 

110 Infrastructure Certification Documentation. DEC is only seeking approval for 

Table 3 which includes the 2010 1-hour nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide 

(SO2) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Table 2 and the 

attachments have already been approved by EPA and are included for consistency 

with the new formatting structure.

• Re-designate Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley as a PM-10 maintenance area.

• Finally, DEC has public noticed and formally adopted the following documents which 

have already been reviewed and approved by EPA: a). Volume II, Section III.C: 

Fairbanks Transportation Control Program, “Sierra Research memorandum, dated 

November 20, 2012, comparing the current 2005-2015 base year emission inventory 

to the 2002-2015 base year inventory”; b). Volume II, Section III. K: Area-wide 

Pollutant Control Program for Regional Haze, “Appendix III.K.6 Best Available

May 7, 2015

The STATE

of ALASKA

Governor Bill Walker
Retrofit Technology (BART) Documentation”. These two documents do not require 

further EPA review or approval.

We will be submitting the following documents through EPA’s eSIP system. If necessary, we will 

additionally provide one paper copy and one electronic version of the following documents to 

Kristin Hall of your staff (note that the electronic version is an exact duplicate of the paper copy):

• Volume II: Analysis of Problems, Control Action:

• Section III.I: Transportation Conformity;

• Volume III: (Appendices to Volume II)

• 18 AAC 50 regulation amendments;

• Clean Air Act Section 110 Infrastructure Certification for the 2010 1-hour Nitrogen 

Dioxide (NO2) and 1-hour Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) National Ambient Air Quality 

Standards;

• AAC Title 2- Administration; Chapter 50- Alaska Public Offices

Commission: Conflict of Interest, Campaign Disclosure, Legislative Financial 

Disclosure, and Regulations of Lobbying; Article 1 — Public Official Financial 

Disclosure (2 AAC 50.010- 2 AAC 50.200); and 

• AAC Title 9 — Law; Chapter 52 — Executive Branch Code of Ethics (9 AAC 

52.010 - 9 AAC 52.990).

• Volume II, Section III.C: Fairbanks Transportation Control Program, adopted into the State 

Air Quality Control Plan as of February 22, 2013, is amended as follows. Appendix III.C.3 is 

amended by adding the following document: “Sierra Research memorandum, dated November 

20, 2012, comparing the current 2005-2015 base year emission inventory to the 2002-2015 

base year inventory”.

• Volume II, Section III. K: Area-wide Pollutant Control Program for Regional Haze, adopted 

into the State Air Quality Control Plan as of February 11, 2011, is amended by adding the 

following appendix: “Appendix III.K.6 Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) 

Documentation”.

ADEC requests EPA approval of the applicable parts of the submission found in 18 AAC 

50.010(1)(A); 18 AAC 50.015(b)(2) and (e); 18 AAC 50.020(a); 18 AAC 50.035(a), (b), (b)(1), and 

(b)(3); 18 AAC 50.040(f) and (h); 18 AAC 50.215(a)(3) and (d); 18 AAC 50, Article 7, (18 AAC 

50.700 - 750); and 18 AAC 50.990(32), (90), (121), (130), and (141) - (148).

The following supporting documents are also being provided:

1. Lt. Governor’s certified Filing Certificate for Permanent Regulations, including Signed 

Adoption Order and Memorandum of Filed Permanent Regulations, signed on March 18, 

2015, with an effective date of regulations of April 17, 2015;

2. Notice of Public Comment Period, signed March 17, 2014;

3. Affidavit of Publication for the Public Notice, signed March 20, 2014;

4. Affidavit of Agency Record of Public Comment, signed July 21, 2014;

5. Affidavit of Cancellation of Oral Hearing, signed May 5, 2014;

6. Affidavit of Notice of Proposed Adoption of Regulations and Furnishing of Additional 

Information, signed September 26, 2014;

7. Public Review Draft of 18 AAC 50 regulations which shows the changes made to the 

regulations, with bold lettering as new language and bracketed language as old language, 

dated March 17, 2014; and

Mr. Dennis McLerran 2 May 7, 2015
Mr. Dennis McLerran 3 May 7, 2015

8. A copy of the tracked regulation amendments prepared by the Department of Law for 

transmittal to the Lt. Governor for certification and filing, with Register 214, July 2015, 

handwritten.

Denise Koch is available to your staff to respond to questions or to otherwise assist. She can be 

phoned at (907) 465-5109. As always, I would be pleased to discuss any of this with you.

Sincerely, /s

Larry Hartig

Commissioner

Enclosures

cc: Kate Kelly, EPA Region 10 (w/o enclosures)

Kristin Hall, EPA Region 10 (w/enclosures)

Lucy Edmondson, EPA Region 10 (w/o enclosures)

Alice Edwards, Deputy Commissioner, DEC (w/o enclosures)

Denise Koch, Director, Division of Air Quality (w/o enclosures)

John Kuterbach, Program Manager, AP Program, DEC (w/o enclosures) 

Cynthia Heil, Program Manager, ANPMS Program, DEC (w/o enclosures)