ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 52 

[EPA-R09-OAR-2007-1073; FRL-] 

Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Imperial 

County Air Pollution Control District 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the Imperial 

County Air Pollution Control District (ICAPCD) portion of the 

California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions 

clarify permitting requirements, and update and revise 

exemptions from New Source Review (NSR) permitting requirements, 

for various air pollution sources. We are taking comments on 

this proposal and plan to follow with a final action. 

DATE: Any comments must arrive by [Insert date 30 days from the 

date of publication in the Federal Register]. 

ADDRESSES: Submit comments, identified by docket number EPAR09-OAR-2007-1073, by one of the following methods: 

1. Federal eRulemaking Portal: www.regulations.gov. Follow 

the on-line instructions. 

2. E-mail: R9airpermits@epa.gov. 
3. Mail or deliver: Gerardo Rios (Air-3), U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San 

Francisco, CA 94105-3901. 

Instructions: All comments will be included in the public docket 

without change and may be made available online at 

www.regulat.ions.gov, including any personal information 

provided, unless the comment includes Confidential Business 

Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Information that you consider CBI or 

otherwise protected should be clearly identified as such and 

should not be submitted through www.regulations.gov or e-mail. 

www.regulations.gov is an "anonymous access" system, and EPA 

will not know your identity or contact information unless you 

provide it in the body of your comment. If you send e-mail 

directly to EPA, your e-mail address will be automatically 

captured and included as part of the public comment. If EPA 

cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties and 

cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to 

consider your comment. 

Docket: The index to the docket for this action is available 

electronically at www.regulat.ioris.gov and in hard copy at EPA 

Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, California. While 

all documents in the docket are listed in the index, some 
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information may be publicly available only at the hard copy 

location (e.g., copyrighted material), and some may not be 

publicly available in either location (e.g., CBI) . To inspect 

the hard copy materials, please schedule an appointment during 

normal business hours with the contact listed in the FOR FURTHER 

INFORMATION CONTACT section. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Yannayon, EPA Region IX, 

(415) 972-3534, yannayon.laura@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, "we, " "us" 

and "our" refer to EPA. 

Table of Contents 

I. The State's Submittal 

A. What rules did the State submit? 

B. Are there other versions of these rules? 

C. What is the purpose of the submitted rules and rule 

revisions? 

11. EPA' s Evaluation and Action. 

A. How is EPA evaluating the rules? 

B. Do the rules meet the evaluation criteria? 

C. EPA recommendations to further improve the rules. 

D. Public comment and final action. 

111. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews 

I. The Statef s Submittal 
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A. What rules did the State submit? 

Table 1 lists the rules addressed by this proposal, 

including the dates they were adopted by the local air agency 

and submitted by the California Air Resources'~oard (CARB). 

Table 1 - Submitted Rules 

On September 17, 2007, EPA determined that the submittal 

for ICAPCD Rules 201 and 202 met the completeness criteria in 40 

CFR Part 51 Appendix V, which must be met before formal EPA 

review. 

B. Are there other versions of these rules? 

We approved an earlier version of Rule 201 into the SIP on 

January 3, 2007 (72 FR 9) . There are no previous versions of 

Rule 202 in the SIP, but SIP approved Rule 103, also contains 

permit exemptions. Rule 103 was approved into the SIP on May 

31, 1972 (37 FR 10842). The ICAPCD originally adopted new Rule 

202 on June 1, 1977 and alsoadopted revisions on September 7, 

1993 and September 14, 1999. Both of these revisions were 

Submitted 

08/24/07 

08/24/07 

Amended 

10/10/06 

10/10/06 

Local 

Agency 

ICAPCD 

ICAPCD 

Rule # 

201 

202 

Rule Title 

Permits Required 

Exemptions 
submitted to EPA, however EPA has not taken action on either of 

these submittals. While we can act on only the most recently 

submitted version, we have reviewed materials provided with 

previous submittals. 

C. What is the purpose of the submitted rules and rule 

revisions? 

Section 110(a) of the CAA requires states to submit 

regulations that control volatile organic compounds, nitrogen 

oxides, particulate matter and other air pollutants which harm 

human health and the environment. Permitting rules were 

developed as part of the local air district's programs to 

control these pollutants. 

The purpose of District Rule 201 (Permits Required) is to 

identify when, and what permits, a source must obtain prior to 

construction and operation. 

The purpose of District Rule 202 (Exemptions) is to 

identify processes, articles, machines, equipment, or other 

contrivances for which an Authority to Construct (ATC) or Permit 

to Operate (PTO) is not required. Rule 202 also requires 

recordkeeping to verify and maintain any exemption. 

11. EPA's Evaluation and Action 

A. How is EPA evaluating the rules? 

The relevant statutory provisions for our review of the 
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submitted rules include CAA section 110(a) and section 110(1). 

Section 110(a) requires that SIP rules be enforceable, while 

section 110(1) precludes EPA approval of SIP revisions that 

would interfere with any applicable requirement concerning 

attainment and reasonable further progress or any other 

applicable requirement of the Act. In addition, we have reviewed 

the submitted rules for compliance with EPA implementing 

regulations for NSR, including 40 CFR 51.160 through 40 CFR 

51.165. 

B. Do the rules meet the evaluation criteria? 

EPA has reviewed the submitted rules in accordance with the 

Rule Evaluation criteria described above. Consistent with the 

requirements of 40 CFR Subpart I, all major stationary sources 

are required to obtain an ATC permit prior to construction. For 

minor sources, EPA believes that emissions from the types and 

sizes of equipment and operations exempted from NSR permit 

requirements are consistent with the flexibility afforded to 

states to regulate only those sources as necessary to assure 

attainment and maintenance of the National Ambient Air Quality 

Standards (NAAQS). While several new provisions have been added 

to Rule 202 that could be seen as a relaxation of the SIP 

because more sources are specifically exempted from Rule 207 

permit requirements, in practice most of these sources have 
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never been required to obtain a NSR ATC permit due to their 

small size or state law prohibitions. Because these rules will 

not actually worsen air quality, and will in fact require many 

agricultural sources to obtain permits and be subject to control 

requirements for the first time, EPA believes that these 

revisions are a long overdue update to the SIP which will 

provide an overall strengthening of the SIP without interfering 

with the District's ability to attain and maintain the NAAQS, 

and are therefore approvable under 110(1) of the CAA. 

The TSD has more information on our evaluation. 

C. EPA recommendations to further improve the rules. 

The TSD describes additional rule revisions that we 

recommend for the next time the local agency modifies the rules. 

D. Public comment and final action. 

Because EPA believes the submitted rules fulfill all 

relevant requirements, we are proposing to fully approve them as 

described in section 110(k)(3) of the Act. We will accept 

comments from the public on this proposal for the next 30 days. 

Unless we receive convincing new information during the comment 

period, we intend to publish a final approval action that will 

incorporate these rules into the federally enforceable SIP. 
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111. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews 

Under the Clean Air Act, the Administrator is required to 

approve a SIP submission that complies with the provisions of 

the Act and applicable Federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 

40 CFR 52.02 (a) . Thus, in reviewing SIP submissions, EPA' s role 

is to approve State choices, provided that they meet the 

criteria of the Clean Air Act. Accordingly, this action merely 

approves State law as meeting Federal requirements and does not 

impose additional requirements beyond those imposed by State 

law. For that reason, this action: 

is not a "significant regulatory action" subject to review 

by the Office of Management and Budget under Executivee 

Order 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993); 

does not impose an information collection burden under the 

provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 

et seq.); 

is certified as not having a significant economic impact on 

a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory 

Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) ; 

does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or 

uniquely affect small governments, as described in the 

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-4); 
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does not have Federalism implications as specified in 

Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999); 

is not an economically significant regulatory action based 

on health or safety risks subject to Executive Order 13045 

(62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997); 

is not a significant regulatory action subject to Executive 

Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001); 

is not subject to requirements of Section 12(d) of the 

National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 

(15 U.S.C. 272 note) because application of those 

requirements would be inconsistent with the Clean Air Act; 

and 

does not interfere with Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629 

(Feb. 16, 1994)) because EPA lacks the discretionary 

authority to address environmental justice in this 

rulemaking. 

In addition, this rule does not have tribal implications as 

specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 

2000), because the SIP is not approved to apply in Indian 

country located in the State, and EPA notes that it will not 

impose substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt 

tribal law. 

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52 
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Environmental protection, Air pollution control, 

Intergovernmental relations, Ozone, Particulate matter, 

Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Volatile organic 

compounds. 

AUTHORITY: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.