ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 40 CFR Part 52 [EPA-R09-OAR-2007-1073;FRL-] Revisions to the California State Implementation Plan, Imperial CountyAir 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 commentsmust arriveby [Insert date 30 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register]. ADDRESSES: Submit comments, identifiedby 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 informationwhose 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 addresswill be automatically captured and included aspart 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.govand in hard copy at EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, California. While all documents in the docket are listed in the index, some3 informationmay be publicly available only at the hard copy location (e.g.,copyrightedmaterial), and somemay 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 INFORMATIONCONTACT 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 andAction. A. How is EPA evaluating the rules? B. Do the rulesmeet the evaluation criteria? C. EPA recommendationsto further improve the rules. D. Public comment and final action. 111. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews I. The Statef s Submittal4 A. What rules did the State submit? Table 1 lists the rules addressed by thisproposal, 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 202met 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 (72FR 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 (37FR 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 Exemptionssubmitted to EPA, however EPA has not taken action on either of these submittals. While we can act on only themost 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 controlvolatile 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 forwhich anAuthority 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 andAction A. How is EPA evaluating the rules? The relevant statutoryprovisions for our review of the6 submitted rules include CAA section 110(a) and section 110(1). Section 110(a) requires that SIP rulesbe enforceable, while section 110(1)precludes EPA approval of SIP revisions that would interferewith any applicable requirement concerning attainment and reasonable further progress or any other applicable requirement of theAct. In addition,we have reviewed the submitted rules for compliancewith EPA implementing regulations for NSR, including 40 CFR 51.160 through 40 CFR 51.165. B. Do the rulesmeet 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 theNational 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, inpracticemost of these sources have7 never been required to obtain a NSR ATC permit due to their small size or state law prohibitions. Because these ruleswill not actuallyworsen air quality, and will in fact requiremany 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 hasmore 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.8 111. 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 theAct 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 asmeeting Federal requirements and does not impose additional requirementsbeyond 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 (58FR 51735, October 4, 1993); does not impose an information collection burden under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44U.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 (5U.S.C. 601 et seq.); does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded Mandates ReformAct of 1995 (PublicLaw 104-4);9 does not have Federalism implications as specified in Executive Order 13132 (64FR 43255, August 10, 1999); is not an economically significant regulatory action based

on health or safety risks subject to Executive Order 13045

(62FR 19885, April 23, 1997); is not a significant regulatory action subject to Executive Order 13211 (66FR 28355, May 22, 2001); is not subject to requirements of Section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995

(15U.S.C. 272 note) because application of those requirementswould be inconsistentwith the CleanAir Act; and does not interfere with Executive Order 12898 (59FR 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 implicationsas specified by Executive Order 13175 (65FR 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 substantialdirect costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal law. List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 5210 Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Intergovernmental relations, Ozone, Particulatematter, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Volatile organic compounds.

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