Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 40 / Tuesday, March 1, 2016 / Proposed Rules 10563 

1Sierra Club v. McCarthy, No. 3–13–cv–3953 (SI) 

(N.D. Cal. Mar. 2, 2015). 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 81 

[EPA–HQ–OAR–2014–0464; FRL–9943–02– 

OAR] 

EPA Responses to Certain State 

Designation Recommendations for the 

2010 Sulfur Dioxide National Ambient 

Air Quality Standard: Notice of 

Availability and Public Comment 

Period 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of availability and public 

comment period. 

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that 

the Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA) has posted on its Internet Web 

site responses to certain state 

designation recommendations for the 

2010 Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) National 

Ambient Air Quality Standard 

(NAAQS). The EPA invites the public to 

review and provide input on its 

responses during the comment period 

specified in the DATES section. The EPA 

sent its responses directly to the states 

on or about February 16, 2016. The EPA 

intends to make final the designation 

determinations for the areas of the 

country addressed by these responses 

no later than July 2, 2016. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before March 31, 2016. Please refer to 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for 

additional information on the comment 

period. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

OAR–2014–0464, at http://

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions for submitting comments. 

Once submitted, comments cannot be 

edited or removed from Regulations.gov. 

The EPA may publish any comment 

received to its public docket. Do not 

submit electronically any information 

you consider to be Confidential 

Business Information (CBI) or other 

information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Multimedia 

submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be 

accompanied by a written comment. 

The written comment is considered the 

official comment and should include 

discussion of all points you wish to 

make. The EPA will generally not 

consider comments or comment 

contents located outside of the primary 

submission (i.e., on the Web, Cloud, or 

other file sharing system). For 

additional submission methods, the full 

EPA public comment policy, 

information about CBI or multimedia 

submissions, and general guidance on 

making effective comments, please visit 

http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/

commenting-epa-dockets. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

general questions concerning this 

action, please contact Rhea Jones, U.S. 

EPA, Office of Air Quality Planning and 

Standards, Air Quality Planning 

Division, C539–04, Research Triangle 

Park, NC 27711, telephone (919) 541– 

2940, email at jones.rhea@epa.gov. For 

questions regarding areas in EPA Region 

1, please contact Leiran Biton, U.S. EPA, 

telephone (617) 918–1267, email at 

biton.leiran@epa.gov. For questions 

regarding areas in EPA Region 2, please 

contact Henry Feingersh, U.S. EPA, 

telephone (212) 637–3382, email at 

feingersh.henry@epa.gov. For questions 

regarding areas in EPA Region 3, please 

contact Irene Shandruk, U.S. EPA, 

telephone (215) 814–2166, email at 

shandruk.irene@epa.gov. For questions 

regarding areas in EPA Region 4, please 

contact Twunjala Bradley, U.S. EPA, 

telephone (404) 562–9352, email at 

bradley.twunjala@epa.gov. For 

questions regarding areas in EPA Region 

5, please contact John Summerhays, 

U.S. EPA, telephone (312) 886–6067, 

email at summerhays.john@epa.gov. For 

questions regarding areas in EPA Region 

6, please contact Dayana Medina, U.S. 

EPA, telephone (214) 665–7241, email at 

medina.dayana@epa.gov. For questions 

regarding areas in EPA Region 7, please 

contact David Peter, U.S. EPA, 

telephone (913) 551–7397, email at 

peter.david@epa.gov. For questions 

regarding areas in EPA Region 8, please 

contact Adam Clark, U.S. EPA, 

telephone (303) 312–7104, email at 

clark.adam@epa.gov. For questions 

regarding areas in EPA Region 9, please 

contact Gwen Yoshimura, U.S. EPA, 

telephone (415) 947–4134, email at 

yoshimura.gwen@epa.gov. For questions 

regarding areas in EPA Region 10, 

please contact John Chi, U.S. EPA, 

telephone (206) 553–1185, email at 

chi.john@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background and Purpose 

On June 2, 2010, the EPA 

Administrator signed a notice of final 

rulemaking that revised the primary SO2

NAAQS (75 FR 35520; June 22, 2010) 

after review of the existing two primary 

SO2 standards promulgated on April 30, 

1971 (36 FR 8187). The EPA established 

the revised primary SO2 NAAQS at 75 

parts per billion (ppb) which is attained 

when the 3-year average of the annual 

99th percentile of 1-hour daily 

maximum concentrations does not 

exceed 75 ppb. 

The process for designating areas 

following promulgation of a new or 

revised NAAQS is contained in the 

Clean Air Act (CAA) section 107(d) (42 

U.S.C. 7407). After promulgation of a 

new or revised NAAQS, each governor 

or tribal leader has an opportunity to 

recommend air quality designations, 

including the appropriate boundaries 

for nonattainment areas, to the EPA. The 

EPA considers these recommendations 

as part of its duty to promulgate the 

formal area designations and boundaries 

for the new or revised NAAQS. By no 

later than 120 days prior to 

promulgating designations, the EPA is 

required to notify states and tribes, as 

appropriate, of any intended 

modifications to an area designation or 

boundary recommendation that the EPA 

deems necessary. 

The EPA completed an initial round 

of SO2 designations for certain areas of 

the country on July 25, 2013, 

designating 29 areas in 16 states as 

nonattainment. Pursuant to a March 2, 

2015, court-ordered schedule,1 the EPA 

must complete SO2 designations for the 

remaining areas of the country by three 

specific deadlines: July 2, 2016, 

December 31, 2017, and December 31, 

2020. This current second round of 

designation addresses two groups of 

areas: (1) Areas that have newly 

monitored violations of the 2010 SO2

NAAQS, and (2) areas that contain any 

stationary sources that had not been 

announced as of March 2, 2015, for 

retirement and that according to the 

EPA’s Air Markets Database emitted in 

2012 either (i) more than 16,000 tons of 

SO2, or (ii) more than 2,600 tons of SO2

with an annual average emission rate of 

at least 0.45 pounds of SO2/mmBTU. 

The EPA has determined that the areas 

meeting these criteria are associated 

with 68 stationary sources and the 

island of Hawaii. 

On or about February 16, 2016, the 

EPA notified affected states of its 

intended designation of certain specific 

areas as either nonattainment, 

unclassifiable/attainment, or 

unclassifiable for the 2010 SO2 NAAQS. 

Those states now have an opportunity to 

demonstrate why they believe an 

intended modification by the EPA 

regarding those specified areas may be 

inappropriate. In 2015, the EPA 

encouraged these states to provide 

additional information for the EPA to 

consider in finalizing designations for 

these specified areas. 

The purpose of this notice of 

availability is to solicit input from 

interested parties other than states on 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS
10564 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 40 / Tuesday, March 1, 2016 / Proposed Rules 

the EPA’s recent responses to the state 

designation recommendations for the 

2010 SO2 NAAQS. These responses, and 

their supporting technical analyses, can 

be found on the EPA’s Internet Web site 

at http://www.epa.gov/so2designations 

and also in the public docket for SO2

designations at Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

OAR–2014–0464. The CAA section 

107(d) provides a process for air quality 

designations that involves 

recommendations by states and tribes to 

the EPA and responses from the EPA to 

those parties, prior to the EPA 

promulgating final area designations 

and boundaries. The EPA is not 

required under the CAA section 107(d) 

to seek public comment during the 

designation process, but is electing to do 

so for these areas under the 2010 SO2

NAAQS in order to gather additional 

information for the EPA to consider 

before making final designations for the 

specific areas addressed in the EPA’s 

recent responses to states. The EPA 

invites public input on its responses to 

states regarding these areas during the 

30-day comment period provided in this 

notice of availability. In order to receive 

full consideration, input from the public 

must be submitted by March 31, 2016. 

At this time, the EPA is not asking for 

public comments on other areas for 

which states and tribes have submitted 

designation recommendations, beyond 

those to which the EPA has provided 

the responses that are the subject of this 

proposed action. This notice of 

availability and opportunity for public 

comment does not affect any rights or 

obligations of any state, tribe or the EPA 

which might otherwise exist pursuant to 

the CAA section 107(d). 

Please refer to the ADDRESSES section 

above in this document for specific 

instructions on submitting comments 

and locating relevant public documents. 

In establishing nonattainment area 

boundaries for a particular area, the EPA 

is required to identify both the area that 

does not meet the standard and any 

nearby area contributing to the area that 

does not meet the standard. We are 

particularly interested in receiving 

comments, supported by relevant 

information, if you believe that a 

specific geographic area that the EPA is 

proposing to identify as a nonattainment 

area should not be categorized by the 

CAA section 107(d) criteria as 

nonattainment, or if you believe that a 

specific nearby area not proposed by the 

EPA to be identified as contributing to 

a nonattainment area should in fact be 

categorized as contributing to 

nonattainment using the CAA section 

107(d) criteria. Please be as specific as 

possible in supporting your views. 

• Describe any assumptions and 

provide any technical information and/ 

or data that you used. 

• Provide specific examples to 

illustrate your concerns, and suggest 

alternatives. 

• Explain your views as clearly as 

possible. 

• Provide your input by the comment 

period deadline identified. 

The EPA intends to complete 

designations for the areas subject to this 

round no later than July 2, 2016. The 

EPA is not yet prepared to respond to 

state and tribal area designation 

recommendations, or seek public input 

thereon, for other areas that are not yet 

designated for the 2010 SO2 NAAQS. 

The EPA will address those areas in the 

last two rounds of designations 

scheduled for 2017 and 2020. 

Additional information on the EPA’s 

intended approach for addressing 

designations for all areas can be found 

on the EPA’s SO2 implementation Web 

site at http://www3.epa.gov/airquality/

sulfurdioxide/implement.html. Please 

be advised that, in this action, the EPA 

is not proposing as a regulatory action 

and is not soliciting public comments 

on the intended approach for these 

other areas, regarding either 

designations or implementation. 

II. Instructions for Submitting Public 

Comments and Internet Web Site for 

Rulemaking Information 

A. What should I consider as I prepare 

my comments for the EPA? 

1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this 

information to the EPA through 

www.regulations.gov or email. Clearly 

mark the part or all of the information 

that you claim to be CBI. For CBI in a 

disk or CD ROM that you mail to the 

EPA, mark the outside of the disk or CD 

ROM as CBI and then identify 

electronically within the disk or CD 

ROM the specific information that is 

claimed as CBI. In addition to one 

complete version of the comment that 

includes information claimed as CBI, a 

copy of the comment that does not 

contain the information claimed as CBI 

must be submitted for inclusion in the 

public docket. Information so marked 

will not be disclosed except in 

accordance with procedures set forth in 

40 CFR part 2. Send or deliver 

information identified as CBI only to the 

following address: Tiffany Purifoy, 

OAQPS CBI Officer, U.S. EPA, Office of 

Air Quality Planning and Standards, 

Mail Code C404–02, Research Triangle 

Park, NC 27711, telephone (919) 541– 

0878, email at purifoy.tiffany@epa.gov, 

Attention Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

OAR–2014–0464. 

2. Tips for Preparing Your Comments. 

When submitting comments, remember 

to: 

• Identify the rulemaking by docket 

number and other identifying 

information (subject heading, Federal 

Register date and page number). 

• Follow directions. 

• Explain why you agree or disagree; 

suggest alternatives and substitute 

language for your requested changes. 

B. Where can I find additional 

information for this rulemaking? 

The EPA has also established a Web 

site for this rulemaking at http://

www3.epa.gov/so2designations. The 

Web site includes the EPA’s state and 

tribal designation recommendations, 

information supporting the EPA’s 

preliminary designation decisions, as 

well as the rulemaking actions and other 

related information that the public may 

find useful. 

Dated: February 16, 2016. 

Mary E. Henigin, 

Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning 

and Standards. 

[FR Doc. 2016–04468 Filed 2–29–16; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 


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