UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

REGION Ill 

1650 Arch Street 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103-2029 

The Honorable Ben Grumbles, Secretary 

Maryland Department of the Environment 

1800 Washington Boulevard 

Baltimore, Maryland 21230 

Dear Secretary Grumbles: 

NOV 1 .e. 2015 

Thank you for your letter dated October 20, 2015, in which you requested withdrawal of 

certain portions of the June 4, 2007 Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) State 

Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submittal, (SIP# 07-04), Baltimore Nonattainment Area 

8-Hour Ozone State Implementation Plan and Base Year Inventory the "Moderate Area Plan," 

for the Baltimore nonattainment area for the 1997 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality 

Standard (NAAQS), the "Baltimore Area." On June 4, 2010 (75 FR 31709), EPA approved the 

2002 base year inventory, reasonable further progress (RFP) plan up to 2008, RFP contingency 

measures, reasonable available control measure (RACM) demonstration, and 2008 transportation 

conformity motor vehicle emissions budgets (MVEBs) associated with the June 4, 2007 

Moderate Area Plan for the Baltimore Area. Your October 20, 20 15 withdrew the remainder of 

the June 4, 2007 submittal, pertaining to the attainment demonstration, including modeling and 

weight of evidence, the 2009 attainment year inventory, contingency measures for attainment, 

and 2009 transportation conformity MVEBs. 

On May 26,2015 (80 FR 29970), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

determined that the Baltimore Area attained the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS, based on monitored 

ambient air quality data for the 2012-2014 monitoring period. Under the provisions of EPA's 

ozone implementation rule (40 CFR 51.918), EPA's determination that an area is attaining the 

1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS suspends the area's obligations to submit certain planning 

requirements related to attainment of that standard, including an attainment demonstration and 

contingency measures, for as long as the area continues to attain the standard. Therefore, the 

statutory requirement for the portion of the June 4, 2007 Moderate Area Plan which MDE 

withdrew has been suspended. 

On May 8, 2009 (74 FR 21593), EPA published a proposed rule to disapprove the ozone 

attainment demonstration portion of Maryland's June 4, 2007 Moderate Area Plan. With the 

withdrawal of the remaining portions of the June 4, 2007 Moderate Area Plan, there is no longer 

any portion ofthe SIP revision pending before EPA for rulemaking action. On November 10, 

2015, EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin signed a rulemaking notice withdrawing 

EPA's proposed disapproval. That notice will be published in the Federal Register shortly. EPA 

is closing the docket for this action (Docket ID Number EPA-R03-0AR-2008-0931). EPA will 

maintain this now closed docket in its records, and is not returning a copy of the withdrawn SIP 

revision to MDE. 

Printed on I 00% recycled/recyclable paper with I 00% post-consumer fiber and process chlorine free. 

Customer Service Hotline: 1-800-438-2474 
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or have your staff contact 

Ms. Cristina Fernandez, Associate Director of EPA Region III's Office of Air Program Planning, 

at 215-814-2178. 

Sincerely, 

~~ cting Director 

Air Protection Di 

cc: George (Tad) S. Aburn, Director, Air and Radiation Management Administration