17060 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 58 / Friday, March 25, 2022 / Proposed Rules 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 52 

[EPA–R09–OAR–2021–0943; FRL–9372–01- 

Region 9] 

Limited Approval, Limited Disapproval 

of California Air Plan Revisions; South 

Coast Air Quality Management District; 

Refinery Flares 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is proposing a limited 

approval and limited disapproval of 

revisions to the South Coast Air Quality 

Management District (SCAQMD) portion 

of the California State Implementation 

Plan (SIP). These revisions concern 

emissions of volatile organic 

compounds (VOCs) and oxides of 

nitrogen (NOX) from refinery flares. We 

are proposing action on a local rule to 

regulate these emission sources under 

the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act). We 

are taking comments on this proposal 

and plan to follow with a final action. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before April 25, 2022. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–R09– 

OAR–2021–0943 at https://

www.regulations.gov. For comments 

submitted at 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, please 

contact the person identified in the FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section. 

For the full EPA public comment policy, 

information about CBI or multimedia 

submissions, and general guidance on 

making effective comments, please visit 

https://www.epa.gov/dockets/ 

commenting-epa-dockets. If you need 

assistance in a language other than 

English or if you are a person with 

disabilities who needs a reasonable 

accommodation at no cost to you, please 

contact the person identified in the FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Donnique Sherman, EPA Region IX, 75 

Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 

94105. By phone: (415) 947–4129 or by 

email at sherman.donnique@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Throughout this document, ‘‘we,’’ ‘‘us’’ 

and ‘‘our’’ refer to the EPA. 

Table of Contents 

I. The State’s Submittal 

A. What rule did the State submit? 

B. Are there other versions of this rule? 

C. What is the purpose of the submitted 

rule? 

II. The EPA’s Evaluation and Action 

A. How is the EPA evaluating the rule? 

B. Does the rule meet the evaluation 

criteria? 

C. What are the rule deficiencies? 

D. The EPA’s Recommendations To 

Further Improve the Rule 

E. Public Comment and Proposed Action 

III. Incorporation by Reference 

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews 

I. The State’s Submittal 

A. What rule did the State submit? 

Table 1 lists the rule addressed by this 

proposal with the date that it was 

amended by the local air agency and 

submitted by the California Air 

Resources Board (CARB). 

TABLE 1—SUBMITTED RULE

Local agency Rule No. Rule title Amended Submitted 

SCAQMD ....... 1118 Control of Emissions from Refinery Flares ..................................................... 07/07/2017 02/16/2018 

On August 16, 2018, the submittal for 

SCAQMD Rule 1118 was deemed by 

operation of law to meet the 

completeness criteria in 40 CFR part 51 

appendix V, which must be met before 

formal EPA review. 

B. Are there other versions of this rule? 

We approved an earlier version of 

Rule 1118 into the SIP on August 28, 

2007 (72 FR 49196). The SCAQMD 

adopted revisions to the SIP-approved 

version on July 7, 2017, and CARB 

submitted them to us on February 16, 

2018. If we take final action to approve 

the July 7, 2017 version of Rule 1118, 

this version will replace the previously 

approved version of this rule in the SIP. 

C. What is the purpose of the submitted 

rule? 

Emissions of NOX and VOCs 

contribute to the production of groundlevel ozone, smog and particulate matter 

(PM), which harm human health and 

the environment. Section 110(a) of the 

CAA requires states to submit 

regulations that control NOX and VOC 

emissions. Rule 1118 Control of 

Emissions from Refinery Flares is 

designed to monitor and record data on 

refinery and related flaring operations, 

and to control and minimize flaring and 

flare related emissions. The EPA’s 

technical support document (TSD) has 

more information about this rule. 

II. The EPA’s Evaluation and Action 

A. How is the EPA evaluating the rule? 

Rules in the SIP must be enforceable 

(see CAA section 110(a)(2)), must not 

interfere with applicable requirements 

concerning attainment and reasonable 

further progress or other CAA 

requirements (see CAA section 110(l)), 

and must not modify certain SIP control 

requirements in nonattainment areas 

without ensuring equivalent or greater 

emissions reductions (see CAA section 

193). 

Generally, SIP rules must require 

reasonably available control technology 

(RACT) for each category of sources 

covered by a Control Techniques 

Guidelines (CTG) document as well as 

each major source of NOX and VOCs in 

ozone nonattainment areas classified as 

Moderate or above (see CAA section 

182(b)(2)). The SCAQMD regulates an 

ozone nonattainment area classified as 

Extreme for the 2015 8-hour ozone 

NAAQS (40 CFR 81.305). Therefore, this 

rule must implement RACT. 

Guidance and policy documents that 

we used to evaluate enforceability, 

revision/relaxation, and rule stringency 

requirements for the applicable criteria 

pollutants include the following: 

1. ‘‘State Implementation Plans; 

General Preamble for the 

Implementation of Title I of the Clean 

Air Act Amendments of 1990,’’ 57 FR 

13498 (April 16, 1992); 57 FR 18070 

(April 28, 1992). 


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2. ‘‘Issues Relating to VOC Regulation 

Cutpoints, Deficiencies, and 

Deviations,’’ EPA, May 25, 1988 (the 

Bluebook, revised January 11, 1990). 

3. ‘‘Guidance Document for Correcting 

Common VOC & Other Rule 

Deficiencies,’’ EPA Region 9, August 21, 

2001 (the Little Bluebook). 

B. Does the rule meet the evaluation 

criteria? 

Rule 1118 improves the SIP by 

establishing more stringent emission 

limits and by clarifying monitoring, 

recording, and recordkeeping 

provisions. The rule is largely consistent 

with CAA requirements and relevant 

guidance regarding enforceability, 

RACT, and SIP revisions. Rule 

provisions which do not meet the 

evaluation criteria are summarized 

below and discussed further in the TSD. 

C. What are the rule deficiencies? 

The director’s discretion in Rule 1118 

Section (j) does not satisfy the 

requirements of section 110 of the Act 

and prevents full approval of the SIP 

revision. Documents submitted for 

inclusion into the SIP should not 

include unbounded director’s discretion 

that allows the State to approve 

alternatives to the applicable SIP 

without following the SIP revision 

process described in CAA section 110. 

Rule 1118 Section (j) provides the 

Executive Officer the authority to 

approve American Society for Testing 

and Materials (ASTM) methods other 

than those currently included in the 

rule. Without further specificity 

regarding how this authority will be 

exercised, it could functionally allow 

for a revision of the SIP without 

complying with the process for SIP 

revisions required by the CAA. As a 

result, this undermines the 

enforceability of the submission, 

constitutes a SIP deficiency, and 

conflicts with CAA Section 110. 

D. The EPA’s Recommendations To 

Further Improve the Rule 

There are no further 

recommendations. 

E. Public Comment and Proposed 

Action 

As authorized in section 110(k)(3) of 

the Act, the EPA is proposing a limited 

approval and limited disapproval of the 

submitted rule. The limited disapproval 

for Rule 1118 is based on the 

enforceability issue identified in section 

II.C. of this document. We will accept 

comments from the public on this 

proposal until April 25, 2022. If 

finalized, this action would incorporate 

the submitted rule into the SIP, 

including those provisions identified as 

deficient. If we finalize this disapproval, 

CAA section 110(c) would require the 

EPA to promulgate a Federal 

implementation plan within 24 months 

unless we approve subsequent SIP 

revisions that correct the deficiencies 

identified in the final approval. 

In addition, final disapproval would 

trigger the offset sanction in CAA 

section 179(b)(2) 18 months after the 

effective date of a final disapproval, and 

the highway funding sanction in CAA 

section 179(b)(1) six months after the 

offset sanction is imposed. A sanction 

will not be imposed if the EPA 

determines that a subsequent SIP 

submission corrects the deficiencies 

identified in our final action before the 

applicable deadline. The EPA intends to 

work with the SCAQMD to correct the 

deficiency in a timely manner. 

Note that the submitted rule has been 

adopted by the SCAQMD, and the EPA’s 

final limited disapproval would not 

prevent the local agency from enforcing 

it. The limited disapproval also would 

not prevent any portion of the rule from 

being incorporated by reference into the 

federally enforceable SIP as discussed in 

a July 9, 1992 EPA memo found at: 

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/ 

files/2015-07/documents/procsip.pdf. 

III. Incorporation by Reference 

In this rule, the EPA is proposing to 

include in a final EPA rule regulatory 

text that includes incorporation by 

reference. In accordance with 

requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is 

proposing to incorporate by reference 

the SCAQMD rule described in Table 1 

of this preamble. The EPA has made, 

and will continue to make, these 

materials available through https://

www.regulations.gov and at the EPA 

Region IX Office (please contact the 

person identified in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this 

preamble for more information). 

IV. Statutory and Executive Order 

Reviews 

Additional information about these 

statutes and Executive orders can be 

found at https://www.epa.gov/lawsregulations/laws-and-executive-orders. 

A. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory 

Planning and Review and Executive 

Order 13563: Improving Regulation and 

Regulatory Review 

This action is not a significant 

regulatory action and was therefore not 

submitted to the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) for review. 

B. Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) 

This action does not impose an 

information collection burden under the 

PRA because this action does not 

impose additional requirements beyond 

those imposed by state law. 

C. Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) 

I certify that this action will not have 

a significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities 

under the RFA. This action will not 

impose any requirements on small 

entities beyond those imposed by state 

law. 

D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 

(UMRA) 

This action does not contain any 

unfunded mandate as described in 

UMRA, 2 U.S.C. 1531–1538, and does 

not significantly or uniquely affect small 

governments. This action does not 

impose additional requirements beyond 

those imposed by state law. 

Accordingly, no additional costs to 

state, local, or tribal governments, or to 

the private sector, will result from this 

action. 

E. Executive Order 13132: Federalism 

This action does not have federalism 

implications. It will not have substantial 

direct effects on the states, on the 

relationship between the National 

Government and the states, or on the 

distribution of power and 

responsibilities among the various 

levels of government. 

F. Executive Order 13175: Coordination 

With Indian Tribal Governments 

This action does not have tribal 

implications, as specified in Executive 

Order 13175, because the SIP is not 

approved to apply on any Indian 

reservation land or in any other area 

where the EPA or an Indian tribe has 

demonstrated that a tribe has 

jurisdiction, and will not impose 

substantial direct costs on tribal 

governments or preempt tribal law. 

Thus, Executive Order 13175 does not 

apply to this action. 

G. Executive Order 13045: Protection of 

Children From Environmental Health 

Risks and Safety Risks 

The EPA interprets Executive Order 

13045 as applying only to those 

regulatory actions that concern 

environmental health or safety risks that 

the EPA has reason to believe may 

disproportionately affect children, per 

the definition of ‘‘covered regulatory 

action’’ in section 2–202 of the 

Executive order. This action is not 

subject to Executive Order 13045 

because it does not impose additional 


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17062 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 58 / Friday, March 25, 2022 / Proposed Rules 

requirements beyond those imposed by 

state law. 

H. Executive Order 13211: Actions That 

Significantly Affect Energy Supply, 

Distribution, or Use 

This action is not subject to Executive 

Order 13211, because it is not a 

significant regulatory action under 

Executive Order 12866. 

I. National Technology Transfer and 

Advancement Act (NTTAA) 

Section 12(d) of the NTTAA directs 

the EPA to use voluntary consensus 

standards in its regulatory activities 

unless to do so would be inconsistent 

with applicable law or otherwise 

impractical. The EPA believes that this 

action is not subject to the requirements 

of section 12(d) of the NTTAA because 

application of those requirements would 

be inconsistent with the CAA. 

J. Executive Order 12898: Federal 

Actions To Address Environmental 

Justice in Minority Populations and 

Low-Income Population 

The EPA lacks the discretionary 

authority to address environmental 

justice in this rulemaking. 

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52 

Environmental protection, Air 

pollution control, Incorporation by 

reference, Intergovernmental relations, 

Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, Particulate 

matter, Reporting and recordkeeping 

requirements, Volatile organic 

compounds. 

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

Dated: March 20, 2022. 

Martha Guzman Aceves, 

Regional Administrator, Region IX. 

[FR Doc. 2022–06344 Filed 3–24–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 


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