Document ID: EPA-R05-OAR-2010-0656-0002
Agency: epa
Document Type: Rule
Title: Direct Final Approval of Revisions to the Cincinnati-Hamilton 1997 8-hr Ozone Maintenance Plan
Posted Date: 2010-11-29T05:00Z

[Federal Register: November 29, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 228)]
[Rules and Regulations]               
[Page 72954-72956]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29no10-9]                         

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R05-OAR-2010-0656; FRL-9232-2]

 
Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; 
Ohio; Ohio Portion of the Cincinnati-Hamilton Area; 8-Hour Ozone 
Maintenance Plan

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Direct final rule.

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SUMMARY: EPA is approving a revision to the maintenance plan for the 
Ohio portion of the Cincinnati-Hamilton, OH-KY-IN 8-hour ozone area. 
The Cincinnati-Hamilton area includes Butler, Clermont, Clinton, 
Hamilton, and Warren Counties in Ohio, Lawrenceburg Township in 
Dearborn County, Indiana, and Boone, Campbell, and Kenton Counties in 
Kentucky. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) submitted 
a maintenance plan revision on July 6, 2010. The submittal contained 
revisions to 2015 and 2020 NOX point source emissions 
projections for Butler County to reflect modifications at a major 
source that will occur during the maintenance period.

DATES: This direct final rule will be effective January 28, 2011, 
unless EPA receives adverse comments by December 29, 2010. If adverse 
comments are received, EPA will publish a timely withdrawal of the 
direct final rule in the Federal Register informing the public that the 
rule will not take effect.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R05-
OAR-2010-0656, by one of the following methods:
    1. http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for 
submitting comments.
    2. E-mail: mooney.john@epa.gov.
    3. Fax: (312) 692-2551.
    4. Mail: John M. Mooney, Chief, Attainment Planning and Maintenance 
Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J), U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604.
    5. Hand Delivery: John M. Mooney, Chief, Attainment Planning and 
Maintenance Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J), U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604. 
Such deliveries are only accepted during the Regional Office normal 
hours of operation, and special arrangements should be made for 
deliveries of boxed information. The Regional Office official hours of 
business are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding 
Federal holidays.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R05-OAR-
2010-0656. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you 
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://
www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site 
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your 
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of 
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without 
going through http://www.regulations.gov your e-mail address will be 
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is 
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you 
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name 
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any 
disk or CD-ROM you submit. 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. Electronic files should avoid 
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of 
any defects or viruses.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Environmental 
Protection Agency, Region 5, Air and Radiation Division, 77 West 
Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604. This Facility is open from 
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Federal 
holidays. We recommend that you telephone Kathleen D'Agostino, 
Environmental Engineer, at (312) 886-1767 before visiting the Region 5 
office.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen D'Agostino, Environmental 
Engineer, Attainment Planning and Maintenance Section, Air Programs 
Branch (AR-18J), Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, 77 West 
Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604, (312) 886-1767, 
dagostino.kathleen@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document whenever ``we,'' 
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA. This supplementary information 
section is arranged as follows:

I. What is the background for this action?
II. What revisions are being made to the maintenance plan?
III. What action is EPA taking?
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

[[Page 72955]]

I. What is the background for this action?

    On May 11, 2010 (75 FR 26118), EPA redesignated the Ohio and 
Indiana portions of the Cincinnati-Hamilton area to attainment for the 
1997 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). At 
that time, EPA also approved, as a revision to the Ohio and Indiana 
State Implementation Plans (SIP), the States' plans for maintaining the 
8-hour ozone NAAQS through 2020 in the area.
    The Ohio and Indiana plans demonstrated maintenance of the 8-hour 
ozone standard through 2020 by showing that current and future 
emissions of VOC and NOX for the Cincinnati-Hamilton area 
remain at or below attainment year emission levels. The Cincinnati-
Hamilton area attained the 8-hour ozone NAAQS during the 2007-2009 time 
period. For attainment emission levels, Ohio and Indiana used 2008 
inventories. Emissions inventory projections for the years 2015 and 
2020 were used to demonstrate maintenance.
    As part of their maintenance plans, the States elected to include a 
``safety margin'' for the area. A ``safety margin'' is the difference 
between the attainment level of emissions (from all sources) and the 
projected level of emissions (from all sources) in the maintenance plan 
which continues to demonstrate attainment of the standard. For the Ohio 
and Indiana portion of the Cincinnati-Hamilton area, the emissions from 
point, area, nonroad, and mobile sources in 2008 equaled 144.22 tons 
per day (tpd) and 230.28 tpd of VOC and NOX, respectively. 
In the maintenance plans, Ohio and Indiana projected VOC and 
NOX emission levels for 2020 to be 117.70 tpd and 197.75 
tpd, respectively. The SIP submissions demonstrated that the 
Cincinnati-Hamilton area will continue to maintain the standard with 
emissions at this level. The safety margin was calculated to be the 
difference between 2008 and 2020 emissions levels. The 2020 safety 
margin for VOC was 26.52 tpd (i.e., 144.22 tpd less 117.70). For 
NOX, the 2020 safety margin was 32.53 tpd. Using the same 
method of calculation, the 2015 safety margins for VOC and 
NOX were 23.40 tpd and 17.50 tpd, respectively. The safety 
margin, or a portion thereof, can be allocated to any of the source 
categories, as long as the total attainment level of emissions is 
maintained.
    At the time the maintenance plan was approved, EPA also approved 
VOC and NOX Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets (MVEBs) for 2015 
and 2020 for the Ohio and Indiana portions of the Cincinnati-Hamilton 
area. The MVEBs requested by Ohio EPA and the Indiana Department of 
Environmental Management (IDEM) contained safety margins for mobile 
sources smaller than the allowable safety margins reflected in the 
total emissions for the Ohio and Indiana portions of the Cincinnati-
Hamilton area. For VOC, mobile safety margins of 4.14 tpd and 3.76 tpd 
were included for 2015 and 2020, respectively. For NOX, 
mobile safety margins of 6.39 tpd and 4.49 tpd were included for 2015 
and 2020, respectively.

II. What revisions are being made to the maintenance plan?

    Ohio submitted revisions to 2015 and 2020 NOX point 
source emissions projections for Butler County to reflect modifications 
at a major source which will occur during the maintenance period. These 
revised projections show an increase of 1.31 tons per day (tpd) of 
NOX in both 2015 and 2020. As shown in Table 1, for the Ohio 
and Indiana portions of the Cincinnati-Hamilton area, 2015 and 2020 
emissions remain below attainment levels.

         Table 1--Comparison of 2008, 2015 and 2020 VOC and NOX Emissions for the Ohio and Indiana Portion of the Cincinnati-Hamilton Area (tpd)
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                                                               VOC                                                        NOX
                                   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                      Net change   Net change                                    Net change   Net change
                                       2008       2015       2020    (2008-2015)  (2008-2020)     2008       2015       2020    (2008-2015)  (2008-2020)
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Point.............................      10.65      12.85      13.53        2.20         2.88       88.97     135.21     138.43       46.24        49.46
Area..............................      57.73      54.33      54.33       -3.40        -3.40       10.98      11.03      11.03        0.05         0.05
Onroad............................      30.51      27.59      25.06       -2.92        -5.45       91.67      42.61      29.90      -49.06       -61.77
Nonroad...........................      45.33      26.05      24.78      -19.28       -20.55       38.66      25.24      19.70      -13.42       -18.96
    Total.........................     144.22     120.82     117.70      -23.40       -26.52      230.28     214.09     199.06      -16.19       -31.22
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    For the Ohio and Indiana portion of the Cincinnati-Hamilton area, 
the NOX emissions from point, area, nonroad, and mobile 
sources in 2008 equaled 230.28 tpd. For 2015, projected NOX 
emission levels equal 214.09 tpd. The safety margin for NOX 
is calculated to be the difference between these amounts or, in this 
case, 16.19 tpd for 2015. For 2020, the NOX safety margin is 
31.22 tpd. The portion of the NOX safety margins allocated 
to the onroad mobile source sector when the MVEBs were approved remains 
smaller than the revised allowable safety margins reflected in the 
total emissions for the Ohio and Indiana portion of the Cincinnati-
Hamilton area. Because no changes were made to the VOC inventories, the 
safety margins remain unchanged.

III. What action is EPA taking?

    EPA is approving a revision to the maintenance plan for the Ohio 
portion of the Cincinnati-Hamilton 8-hour ozone area. Changes were made 
to the 2015 and 2020 NOX point source emissions projections 
for Butler County to reflect modifications at a major source that will 
occur during the maintenance period.
    We are publishing this action without prior proposal because we 
view this as a noncontroversial amendment and anticipate no adverse 
comments. However, in the proposed rules section of this Federal 
Register publication, we are publishing a separate document that will 
serve as the proposal to approve the State plan if relevant adverse 
written comments are filed. This rule will be effective January 28, 
2011 without further notice unless we receive relevant adverse written 
comments by December 29, 2010. If we receive such comments, we will 
withdraw this action before the effective date by publishing a 
subsequent document that will withdraw the final action. All public 
comments received will then be addressed in a subsequent final rule 
based on the proposed action. The EPA will not institute a second 
comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action 
should do so at this time. Please note that if EPA

[[Page 72956]]

receives adverse comment on an amendment, paragraph, or section of this 
rule and if that provision may be severed from the remainder of the 
rule, EPA may adopt as final those provisions of the rule that are not 
the subject of an adverse comment. If we do not receive any comments, 
this action will be effective January 28, 2011.

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

    Under the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Administrator is required to 
approve a SIP submission that complies with the provisions of the CAA 
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 CAA. 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 Executive 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 (Pub. L. 104-4);
     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 CAA; and
     Does not provide EPA with the discretionary authority to 
address, as appropriate, disproportionate human health or environmental 
effects, using practicable and legally permissible methods, under 
Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994).
    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.
    The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the 
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally 
provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating 
the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule, 
to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the 
United States. EPA will submit a report containing this action and 
other required information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of 
Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States prior 
to publication of the rule in the Federal Register. A major rule cannot 
take effect until 60 days after it is published in the Federal 
Register. This action is not a ``major rule'' as defined by 5 U.S.C. 
804(2).
    Under section 307(b)(1) of the CAA, petitions for judicial review 
of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for 
the appropriate circuit by January 28, 2011. Filing a petition for 
reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect 
the finality of this action for the purposes of judicial review nor 
does it extend the time within which a petition for judicial review may 
be filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness of such rule or 
action. Parties with objections to this direct final rule are 
encouraged to file a comment in response to the parallel notice of 
proposed rulemaking for this action published in the proposed rules 
section of today's Federal Register, rather than file an immediate 
petition for judicial review of this direct final rule, so that EPA can 
withdraw this direct final rule and address the comment in the proposed 
rulemaking. This action may not be challenged later in proceedings to 
enforce its requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).)

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by 
reference, Intergovernmental relations, Ozone, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements, Volatile organic compounds.

    Dated: November 15, 2010.
Susan Hedman,
Regional Administrator, Region 5.

0
40 CFR part 52 is amended as follows:

PART 52--[AMENDED]

    1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:

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

Subpart KK--Ohio

    2. Section 52.1885 is amended by adding paragraph (ff)(11) to read 
as follows:

Sec.  52.1885  Control strategy: Ozone.

* * * * *
    (ff) * * *
    (11) Approval--On July 6, 2010, the Ohio Environmental Protection 
Agency submitted a request to revise the maintenance plan for the Ohio 
portion of the Cincinnati-Hamilton, OH-KY-IN 8-hour ozone area. The 
submittal revises 2015 and 2020 NOX point source emissions 
projections for Butler County.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 2010-29784 Filed 11-26-10; 8:45 am]
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