Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2012/08/22/2012-20390/approval-and-promulgation-of-air-quality-implementation-plans-connecticut-massachusetts-and-rhode
Timestamp: 2018-04-19 20:03:06
Document Index: 399087206

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 51', 'art 93', '§\u200952', '§\u200952', '§\u200952', '§\u200952']

Federal Register :: Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island; Reasonable Further Progress Plans and 2002 Base Year Emission Inventories
77 FR 50595
50595-50602 (8 pages)
EPA-RO1-OAR-2008-0117
EPA-RO1-OAR-2008-0107
EPA-RO1-OAR-2008-0445
FRL-9672-5
EPA-R01-OAR-2008-0107
Massachusetts' Technical Revisions to the Ozone SIP - New...
Massachusetts' Technical Revisions to the Ozone SIP - Section...
Massachusets Department of Environmental Protection Cover...
II. 2002 Base Year Emission Inventories
A. What is a base year inventory and why are these states required to prepare one?
C. What action is EPA taking on these inventories?
III. Reasonable Further Progress Plans, Contingency Plans, and State VOC Rules
A. What is a Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) plan and why were these states required to prepare one?
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2012-20390 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2012-20390
EPA is approving State Implementation Plan revisions submitted by the States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. These revisions establish 2002 base year emission inventories and reasonable further progress emission reduction plans for areas within these states designated as nonattainment of EPA's 1997 8-hour ozone standard. The intended effect of this action is to approve these states' 2002 Base Year Inventories and reasonable further progress (RFP) emission reduction plans, and to approve the 2008 motor vehicle transportation budgets and contingency measures associated with the RFP plans. EPA also is approving three rules adopted by Connecticut that will reduce volatile organic compound emissions in the state. This action is being taken in accordance with the Clean Air Act.
EPA has established dockets for these actions under Docket Identification Numbers EPA-RO1-OAR-2008-0117 for our action for Connecticut, EPA-RO1-OAR-2008-0107 for our action for Massachusetts, and EPA-RO1-OAR-2008-0445 for our action for Rhode Island. All documents in the dockets are listed on the www.regulations.gov Web site. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, i.e., CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is not placed on the Internet and will be publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically through www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Office of Ecosystem Protection, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA New England Regional Office, Office of Ecosystem Protection, Air Quality Planning Unit, 5 Post Office Square—Suite 100, Boston, MA. EPA requests that if at all possible, you contact the contact listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section to schedule your inspection. The Regional Office's official hours of business are Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 4:30, excluding legal holidays.
Bob McConnell, Air Quality Planning Unit, U.S. EPA Region 1—New England, 5 Post Office Square, Boston, MA 02109-3912, phone number: 617-918-1046; eMail: mcconnell.robert@epa.gov.
III. Reasonable Further Progress Plan, Contingency Plans, and State VOC Rules
A. What is a Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) plan, and why were these states required to prepare one?
On April 30, 2004, EPA designated portions of the country as being in nonattainment of the 1997 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) (69 FR 23858).[1] All parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island were designated as nonattainment for ozone, and all were classified as moderate. There were five nonattainment areas created that encompassed the entirety of these states, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1—8-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Areas in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island
Geographic area covered (counties)
CT New York-N. New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT (NY-NJ-CT area) Fairfield, Middlesex, New Haven.
CT Greater Connecticut area Hartford, Litchfield, New London, Tolland, Windham.
MA Bos-Law-Wor (E. MA) area Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, Worcester.
MA Springfield (W. MA) area Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire.
RI Providence area Statewide.
The 2002 VOC and NOX base year inventories prepared by Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are shown below in Tables 2a through 2e. EPA has concluded that these states have adequately derived and documented the 2002 base year VOC and NOX emissions for these areas, and our intention is to approve these inventories into the SIP for each state.
Table 2a—2002 Base Year Inventory for the NY-NJ-CT Area
2002 VOC emissions (tons/day)
2002 NOX emissions (tons/day)
NY-NJ-CT area:
Point 11.3 37.7
Area 84.1 7.2
On-road 48.1 102.7
Non-road 66.0 38.7
Biogenics 125.6 0.7
Total 335.3 187.0
Table 2b—2002 Base Year Inventory for the Greater Connecticut Area
Point 4.6 19.0
Area 75.5 6.4
On-road 45.1 89.3
Non-road 56.2 30.8
Biogenics 268.9 1.3
Total 450.3 146.8
Table 2c—2002 Base Year Inventory for the Bos-Law-Wor (E. MA) Area
Bos-Law-Wor (E. MA) area:
Point 13.6 116.6
Area 282.0 33.9
On-road 127.4 381.4
Non-road 196.2 122.1
Biogenics 535.7 4.4
Total 1,154.9 658.4
Table 2d—2002 Base Year Inventory for the Springfield (W. MA) Area
Springfield (W. MA) area:
Point 2.4 13.0
Area 45.5 5.2
On-road 24.5 71.7
Non-road 27.7 22.4
Biogenics 254.6 1.1
Total 354.7 113.4
Table 2e—2002 Base Year Inventory for the Providence Area
Point 10.3 7.0
Area 47.9 3.4
On-road 32.3 42.4
Non-road 26.8 19.7
Biogenics 124.2 0.7
Total 241.5 73.2
A reasonable further progress (RFP) plan illustrates how an ozone nonattainment area will make emission reductions of a set amount over a given time period. EPA's Phase 2 implementation rule for the 1997 ozone standard interpreted how Section 182(b)(1) of the CAA would apply to areas designated as moderate (or higher) nonattainment of the 1997 8-hour ozone standard. See 40 CFR part 51 subpart X. Of relevance for Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island is what the Phase 2 rule required for areas with attainment dates greater than 5 years from designation that previously accomplished a 15% reduction in VOC emissions pursuant to one-hour ozone nonattainment requirements, as all three of these states meet these criteria. For such areas, the Phase 2 rule indicates that RFP will be met if the area can demonstrate a 15% reduction in ozone precursor emissions (VOC and/or NOX) will occur between 2002 and 2008.[2] See 40 CFR 51.910(b)(2)(ii)(A)-(B). These states prepared RFP plans for each of the nonattainment areas shown in Table 1 above, and our September 20, 2010 notice of proposed rulemaking contains a summary of these plans and the results of our evaluation of them.
We are approving the RFP plans submitted by Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island for the moderate ozone nonattainment areas shown in Table 1 above, as revisions to these states' SIPs. Note that regarding the NY-NJ-CT moderate area, we are taking action today only on the Connecticut portion of the RFP plan for that area. The VOC and NOX emission target levels and modeled, controlled 2008 emissions for each nonattainment area are shown within Table 3 below.
Table 3—2008 RFP Emission Target Levels and Modeled, Controlled Emissions
VOC emissions target; modeled 2008 emissions (tons/day)
NOX emissions target; modeled 2008 emissions (tons/day)
NY-NJ-CT area 184.6; 167.6 167.9; 142.6
Greater Connecticut area 159.4; 149.3 130.0; 107.1
Bos-Law-Wor area 588.1; 525.7 562.7; 440.6
Springfield area 94.4; 84.2 92.0; 66.9
Providence area 113.7; 115.4 57.8; 55.3
Note that in Table 3 above, all of the modeled 2008 emission levels are lower than the corresponding 2008 emission target levels with the exception of the Providence area's VOC emissions which are 1.5% higher than the 2008 VOC target. In light of this, Rhode Island allocated an additional 1.5% NOX reduction (which translates to 1.1 tons) to cover this shortfall. Thus, Rhode Island has set its 2008 NOX target to 57.8 tons/day rather than 58.9 tons/day. In essence, Rhode Island has selected a 16.6% reduction in NOX emissions and a 1.5% increase in VOC emissions, resulting in a combined reduction of 15.1%. A more detailed discussion of this is contained within our September 20, 2010 proposal.
Additionally, a typographical error within our September 20, 2010 proposal occurred within step 6 of Table 3d, where the detailed RFP target level calculations for the Springfield area are shown. The error is that the information for step 5 is repeated and appears as step 5 and also as step 6, resulting in the correct information for step 6 not being shown. The correct step 6 information that should have been shown within our September 20, 2010 action for VOC emissions in tons/day is: 100.2 − 5.8 = 94.4; and for NOX emissions, also in tons/day, is: 113.1 − 21.1 = 92.0.
We are approving three VOC control measures from Connecticut. Two of these rules consist of amendments to existing rules. The two amended rules are a solvent metal cleaning rule, located at section 22a-174-20(l) of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, and the second rule is the state's asphalt paving rule, located at 22a-174-20(k) of the Connecticut regulations. We are approving the amended solvent metal cleaning rule and the amended asphalt paving rule as they were submitted to EPA, with the exception of the bracketed text as that language represents regulatory text from a prior version of the rule which Connecticut has retracted. The third rule we are approving is Connecticut's architectural and industrial maintenance (AIM) coatings rule, located at section 22a-174-41 of the Connecticut regulations. The solvent metal cleaning and AIM coatings rules have compliance dates in May of 2008, and so achieve emission reductions that help Connecticut demonstrate compliance with its RFP obligation. The amendment to the asphalt paving rule has a May 1, 2009 compliance date and was submitted to help the state demonstrate that it meets the Clean Air Act section 182(b)(2) requirement that sources in the state use reasonably available control technology (RACT) to control air pollution. We are not taking action on Connecticut's overall RACT or reasonably available control measure (RACM) submittals at this time. Additional details regarding our approval of these three Connecticut rules are available within our September 20, 2010 proposal. Our approval of these rules makes them part of Connecticut's federally enforceable SIP.
For Rhode Island, we are approving use of the emission reductions from two stationary source measures as meeting the state's contingency plan requirement. In 2009, Rhode Island adopted VOC control regulations establishing emission limits for consumer and commercial products, and for architectural and industrial maintenance coatings. A public hearing on these proposed rules was held on February 20, 2009, and they were promulgated as final state regulations May 15, 2009, with an effective date of June 4, 2009. Rhode Island submitted these regulations to EPA as SIP revisions, and we approved them in a direct final rule published in the Federal Register on March 13, 2012 (77 FR 14691).
Section 176(c) of the CAA, and EPA's transportation conformity rule at 40 CFR part 93 subpart A, require that transportation plans, programs, and projects conform to state air quality implementation plans. States are required to establish motor vehicle emission budgets in any control strategy SIP that is submitted for attainment and maintenance of the NAAQS. The RFP plans submitted by Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are control strategy SIPs, and they contain 2008 motor vehicle budgets for VOCs and NOX by nonattainment area. Table 4 contains these VOC and NOX transportation conformity budgets in units of tons per summer day:
Table 4—Conformity Budgets in the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island RFP Plans
2008 Transportation conformity budgets (tons/day)
NY-NJ-CT area (CT portion) 29.7 60.5
Greater Connecticut 28.5 54.3
Bos-Law-Wor (E. MA) area 68.30 191.30
Springfield (W. MA) area 11.80 31.30
Providence 24.64 28.26
In today's action, we are approving the 2008 conformity budgets for VOC and NOX for the areas shown in Table 4 above.
2. Section 52.370 is amended by adding paragraph (c)(100), to read as follows:
5. In § 52.385, Table 52.385 is amended by:
a. Revising the entry with “Metal Cleaning” in the “Title/subject” column, in the series of rows pertaining to Connecticut State citation 22a-174-20.
b. Adding an entry with “Restrictions on VOC Emissions from Cutback and Emulsified Asphalt” in the “Title/subject” column, to the end of the series of rows pertaining to Connecticut State citation 22a-174-20.
c. Adding a new state citation 22a-174-41 in alpha-numeric order.
§ 52.385-EPA-approved
Metal Cleaning 7/26/07 8/22/12 [Insert Federal Register page number where the document begins] (c)(100) Changes to solvent metal cleaning rule.
Restrictions on VOC Emissions from Cutback and Emulsified Asphalt 12/29/08 8/22/12 [Insert Federal Register page number where the document begins] (c)(100) Changes to cutback and emulsified asphalt paving rule.
22a-174-41 Architectural and Industrial Maintenance Products 7/26/07 8/22/12 [Insert Federal Register page number where the document begins] (c)(100) New rule limiting VOC emissions from architectural and industrial maintenance coatings.
6. Section 52.1125 is amended by adding paragraph (d) to read as follows:
§ 52.1125
8. Section 52.2086 is amended by adding paragraph (e) to read as follows:
§ 52.2086
1. The 1997 8-hour ozone standard itself is codified at 40 CFR 50.10.
2. If the area wishes to use NOX reductions to meet part or all of this 15% requirement, the calculation is not done by measuring the overall percent of combined VOC and NOX reductions, but rather by separately calculating the percent of VOC reductions and the percent of NOX reductions, and adding those percentages together.
[FR Doc. 2012-20390 Filed 8-21-12; 8:45 am]