Opinion ID: 2804920
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Uinta Basin Background

Text: The EPA requires every state to establish a network of regulatory monitoring stations to collect ozone air-quality data. See 40 C.F.R. pt. 58. The number of regulatory monitors required in an area depends, in part, on the area’s population. See id. app. D. tbl.D-2. Areas with populations below 50,000 and many areas with fewer than 350,000 inhabitants require no regulatory monitors. Id. Many rural areas therefore lack monitors. Uinta Basin, Utah, had no regulatory monitoring until April 2011. The pre-2011 absence of regulatory-air-quality monitors in Uinta Basin meant that, when the EPA in 2013 conducted the designation process for the 2008 NAAQS, the agency had regulatory data for Uinta Basin for only two years—2011 and 2012. The 2008 ozone NAAQS, however, reflect three-year averages of ozone levels. See 2008 Designations Rule, 77 Fed. Reg. at 30,089. Noting that “there are not yet three consecutive years of certified ozone monitoring data available [from Uinta Basin] that can be used § 7407(d)(1)(A)(i). Delaware Br. 12–13. As the EPA explained, however, its use of the phrase was simply shorthand for its contribution analysis; it did not represent a heightened standard. Cf. ATK Launch Sys., 669 F.3d at 338–39 (rejecting the argument that the EPA applied a dissimilar standard when it variously used the terms “significant contribution” and “contribution”). 23 to determine the area’s attainment status,” id., the EPA designated the area as “unclassifiable,” which the Clean Air Act defines as an area that “cannot be classified on the basis of available information as meeting or not meeting” the NAAQS, 42 U.S.C. § 7407(d)(1)(A)(iii). Although no regulatory data exist for Uinta Basin prior to 2011, private companies working under consent decrees have been required to operate ozone air-quality monitors in Uinta Basin since 2009. See Letter from Robin Cooley, Counsel, WildEarth Guardians to Lisa P. Jackson, Adm’r, EPA 3 (July 19, 2012). Under the terms of those consent decrees, the private monitors must comply with many of the same requirements as regulatory monitors. See Consent Decree ¶¶ 80–81, United States v. Kerr-McGee Corp., No. 1:07-cv-01034 (D. Colo. May 17, 2007). From 2009 to 2011, the private monitors provided raw data showing ozone levels significantly exceeding the 2008 ozone NAAQS. The EPA found the 2009 to 2011 private data insufficient to support a nonattainment designation.