[January 25, 2012] Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Commonwealth of Virginia; Regional Haze State Implementation Plan Tweet Jan 25, 2012 (Environmental Protection Agency Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) -- SUMMARY: EPA is proposing a limited approval and a limited disapproval of six revisions to the Virginia State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the Commonwealth of Virginia, through the Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ), that address regional haze for the first implementation period. These revisions address the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and EPA's rules that require states to prevent any future and remedy any existing anthropogenic impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas (national parks and wilderness areas) caused by emissions of air pollutants from numerous sources located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the "regional haze program"). States are required to assure reasonable progress toward the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas. EPA is proposing a limited approval of these SIP revisions to implement the regional haze requirements for Virginia on the basis that the revisions, as a whole, strengthen the Virginia SIP. Also in this action, EPA is proposing a limited disapproval of these same SIP revisions because of the deficiencies in the Commonwealth's regional haze SIP submittal arising from the remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC Circuit) to EPA of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). EPA is also proposing to approve this revision as meeting the infrastructure requirements relating to visibility protection for the 1997 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and the 1997 and 2006 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) NAAQS. DATES: Comments must be received on or before February 24, 2012. ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID Number EPA-R03-OAR-2011-0091 and EPA-R03-OAR-2011-0584 by one of the following methods: A. www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments. B. Email: [email protected]. C. Mail: EPA-R03-OAR-2011-0091 and EPA-R03-OAR-2011-0584, Cristina Fernandez, Associate Director, Office of Air Program Planning, Mailcode 3AP30, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. D. Hand Delivery: At the previously-listed EPA Region III address. Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed information. Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R03-OAR-2011-0091 and EPA-R03-OAR-2011-0584. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the public docket without change, and may be made available online at 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 www.regulations.gov or email. The 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 email comment directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov, your email 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 electronic docket are listed in the www.regulations.gov index. 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 in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy during normal business hours at the Air Protection Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Copies of the State submittal are available at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, 629 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Melissa Linden, (215) 814-2096, or by email at [email protected]. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever "we," "us," or "our" is used, we mean EPA. The Commonwealth of Virginia submitted revisions to its SIP for Regional Haze on July 17, 2008, March 6, 2009, January 14, 2010, October 4, 2010, November 19, 2010, and May 6, 2011. Table of Contents I. What action is EPA proposing to take? II. What is the background for EPA's proposed action? A. The Regional Haze Problem B. Requirements of the CAA and EPA's Regional Haze Rule (RHR) C. Roles of Agencies in Addressing Regional Haze D. Interstate Transport for Visibility III. What are the requirements for the regional haze SIPs? A. The CAA and the RHR B. Determination of Baseline, Natural, and Current Visibility Conditions C. Determination of Reasonable Progress Goals (RPGs) D. Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) E. Long-Term Strategy (LTS) F. Coordinating Regional Haze and Reasonably Attributable Visibility Impairment (RAVI) LTS G. Monitoring Strategy and Other Implementation Plan Requirements H. Consultation With States and Federal Land Managers (FLMs) IV. What is the relationship of the CAIR and the transport rule to the regional haze requirements? A. Overview of EPA's CAIR B. Remand of the CAIR and Promulgation of the Transport Rule C. Regional Haze SIP Elements Potentially Affected by the CAIR Remand and Promulgation of the Transport Rule D. Rationale and Scope of Proposed Limited Approval and Limited Disapproval V. What is EPA's analysis of Virginia's regional haze submittal? A. Affected Class I Areas B. Determination of Baseline, Natural, and Current Visibility Conditions 1. Estimating Natural Visibility Conditions 2. Estimating Baseline Conditions 3. Summary of Baseline and Natural Conditions 4. Uniform Rate of Progress C. Long-Term Strategy/Strategies 1. Emissions Inventory for 2018 With Federal and State Control Requirements 2. Modeling To Support the LTS and Determine Visibility Improvement for Uniform Rate of Progress 3. Relative Contributions to Visibility Impairment: Pollutants, Source Categories, and Geographic Areas 4. Procedure for Identifying Sources To Evaluate for Reasonable Progress Controls in Virginia and Surrounding Areas 5. Application of the Four CAA Factors in the Reasonable Progress Analysis 6. BART 7. RPGs D. Coordination of RAVI and Regional Haze Requirements E. Monitoring Strategy and Other Implementation Plan Requirements F. Consultation With States and FLMs 1. Consultation With Other States 2. Consultation With the FLMs G. Periodic SIP Revisions and Five-Year Progress Reports VI. General Information Pertaining to SIP Submittals From the Commonwealth of Virginia VII. What action is EPA taking? VIII. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews I. What action is EPA proposing to take? EPA is proposing a limited approval of Virginia's July 17, 2008, March 6, 2009, January 14, 2010, October 4, 2010, November 19, 2010, and May 6, 2011 SIP revisions addressing regional haze under CAA sections 301(a) and 110(k)(3) because the revisions as a whole strengthen the Virginia SIP. However, the Virginia SIP relies on CAIR, an EPA rule, to satisfy key elements of the regional haze requirements. Due to the remand of CAIR, see North Carolina v. EPA, 531 F.3d 836 (DC Cir. 2008), the revisions do not meet all of the applicable requirements of the CAA and EPA's regulations as set forth in sections 169A and 169B of the CAA and in 40 CFR 51.300-308. As a result, EPA is concurrently proposing a limited disapproval of Virginia's SIP revisions. The revisions nevertheless represent an improvement over the current SIP, and make considerable progress in fulfilling the applicable CAA regional haze program requirements. --This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below-- Proposed rule. CFR Part: "40 CFR Part 52" Citation: "77 FR 3691" Document Number: "EPA-R03-OAR-2011-0091, EPA-R03-OAR-2011-0584; FRL-9622-3" Federal Register Page Number: "3691" "Proposed Rules" [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]