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Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Designation of Areas for Air Quality Planning Purposes; Redesignation of the Philadelphia County Carbon Monoxide Area to Attainment and Approval of the Area's Maintenance Plan and the Philadelphia County 1990 Base Year Carbon Monoxide Emission Inventory; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
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[Federal Register: January 30, 1996 (Volume 61, Number 20)] [Rules and Regulations] [Page 2926-2931] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 40 CFR Parts 52 and 81 [SIPTRAX No. PA075-4001; PA075-4002; PA024-4005; FRL-5329-1] Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Designation of Areas for Air Quality Planning Purposes; Redesignation of the Philadelphia County Carbon Monoxide Area to Attainment and Approval of the Area's Maintenance Plan and the Philadelphia County 1990 Base Year Carbon Monoxide Emission Inventory; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Direct final rule.
SUMMARY: EPA is approving a maintenance plan and a request to redesignate part of Philadelphia County from nonattainment to attainment for carbon monoxide (CO) and is also approving the 1990 base year CO emissions inventory for Philadelphia County. The maintenance plan, redesignation request and 1990 base year CO emissions inventory were submitted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Under the 1990 amendments of the Clean Air Act (CAA) designations can be revised if sufficient data is available to warrant such revisions. In this action, EPA is approving the Pennsylvania request because it meets the maintenance plan and redesignation requirements set forth in the CAA. This action is being taken under section 110 of the CAA. EFFECTIVE DATE: This action will become effective on March 15, 1996 unless, within 30 days of publication, adverse or critical comments are received. If the effective date is delayed, timely notice will be published in the Federal Register. ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to Marcia L. Spink, Associate Director, Air Programs, Mailcode 3AT00, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 841 Chestnut Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107. Copies of the documents relevant to this action are available for public inspection during normal business hours at the Air, Radiation, and Toxics Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 841 Chestnut Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107; Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Air Quality, P.O. Box 8468, 400 Market Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17105 and Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Air Management Services, 321 University Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kelly L. Bunker, (215) 597-4554. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On September 8, 1995 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania submitted a request for parallel processing of a redesignation request and maintenance plan for the Philadelphia portion of the Philadelphia-Camden County CO nonattainment area and supplemented the request on October 30, 1995, in order to formalize the submittal as an official revision to its State Implementation Plan (SIP). The SIP revision consists of a maintenance plan and a request to redesignate part of Philadelphia County from nonattainment to attainment for carbon monoxide and the 1990 base year CO emissions inventory for Philadelphia County. I. Background Part of Philadelphia County in Pennsylvania, specifically the high traffic areas within the Central Business District and certain other high traffic density areas of the City of Philadelphia, was a pre-1990 CO nonattainment area and continued to be designated as nonattainment for CO by operation of law as per section 107 (d)(1)(C)(i) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for CO is 9.5 parts per million (ppm). Philadelphia County is part of the Philadelphia-Camden County CO nonattainment area. CO nonattainment areas can be classified as moderate or serious, based on their design values. Since the Philadelphia CO nonattainment area had a design value of 11.6 ppm (based on 1988 and 1989 data), the area was classified as moderate. The CAA established an attainment date of December 31, 1995, for all moderate CO areas. Philadelphia County has ambient air quality monitoring data showing attainment of the CO NAAQS from 1990 through 1994. No exceedances or violations of the CO NAAQS have been monitored in Philadelphia County to date during calendar year 1995. Therefore, in an effort to comply with the CAA and to ensure continued attainment of the NAAQS, on September 8, 1995 and October 30, 1995 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania submitted a CO redesignation request and a maintenance plan for Philadelphia County. Pennsylvania submitted evidence that a public hearing was held on October 16, 1995 in Philadelphia. II. Evaluation Criteria Section 107(d)(3)(E) of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments provides five specific requirements that an area must meet in order to be redesignated from nonattainment to attainment.
- The area must have attained the applicable NAAQS;
- The area must have a fully approved SIP under section 110(k) of CAA; [[Page 2927]] 3. The air quality improvement must be permanent and enforceable; 4. The area must have a fully approved maintenance plan pursuant to section 175A of the CAA;
5. The area must meet all applicable requirements under section 110 and Part D of the CAA; III. Review of State Submittal On October 31, 1995, EPA determined that the information received from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania constituted a complete redesignation request under the general completeness criteria of 40 CFR part 51, appendix V, Secs. 2.1 and 2.2. The Pennsylvania redesignation request for part of Philadelphia County meets the five requirements of section 107(d)(3)(E), noted above. The following is a brief description of how the Commonwealth has fulfilled each of these requirements.
- Attainment of the CO NAAQS Pennsylvania has quality-assured CO ambient air monitoring data showing that Philadelphia County has met the CO NAAQS. The Pennsylvania request is based on an analysis of quality-assured CO air monitoring data which is relevant to the maintenance plan and to the redesignation request. To attain the CO NAAQS, an area must have complete qualityassured data showing no more than one exceedance of the standard per year over at least two consecutive years. The ambient air CO monitoring data for calendar year 1990 through calendar year 1994, relied upon by Pennsylvania in its redesignation request, shows no violations of the CO NAAQS in Philadelphia County. The most recent ambient CO data shows one exceedance in the calendar years 1993 and 1994. In addition, the most recent ambient CO data for calendar year 1995 shows no exceedances of the NAAQS to date in Philadelphia County. Because the area has complete quality assured data showing no more than one exceedance of the standard per year over at least two consecutive years (1993 and 1994), the area has met the first statutory criterion of attainment of the CO NAAQS (40 CFR 50.8 and appendix C). Pennsylvania has committed to continue monitoring in this area in accordance with 40 CFR part 58. Furthermore, air quality data for the New Jersey portion of the Philadelphia-Camden County CO nonattainment area shows that the remainder of the nonattainment area has met the CO NAAQS since 1990. Therefore, air quality in the entire area has been meeting the CO standards since 1990. 2. Fully Approved SIP Under Section 110(k) of the CAA Pennsylvania's CO SIP is fully approved by EPA as meeting all the requirements of Section 110(a)(2)(I) of the Act, including the requirements of Part D (relating to nonattainment), which were due prior to the date of Pennsylvania's redesignation request. All portions of Pennsylvania's CO SIP, except for the motor vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) portion, were fully approved by EPA on February 26, 1985, at 40 CFR Sec. 52.2020(c)(63), (50 FR 7772). The I/M portion of the CO SIP was approved by EPA on April 8, 1987 at 40 CFR Sec. 52.2020(c)(66), (52 FR 11259). The 1990 CAA required that nonattainment areas achieve specific new requirements depending on the severity of the nonattainment classification. Requirements for the Philadelphia area include the preparation of a 1990 emission inventory with periodic updates, adoption of an oxygenated fuels program, the development of contingency measures, and development of conformity procedures. Each of these requirements added by the 1990 Amendments to the CAA are discussed in greater detail below. Consistent with the October 14, 1994 EPA guidance from Mary D. Nichols entitled ``Part D New Source Review (Part D NSR) Requirements for Areas Requesting Redesignation to Attainment,'' EPA is not requiring full approval of a Part D NSR program by Pennsylvania as a prerequisite to redesignation to attainment. Under this guidance, nonattainment areas may be redesignated to attainment notwithstanding the lack of a fully-approved Part D NSR program, so long as the program is not relied upon for maintenance. Pennsylvania has not relied on a NSR program for CO sources to maintain attainment. Although EPA is not treating a Part D NSR program as a prerequisite for redesignation, it should be noted that EPA is in the process of taking final action on the State's revised NSR regulation, which includes requirements for CO nonattainment areas. Because part of Philadelphia County is being redesignated to attainment by this action, Pennsylvania's Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) requirements will be applicable to new or modified sources in Philadelphia County. Pennsylvania has been delegated PSD authority (see CFR Sec. 52.2058 Pennsylvania and 49 FR 33128, August 21, 1984).
A. Emission Inventory
Pennsylvania submitted its 1990 base year emissions inventory as part of the maintenance plan which was submitted on September 8, 1995 and October 30, 1995. The inventory estimated CO emissions for Philadelphia County, as required under Section 187(a)(1) of the CAA. This inventory was used as the basis for calculations to demonstrate maintenance. Pennsylvania's submittal contains the detailed inventory data and summaries by source category. The inventory was prepared in accordance with EPA guidance. A summary of the base year and projected maintenance year inventories are shown in the following table in this section.
Section 172(c)(3) of the CAA requires that nonattainment plan provisions include a comprehensive, accurate, and current inventory of actual emissions from all sources of relevant pollutants in the nonattainment area. Pennsylvania included the requisite inventory in the redesignation request and maintenance plan SIP revision. The base year for the inventory was 1990, using a three month CO season of December 1990 through February 1991. Stationary sources, area sources, on-road mobile sources, and non-road mobile sources of CO were included in the inventory. The following table, Table 1, presents a summary of the base year (1990), attainment year (1992) and projected year (2007) CO peak season daily emissions estimates in tons per winter day (tpd) by source category: Table 1.--CO Peak Season Daily Emissions
1992 2007 1990 Base Attainment Projected year year year emissions emissions emissions (tons per (tons per (tons per day) day) day) Pennsylvania--Carbon Monoxide Designation Classification Date\1\ Type Date\1\ Type .................. Nonattainment...... ........... Not Classified. * Philadelphia-Camden County Area Philadelphia County (part) traffic areas within the Central Business District and certain other high traffic density areas. * \1\This date is November 15, 1990, unless otherwise noted.