General Conformity Training Module 4.1: State, Tribal, and Local Involvement

Words that are shown in bold and italics are defined in the Glossary.

The State, Tribal, and local air quality agencies have a number of responsibilities under the General Conformity program. Most of their responsibilities are connected to their duties as air quality program managers; the General Conformity program will assist the State, Tribal and local agencies in meeting their air quality goals. Their responsibilities include:

Identification of emissions in the State or Tribal implementation plan (SIP/TIP). Federal agencies may request the State, Tribal, or local air quality agency to make a statement that emissions caused by implementation of their federal action are included in the SIP/TIP. In order to make such a statement, the agency must ensure that the emissions from the project's activities along with all other emissions in the area will not exceed the budget for that category of emission in the SIP/TIP;

Review of draft determinations. Federal agencies are obligated to provide copies of their draft conformity demonstrations, on which the draft conformity determination statement is based, applicable to State air quality agency, any federally recognized Tribe in the nonattainment or maintenance area, and the local Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Those agencies have 30 days to comment on the draft demonstrations. Although the State, Tribal, and local agencies are not required to comment on the draft demonstrations, they should review the demonstrations to ensure that the federal agency properly address the SIP/TIP issues and that any mitigation measures are appropriate;

Commitment to include emissions in the SIP. One method of demonstrating conformity is to have the State or Tribe commit to include the emissions caused by the project's activities in the SIP/TIP. The States and Tribes are not obligated to make such a commitment; however, many may wish to do so in order to allow the federal agency or project sponsor to take or start the action. If a State or Tribe makes such a commitment, then the agency has 18 months to submit a SIP/TIP revision to EPA. If the emissions would extend beyond the time period covered by the existing approved SIP/TIP and the new SIP/TIP is not to be submitted within 18 months, then the State or Tribe must submit the commitment as a SIP/TIP revision;

Inclusion of offsets or mitigation measures in the SIP/TIP. In order to ensure that the offset or mitigation measures are enforceable by EPA, State, or appropriate Tribe, the offset or mitigation measures can be included in the SIP/TIP. The State, Tribe or local agency would be responsible for developing, adopting, and submitting the revisions to incorporate the measure into the SIP/TIP;

Permits for offsets and mitigation measures. Another way that a State, Tribe or local agency could make the offset or mitigation measure enforceable by themselves and the EPA, is to issue an air quality permit under a program that has been approved as part of the SIP/TIP. The State, tribe or local agency responsible for the permit program would have to issue the permit for the measure;

Early Emission Reduction Credit (EERC) programs. The General Conformity regulations allow federal agencies to work with States and Tribes to create EERCs for a project. The States or Tribes are not obligated to participate such a program;

Development of emission budgets. A federal agency can request that the State, Tribe, or local agency develop an emission budget for its project that can be used to show conformity. Or the emission budget would be useful in showing conformity for a future planned project.

Review of emergency event exemption extension. The General Conformity regulations allow federal agencies to take actions in response to emergency events without conducting a conformity evaluation. If the response extends beyond six months, the federal agency must make a determination stating that it is impractical to conduct the conformity evaluation at the time of the emergency. The federal agency must allow the State or Tribe 15 days to review the draft determination before it makes a final determination;

Tracking of de minimis actions. Federal agencies are not required to provide documentation of projects with activities that cause emissions below the de minimis levels. However, federal agencies must document, and provide the opportunity for public participation and comment when their project's emissions are equal to or greater than the de minimis rates; and

Presumed to conform list. Federal agencies can develop and ask for EPA approval of a list of certain activities common to their agency that are presumed to conform. As part of the procedure to create its own list, the federal agency must provide the appropriate States and Tribes with the justification for each activity on its list and allow 30 days for their comments. In addition, the Regulations also allow State and Tribes to create their own lists of activities that are presumed to conform using their own General Conformity applicable implementation plan.