Air pollution control; new motor vehicles and engines: State implementation plans; transportation conformity; adequacy status Metropolitan Washington, DC area,
[Federal Register: August 11, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 154)]
[Notices]
[Page 43698-43699]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr11au99-64]
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-6418-1]
Adequacy Status of Submitted State Implementation Plans for Transportation Conformity Purposes: Metropolitan Washington, DC Area-- Phase I Rate of Progress Plan
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of adequacy status.
[[Page 43699]]
SUMMARY: In this document, EPA is announcing that the motor vehicle emissions budgets (hereafter referred to as ``budgets'') contained in the submitted Rate of Progress (ROP) Plan for the Metropolitan Washington DC ozone nonattainment area (comprised of the District of Columbia and portions of the State of Maryland and Commonwealth of Virginia) are adequate for transportation conformity purposes. As a result of our finding, the budgets from the submitted ROP plan may be used for future conformity determinations in the Metropolitan Washington DC ozone nonattainment area.
DATES: These budgets are effective August 26, 1999.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul T. Wentworth, U.S. EPA, Region III, 1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19103 at (215) 814-2183 or by e-mail at: wentworth.paul@.epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document wherever ``we'', ``us'', or ``our'' are used we mean EPA. The word ``budgets'' refers to the mobile source emission budget for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the mobile source emissions budget for nitrogen oxides (NO‹INF›X‹/INF›). The word SIP in this document refers to the State Implementation Plan revision submitted to satisfy the rate-of-progress requirements for 1999, commonly referred to as the Post 96 ROP plan.
On May 20, 1999, we received the Post 96 ROP Plan for the Metropolitan Washington DC ozone nonattainment area. The May 20, 1999 submittal is a revision to the previous ROP plan submitted in 1997. There are two mobile source emission budgets found in this plan for the year 1999. The emissions budget for VOCs is 128.5 tons/day and the emissions budget for NO‹INF›X‹/INF› is 196.4 tons/day. These two revised, adequate post-1996 budgets replace the adequate budgets in the previous rate-of-progress plan.
On March 2, 1999, the US District Court ruled that budgets contained in submitted SIPs cannot be used for conformity determinations until EPA has affirmatively found them adequate. In accordance with that ruling, on June 2, 1999, we posted a notice on our web site at: http://www.epa.gov/oms/traq stating that we were taking comments on the adequacy of motor vehicle emissions budget found in the May 20, 1999 submitted revised plan. The comment period closed on July 15, 1999, and we received no comments.
Today's notice is simply an announcement of a finding that we have already made. On July 28, 1999, EPA Region III sent letters to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the Maryland Department of the Environment, and the Washington DC Environmental Regulation Administration stating that the motor vehicle emissions budgets found in Post 96 ROP plan submitted on May 20, 1999 for the Metropolitan Washington DC ozone nonattainment are adequate. The essential information in this notice will also be posted on EPA's conformity website: http://www.epa.gov/oms/traq (once there, click on the ``Conformity'' button, then look for ``Adequacy Review of Submissions for Conformity'').
Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act. EPA's conformity rule requires that transportation plans, programs, and projects conform to SIPs and establishes the criteria and procedures for determining whether or not they do so. Conformity to a SIP means that transportation activities will not produce new air quality violations, worsen existing violations, or delay timely attainment of the national ambient air quality standards.
The criteria by which we determine whether a SIP's budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in 40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). Please note that an adequacy review is separate from EPA's completeness review, and EPA's review to determine if the SIP is approvable. Even if we find a budget adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved.
We have described our process for determining the adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in guidance memorandum dated May 14, 1999 and titled ``Conformity Guidance on Implementation of March 2, 1999 Conformity Court Decision''. We have followed this guidance in making this adequacy determination for the budgets contained in the revised Post 96 ROP plan submitted on May 20, 1999 for the Metropolitan Washington DC ozone nonattainment area. You may obtain a copy of this guidance from EPA's conformity web site: http://www.epa.gov/oms/traq (once there, click on the ``Conformity'' button) or by calling the contact name listed in ``For Further Information Contact'' section of this document. Thomas Voltaggio, Acting Regional Administrator, Region III.
[FR Doc. 99-20705Filed8-10-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
