Air Pollution Control; Proposed Actions on Clean Air Act Grants to the South Coast Air Quality Management District

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-5839-3]

Air Pollution Control; Proposed Actions on Clean Air Act Grants

to the South Coast Air Quality Management District

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed determinations with request for comments and notice of

opportunity for public hearing.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency has made two proposed

determinations that reductions in expenditures of non-Federal funds for

the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) in Diamond

Bar, California are a result of non-selective reductions in

expenditures. These determinations, when final, will permit the SCAQMD

to keep the financial assistance awarded to it by EPA for FY-96, and to

be awarded financial assistance for FY-97 by EPA, under section 105(c)

of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

DATES: Comments and/or requests for a public hearing must be received

by EPA at the address stated below by July 14, 1997.

ADDRESSES: All comments and/or requests for a public hearing should be

mailed to: R. Michael Stenburg, Grants and Program Integration Office

(Air-8), Air Division, U.S. EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San

Francisco, California 94105-3901; FAX (415) 744-1076.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

R. Michael Stenburg, Grants and Program Integration Office (Air-8), Air

Division, U.S. EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco,

California 94105-3901 at (415) 744-1182.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the authority of Section 105 of the

CAA, EPA provides financial assistance (grants) to the SCAQMD, whose

jurisdiction includes Los Angeles and Orange Counties in southern

California, to aid in the operation of its air pollution control

programs. In FY-96, EPA awarded the SCAQMD $7,084,731, which

represented approximately 8.4% of the SCAQMD's budget.

Section 105(c)(1) of the CAA, 42 U.S.C. 7405(c)(1), provides that

``[n]o agency shall receive any grant under this section during any

fiscal year when its expenditures of non-Federal funds for recurrent

expenditures for air pollution control programs will be less than its

expenditures were for such programs during the preceding fiscal year.

In order for [EPA] to award grants under this section in a timely

manner each fiscal year, [EPA] shall compare an agency's prospective

expenditure level to that of its second preceding year.'' EPA may still

award financial assistance to an agency not meeting this requirement,

however, if EPA, ``after notice and opportunity for public hearing,

determines that a reduction in expenditures is attributable to a non-

selective reduction in the expenditures in the programs of all

Executive branch agencies of the applicable unit of Government.'' CAA

section 105(c)(2). These statutory requirements are repeated in EPA's

implementing regulations at 40 CFR 35.210(a).

In its FY-96 section 105 application, the SCAQMD projected

expenditures of non-Federal funds for recurrent expenditures (or its

maintenance of effort (MOE)) of $78,452,571. This MOE would have been

sufficient to meet the MOE requirements of the CAA, i.e. it

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would have been equal to or greater than the MOE for the previous year

(FY-95). Subsequently, however, the SCAQMD submitted to EPA final

documentation which shows that its actual FY-96 MOE was $76,882,860.

This amount represents a shortfall of $520,712 from the MOE of

$77,403,572 for the preceding fiscal year (FY-95). In order for the

SCAQMD to be eligible to keep its FY-96 grant, EPA must make a

determination under section 105(c)(2).

Furthermore, in its FY-97 Sec. 105 grant application the SCAQMD

projected MOE of $67,362,724. This amount represents a shortfall of

$9,520,136 from the actual FY-96 MOE of $76,882,860. In order for the

SCAQMD to be eligible to be awarded its FY-97 grant, EPA must make a

determination under section 105(c)(2).

The SCAQMD is a single-purpose agency whose primary source of

funding is emission fee revenue. It is the ``unit of Government'' for

section 105(c)(2) purposes. The SCAQMD submitted documentation to EPA

which shows that over the last five years emission reductions brought

on by a combination of regulated and voluntary emission reductions and

actions to minimize fee increases on businesses have reduced fee

revenues from stationary sources from a high of $66,914,362 in 1991-

1992 to approximately $49,147,500 in 1996-1997. As a result, the SCAQMD

has instituted hiring/salary freezes, furloughs, and layoffs, has

reduced its equipment purchases and contract expenditures, and has

instituted new programs to reduce costs such as permit streamlining,

computer-assisted permit processing, and privatization efforts.

Therefore, the SCAQMD's MOE reductions resulted from a loss of fee

revenues due to circumstances beyond its control. EPA proposes to

determine that the SCAQMD's lower FY-96 and FY-97 MOE levels meet the

section 105(c)(2) criteria as resulting from a non-selective reduction

of expenditures. Pursuant to 40 CFR 35.210, these determinations will

allow the SCAQMD to keep the funds received from EPA for FY-96 and be

awarded financial assistance for FY-97.

This notice constitutes a request for public comment and an

opportunity for public hearing as required by the Clean Air Act. All

written comments received by July 14, 1997 on this proposal will be

considered. EPA will conduct a public hearing on this proposal only if

a written request for such is received by EPA at the address above by

July 14, 1997.

If no written request for a hearing is received, EPA will proceed

to both final determinations. While notice of the final determinations

will not be published in the Federal Register, copies of the

determinations can be obtained by sending a written request to R.

Michael Stenburg at the above address.

Dated: June 3, 1997.

David P. Howekamp,

Director, Air Division, U.S. EPA, Region 9.

[FR Doc. 97-15366 Filed 6-11-97; 8:45 am]

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