Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plan; Illinois

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[IL172-1a; FRL-6152-5]

Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plan; Illinois

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Direct final rule.

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SUMMARY: On November 14, 1995, and May 9 and June 14, 1996, the State

of Illinois submitted State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision requests

to meet commitments related to the conditional approval of Illinois'

May 15, 1992, SIP submittal for the Lake Calumet (SE Chicago), McCook,

and Granite City, Illinois, Particulate Matter (PM) nonattainment

areas. The EPA is approving the SIP revision request as it applies to

the McCook area, including the attainment demonstration for the McCook

PM nonattainment area. The SIP revision request corrects, for the

McCook PM nonattainment area, all of the deficiencies of the May 15,

1992, submittal (as discussed in the November 18, 1994, conditional

approval notice). This document also revises the codification of the

conditional approval to remove issues which have been resolved. No

action is being taken on the submitted plan revisions for the Lake

Calumet area at this time; they will be addressed in a separate

rulemaking action. Approval of the Granite City PM plan became

effective on May 11, 1998 (see 63 FR 11842).

DATES: This rule is effective on November 9, 1998, unless EPA receives

written adverse comments by October 8, 1998. If adverse comment is

received, EPA will publish a timely withdrawal of the rule in the

Federal Register informing the public that the rule will not take

effect.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the revision request and EPA's analysis are

available for inspection at the following address: U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency, Region 5, Air and Radiation Division, 77 West

Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604. (It is recommended that you

telephone David Pohlman at (312) 886-3299 before visiting the Region 5

Office.)

Written comments should be sent to: J. Elmer Bortzer, Chief,

Regulation Development Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J), U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago,

Illinois 60604.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Pohlman at (312) 886-3299.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

Under section 107(d)(4)(B) of the Clean Air Act (Act), as amended

on November 15, 1990 (amended Act), certain areas (``initial areas'')

were designated nonattainment for PM. Under section 188 of the amended

Act these initial areas were classified as ``moderate.'' The initial

areas included the Lake Calumet, McCook, and Granite City, Illinois, PM

nonattainment areas. The McCook area includes Lyons Township in Cook

County, Illinois. (See 40 CFR 81.314 for a complete description of

these areas.) Section 189 of the amended Act requires State submittal

of a PM SIP for the initial areas by November 15, 1991. Illinois

submitted the required SIP revision for

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the McCook, Illinois, PM nonattainment area to EPA on May 15, 1992.

Upon review of Illinois' submittal, EPA identified several concerns.

Illinois submitted a letter on March 2, 1994, committing to satisfy all

of these concerns within one year of final conditional approval. On May

25, 1994, the EPA proposed to conditionally approve the SIP. Final

conditional approval was published on November 18, 1994, and became

effective on December 19, 1994. The final conditional approval allowed

the State until November 20, 1995, to correct the stated deficiencies.

Of the five deficiencies, only three apply to the McCook area:

1. Invalid emissions inventory and attainment demonstration, due to

underestimated emissions from 3 coal-fired boilers at CPC

International, and 3 coal-fired boilers at GM Electromotive Division.

2. Failure to adequately address maintenance of the PM National

Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for at least 3 years beyond the

applicable attainment date.

3. The following enforceability concerns:

a. Section 212.107, Measurement Methods for Visible Emissions could

be misinterpreted as requiring use of Method 22 for sources subject to

opacity limits as well as sources subject to limits on detectability of

visible emissions.

b. Inconsistencies in the measurement methods for opacity, visible

emissions, and ``PM'' in section 212.110, 212.107, 212.108, and

212.109.

c. Language in several rules which exempts from mass emissions

limits those sources having no visible emissions.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) held a public

hearing on the proposed rules on January 5, 1996. The rules became

effective at the State level on May 22, 1996, and were published in the

Illinois Register on June 7, 1996. Illinois made submittals to meet the

commitments related to the conditional approval on November 14, 1995,

May 9, 1996, and June 14, 1996. At this time, the EPA is only acting on

the portions of those submittals that pertain to the McCook PM

nonattainment area.

Based on Illinois' submittals, the EPA is now fully approving the

SIP for the McCook area.

II. Analysis of State Submittal

The first deficiency was an incomplete emissions inventory and

attainment demonstration. The emissions inventory issue involved

emissions estimations from 3 coal-fired boilers at CPC International

and 3 coal-fired boilers at GM Electromotive Division. The EPA had

pointed out that emissions from these sources were underestimated in

the emissions inventory. Illinois recalculated these emissions, and EPA

agrees that they are now correct. (Appendix 1 to Attachment 18 of

Illinois' May 9, 1996 submittal)

To correct the problems with the attainment demonstration and

emissions inventory, Illinois submitted a revised emissions inventory,

which includes corrected emissions estimates from the GM Electromotive

Division and CPC International boilers, and a revised attainment

demonstration including an air quality modeling analysis.

In the submitted modeled attainment demonstration, which uses 5

years of meteorological data, a violation of the 24-hour NAAQS is

indicated when six exceedances of the 24-hour standard are predicted.

Each receptor's predicted 6th highest 24-hour value is, therefore,

compared to the standard. The 24-hour PM standard is 150 micrograms per

cubic meter (``g/m3''). The highest, sixth highest

predicted 24-hour PM concentration at any receptor in the McCook

nonattainment area was 145.3 ``g/m3''. Thus, the

modeling analysis predicts that the 24-hour NAAQS will be met.

A modeled violation of the annual PM standard is indicated when any

receptor's 5 year arithmetic mean annual PM concentration exceeds the

annual PM standard of 50 g/m3. The highest

arithmetic mean annual PM concentration predicted by the modeling for

the McCook area was 47.38 g/m3. Therefore, the

modeling analysis predicts that the annual PM NAAQS will be met.

The second deficiency was Illinois' failure to adequately address

maintenance of the PM NAAQS for at least 3 years beyond the applicable

attainment date. Because of the length of time it may take to determine

whether an area has attained the standards, EPA recommends that PM

nonattainment area SIP submittals demonstrate maintenance of the PM

NAAQS for at least 3 years beyond the applicable attainment date. (See

a August 20, 1991, memorandum from Fred H. Renner, Jr. to Regional Air

Branch Chiefs titled ``Questions and Answers for Particulate Matter,

Sulfur Dioxide, and Lead''.) Illinois' May 15, 1992, submittal took

growth into account in the modeling analysis, but did not sufficiently

address maintenance of the NAAQS for PM.

The attainment date was December 31, 1994. Therefore, Illinois

needs to show maintenance up to December 31, 1997. In the May 9, 1996,

submittal, Illinois used ambient monitoring data to show that

background concentrations of PM were no higher in 1995 than they were

in 1991, and there are no significant trends in background PM

concentrations from 1989 to 1995. Illinois concluded from this analysis

that the effects of growth on ambient PM concentrations in the McCook

PM nonattainment area would continue to be negligible through the end

of the maintenance period. The EPA agrees, because the maintenance

period is over, that the projection of trends in PM background

concentrations is sufficient for this maintenance demonstration.

The final issue from the November 18, 1994, conditional approval

notice which applies to the McCook area involves specific wording in

several of Illinois' rules. In the 1992 submittal, 35 IAC Section

212.107, Measurement Methods for Visible Emissions, stated that Method

22 should be used for ``detection of visible emissions.'' This could be

misinterpreted as requiring use of Method 22 for sources subject to

opacity limits as well as sources subject to limits on detectability of

visible emissions. The revised rule (See the June 14, 1996, submittal)

contains revised language which adequately clarifies the intended uses

of Method 22.

Another wording problem was the fact that measurement methods for

opacity, visible emissions, and ``PM'' in 35 IAC 212.107, 212.108, and

212.109, and 212.110 were not always consistent with each other. The

revised rules in the June 14, 1996, submittal contain much less

potential overlap than the previous rules. The rules are now

consistent.

Finally, several of the rules in the 1992 submittal contained

language which exempted sources with no visible emissions from mass

emissions limits. Illinois has added language which states that the

exemption ``is not a defense to a finding of a violation of the mass

emission limits.'' This issue has been adequately addressed, and these

rules were approved by the USEPA on March 11, 1998. (63 FR 11842)

Section 179(a) of the amended Act states that if the Administrator

finds that a State has failed to make a required submission, finds that

a SIP or SIP revision submitted by the State does not satisfy the

minimum criteria established under section 110(k) of the amended Act,

or disapproves a SIP submission in whole or in part, unless the

deficiency has been corrected within 18 months after the finding, one

of the sanctions referred to in section 179(b) of the amended Act shall

apply until the Administrator determines that the State

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has come into compliance. (Pursuant to 40 CFR 52.31, the first sanction

shall be a sanction requiring 2 to 1 offsets, in the absence of a case-

specific selection otherwise.) If the deficiency has not been corrected

within 6 months of the selection of the first sanction, the second

sanction under section 179(b) shall also apply. In addition, section

110(c) of the Act requires promulgation of a Federal Implementation

Plan (FIP) within 2 years after the finding or disapproval, as

discussed above, unless the State corrects the deficiency and the SIP

is approved before the FIP is promulgated.

On December 17, 1991, a letter was sent to the Governor of Illinois

notifying him that the EPA was making a finding that the State of

Illinois had failed to submit a PM SIP for the McCook PM nonattainment

area. This letter triggered both the sanctions and FIP processes as

explained above. Illinois submitted a PM SIP revision for the

nonattainment area on May 15, 1992, and in an April 30, 1993, letter to

the State the EPA informed the State that the SIP was determined to be

complete. Therefore, the deficiency which started the sanctions and FIP

processes was corrected, and the sanctions process ended. The FIP

process, however, was not stopped by the correction of the deficiency

and EPA was to promulgate a FIP within 2 years of the failure-to-submit

letter (or December 17, 1993), unless a PM SIP for the nonattainment

area was finally approved before then.

On November 18, 1994, the EPA conditionally approved the SIP. The

final conditional approval allowed the State until November 20, 1995,

to correct the five stated deficiencies. Conditional approval does not

start a new sanctions process, unless the State fails to make a

submittal to address the deficiencies, makes an incomplete submittal,

or the submittal is ultimately disapproved. Illinois made a submittal

to meet the commitments related to the conditional approval on November

14, 1995. Supplemental information was submitted on May 9, 1996, and

June 14, 1996. This submittal became complete by operation of law on

May 14, 1996. No sanctions process is currently running. Upon full

approval of the McCook PM plan, FIP liability will also end.

III. Final Rulemaking Action

Illinois has corrected all of the deficiencies listed in the

November 18, 1994, conditional approval as they relate to the McCook PM

nonattainment area. Because Illinois has met all of the commitments of

the conditional approval, the EPA is approving the plan for the McCook

PM nonattainment area.

The EPA is publishing this rule without prior proposal because EPA

views this as a noncontroversial revision and anticipates no adverse

comments. However, in a separate document in this Federal Register

publication, the EPA is proposing to approve the SIP revision should

specified written adverse or critical comments be filed. This rule will

become effective without further notice unless the Agency receives

relevant adverse written comment within 30 days from the date of

publication, as indicated above. Should the Agency receive such

comments, it will publish a final rule informing the public that this

rule will not take effect. Any parties interested in commenting on this

action should do so at this time.

IV. Administrative Requirements

A. Executive Order 12866

The Office of Management and Budget has exempted this regulatory

action from Executive Order 12866 review.

B. Executive Order 13045

This final rule is not subject to Executive Order 13045, entitled

``Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety

Risks,'' because it is not an ``economically significant'' action under

Executive Order 12866.

C. Future Requests

Nothing in this action should be construed as permitting, allowing

or establishing a precedent for any future request for revision to any

SIP. Each request for revision to the SIP shall be considered

separately in light of specific technical, economic, and environmental

factors and in relevant statutory and regulatory requirements.

D. Regulatory Flexibility Act

The Regulatory Flexibility Act generally requires an agency to

conduct a regulatory flexibility analysis of any rule subject to notice

and comment rulemaking requirements unless the agency certifies that

the rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial

number of small entities. Small entities include small businesses,

small not-for-profit enterprises, and small governmental jurisdictions.

This final rule will not have a significant impact on a substantial

number of small entities because SIP approvals under section 110 and

subchapter I, part D of the Clean Air Act do not create any new

requirements, but simply approve requirements that the State is already

imposing. Therefore, because the federal SIP approval does not impose

any new requirements, I certify that this action will not have a

significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Moreover, due to the nature of the Federal-State relationship under the

Clean Air Act, preparation of a flexibility analysis would constitute

Federal inquiry into the economic reasonableness of State action. The

Clean Air Act forbids EPA to base its actions concerning SIPs on such

grounds. Union Electric Co. v. EPA., 427 U.S. 246, 256-66 (1976); 42

U.S.C. 7410(a)(2).

E. Unfunded Mandates.

Under section 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995,

signed into law on March 22, 1995, EPA must undertake various actions

in association with any proposed or final rule that includes a Federal

mandate that may result in estimated costs to state, local, or tribal

governments in the aggregate; or to the private sector, of $100 million

or more. This Federal action approves pre-existing requirements under

state or local law, and imposes no new requirements. Accordingly, no

additional costs to state, local, or tribal governments, or the private

sector, result from this action.

F. Submission to Congress and the Comptroller General

The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the

Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally

provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating

the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule,

to each House of the Congress, and to the Comptroller General of the

United States. EPA will submit a report containing this rule and other

required information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of

Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States prior

to publication of the rule in the Federal Register. This rule is not a

``major rule'' as defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2).

G. Petitions for Judicial Review

Under section 307(b)(1) of the Act, petitions for judicial review

of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for

the appropriate circuit by November 9, 1998. Filing a petition for

reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect

the finality of this rule for the purposes of judicial review, nor does

it extend the time within which a petition for judicial review may be

filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness of such rule or action.

This action may not be challenged later in proceedings to

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enforce its requirements. (See section 307(b)(2)).

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by

reference, Particulate matter.

Dated: August 11, 1998.

David A. Ullrich,

Acting Regional Administrator.

For the reasons stated in the preamble, part 52, chapter I, title

40 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows:

PART 52 [AMENDED]

1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.

Subpart O--Illinois

2. Section 52.719 is amended by revising paragraph (a) to read as

follows:

Sec. 52.719 Identification of plan--Conditional approval.

* * * * *

(a) On May 15, 1992, Illinois submitted a part D particulate matter

(PM) nonattainment area plan for the Lake Calumet (Southeast Chicago)

moderate nonattainment area. This plan included control measures

adopted in a final opinion and order of the Illinois Pollution Control

Board, on April 9, 1992, in proceeding R91-22. The United States

Environmental Protection Agency conditionally approved the State's

plan, contingent on fulfillment of the State's commitment to meet 3

requirements by November 20, 1995. The first requirement is for the

State to adopt and submit additional enforceable control measures, if

necessary, that will achieve attainment. The second requirement is for

the State to submit a complete and accurate emissions inventory

(including corrected emissions estimates, as well as any new control

measures which may be needed) and an acceptable modeled attainment

demonstration. The third requirement is for the State to impose an

opacity limit for coke oven combustion stacks which is reflective of

their mass emission limits.

(1) Incorporation by reference.

(i) Illinois Administrative Code Title 35: Environmental

Protection, Subtitle B: Air Pollution, Chapter 1: Pollution Control

Board, Subchapter c: Emission Standards and Limitations for Stationary

Sources, Part 211: Definitions and General Provisions, Subpart A:

General Provisions, Section 211.101. Adopted at 16 Illinois Register

7656, effective May 1, 1992. (ii) Illinois Administrative Code Title

35: Environmental Protection, Subtitle B: Air Pollution, Chapter 1:

Pollution Control Board, Subchapter c: Emission Standards and

Limitations for Stationary Sources, Part 212: Visible and Particulate

Matter Emissions, Subpart A: General, Sections 212.107, 212.108,

212.109, 212.110, 212.113; Subpart E: Particulate Matter Emissions from

Fuel Combustion Sources, Section 212.210; Subpart K: Fugitive

Particulate Matter, Sections 212.302, 212.309, 212.316; Subpart L:

Particulate Matter from Process Emission Sources, Section 212.324;

Subpart N: Food Manufacturing, Section 212.362; Subpart Q: Stone, Clay,

Glass and Concrete Manufacturing, Section 212.425; Subpart R: Primary

and Fabricated Metal Products and Machinery Manufacture, Section

212.458; Subpart S: Agriculture, Section 212.464; Section 212

Illustration D: McCook Vicinity Map, Illustration E: Lake Calumet

Vicinity Map, and Illustration F: Granite City Vicinity Map. Adopted at

16 Illinois Register 7880, effective May 11, 1992.

3. Section 52.725 is amended by adding paragraph (f) to read as

follows:

Sec. 52.725 Control strategy: Particulates.

* * * * *

(f) On November 14, 1995, May 9, 1996, and June 14, 1996, the State

of Illinois submitted State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision requests

to meet commitments related to the conditional approval of Illinois'

May 15, 1992, SIP submittal for the Lake Calumet (SE Chicago), McCook,

and Granite City, Illinois, Particulate Matter (PM) nonattainment

areas. The EPA is approving the SIP revision request as it applies to

the McCook PM nonattainment area. For the McCook PM nonattainment area,

all of the deficiencies of the May 15, 1992, submittal have been

corrected.

[FR Doc. 98-24037 Filed 9-4-98; 8:45 am]

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