Adequacy Status of the Maricopa County, Arizona Submitted PM-10 Attainment Plan for Transportation Conformity Purposes

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[AZ-020-NOA; FRL-6506-8]

Adequacy Status of the Maricopa County, Arizona Submitted PM-10

Attainment Plan for Transportation Conformity Purposes

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of Inadequacy Determination.

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SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that we have found

that the submitted Maricopa County (Phoenix, Arizona) serious area

particulate matter (PM-10) attainment plan is inadequate for

transportation conformity purposes. As a result of our finding, the

Maricopa Association of Governments and the Federal Highway

Administration cannot use the PM-10 motor vehicle emissions budget from

the submitted plan for future conformity determinations.

DATES: This determination is effective December 27, 1999.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The finding is available at EPA's

conformity website: http://www.epa.gov/oms/traq, (once there, click on

the ``Conformity'' button, then look for ``Adequacy Review of SIP

Submissions for Conformity''). You may also contact Karina O'Connor,

U.S. EPA, Region IX, Air Division AIR-2, 75 Hawthorne Street, San

Francisco, CA 94105; (415) 744-1247 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background:

This notice announces our finding that the MAG 1999 Serious Area

Particulate Plan for PM-10 for the Maricopa County Nonattainment Area,

submitted by the Arizona on July 8, 1999, is inadequate for

transportation conformity purposes. EPA Region IX made this finding in

a letter to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the

Maricopa Association of Governments on December 1, 1999. We are also

announcing this finding on our conformity website: http://www.epa.gov/

oms/traq, (once there, click on the ``Conformity'' button, then look

for ``Adequacy Review of SIP Submissions for Conformity'').

Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the

Clean Air Act. Our conformity rule requires that transportation plans,

programs, and projects conform to state air quality implementation

plans (SIPs) and establishes the criteria and procedures for

determining whether or not they do. 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 motor vehicle

emission budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in

40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). One of these criterion is that the plan provide

for attainment of the relevant ambient air quality standard by the

applicable Clean Air Act attainment date. We have preliminarily

determined that the Maricopa County PM-10 plan does not provide for

attainment of the PM-10 standards and therefore, cannot be found

adequate.

This inadequacy finding is separate from and does not affect our

August 4, 1999 finding that the plan is complete under section

110(k)(1) of the Clean Air Act.

We have described our process for determining the adequacy of

submitted SIP budgets in guidance (May 14, 1999 memo titled

``Conformity Guidance on Implementation of March 2, 1999 Conformity

Court Decision''). We followed this guidance in making our inadequacy

determination on the Maricopa County PM-10 plan.

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671 q.

Date December 1, 1999.

Alexis Strauss,

Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX.

[FR Doc. 99-32077 Filed 12-9-99; 8:45 am]

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