
[Federal Register: June 16, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 116)]
[Notices]               
[Page 34013-34014]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr16jn08-56]                         

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-R09-OAR-2008-0443; FRL-8580-1]

 
Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Budget in Submitted Five Percent 
Plan for PM-10 for the Phoenix Metropolitan Nonattainment Area for 
Transportation Conformity Purposes; Arizona

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of Adequacy.

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SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that the Agency 
has found that the motor vehicle emissions budget in the submitted MAG 
2007 Five Percent Plan for PM-10 for the Maricopa County Nonattainment 
Area (December 2007) (``2007 MAG 5% Plan'') is adequate for 
transportation conformity purposes. The 2007 MAG 5% Plan was submitted 
to EPA on December 21, 2007 by the Arizona Department of Environmental 
Quality as a revision to the Arizona state implementation plan. The 
2007 MAG 5% Plan includes a demonstration of no less than five percent 
annual emissions reductions in particulate matter with an aerodynamic 
diameter less than or equal to a nominal 10 micrometers (PM-10) and a 
demonstration of PM-10 attainment in the Phoenix metropolitan area by 
2010. As a result of our finding, the Maricopa Association of 
Governments and the U.S. Department of Transportation must use the 
motor vehicle emissions budget from the submitted five percent plan for 
PM-10 for future conformity determinations.

DATES: This finding is effective July 1, 2008.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wienke Tax, U.S. EPA, Region IX, Air

[[Page 34014]]

Division AIR-2, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-3901; 
(520) 622-1622 or tax.wienke@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever ``we,'' 
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA.
    Today's notice is simply an announcement of a finding that we have 
already made. EPA Region IX sent a letter to the Arizona Department of 
Environmental Quality and the Maricopa Association of Governments on 
May 30, 2008 stating that the 2010 motor vehicle emissions budget for 
PM-10 in the submitted 2007 MAG 5% Plan is adequate. The budget 
corresponds to the Phoenix metropolitan PM-10 nonattainment area, which 
encompasses roughly half of Maricopa County, including the cities of 
Phoenix and Mesa, and also the Apache Junction area of Pinal County, in 
central Arizona. Receipt of this motor vehicle emissions budget was 
announced on EPA's transportation conformity Web site, and no comments 
were submitted. The finding is available at EPA's conformity Web site: 
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm.
    The adequate 2010 motor vehicle emissions budget (calculated for an 
annual average day) are provided in the following table:

                 Adequate Motor Vehicle Emissions Budget
                        [In metric tons per day]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                          PM-10  motor
                      Budget year                            vehicle
                                                        emissions budget
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010..................................................             103.3
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Transportation conformity is required by Clean Air Act section 
176(c). EPA's conformity rule requires that transportation plans, 
transportation improvement programs, and projects conform to state air 
quality implementation plans (SIPs) and establishes the criteria and 
procedures for determining whether or not they do conform. 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 
emissions budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in 
40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). We have described our process for determining the 
adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in our July 1, 2004, preamble 
starting at 69 FR 40038, and we used the information in these resources 
while making our adequacy determination. Please note that an adequacy 
review is separate from EPA's completeness review, and should not be 
used to prejudge EPA's ultimate approval action for the SIP. Even if we 
find a budget adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved.

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

    Dated: June 5, 2008.
Laura Yoshii,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX.
 [FR Doc. E8-13519 Filed 6-13-08; 8:45 am]

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