[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 107 (Friday, June 3, 2022)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 33697-33699]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-11971]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R09-OAR-2022-0439; FRL-9870-01-R9]


Air Plan Approval; California; San Diego County Air Pollution 
Control District

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to 
approve a revision to the San Diego County Air Pollution Control 
District's (SDCAPCD or District) portion of the California State 
Implementation Plan (SIP). This revision concerns a volatile organic 
compound (VOC) rule covering transfer of organic compounds into mobile 
transport trucks and a negative declaration for non-Control Techniques 
Guidelines (CTG) major VOC sources. We are proposing to approve the 
local rule to regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act 
(CAA or the Act) and the negative declaration. We are taking comments 
on this proposal and plan to follow with a final action. Elsewhere in 
this Federal Register, we are making an interim final determination to 
defer CAA sanctions associated with our previous disapproval action 
concerning the CTG categories addressed by the rule and negative 
declaration.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before July 5, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-
OAR-2022-0439 at https://www.regulations.gov. For comments submitted at 
Regulations.gov, follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from 
Regulations.gov. The EPA may publish any comment received to its public 
docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, 
video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written 
comment is considered the official comment and should include 
discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA will generally not 
consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary 
submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For 
additional submission methods, please contact the person identified in 
the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section. For the full EPA public 
comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and 
general guidance on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets. If you need assistance in a 
language other than English or if you are a person with disabilities 
who needs a reasonable accommodation at no cost to you, please contact 
the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donnique Sherman, EPA Region IX, 75 
Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105. By phone: (415) 947-4129 or by 
email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, ``we,'' ``us'' and 
``our'' refer to the EPA.

Table of Contents

I. The State's Submittal
    A. What documents did the State submit?
    B. Are there other versions of these documents?
    C. What is the purpose of the submitted documents?
II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action
    A. How is the EPA evaluating the submitted documents?
    B. Do the documents meet the evaluation criteria?
    C. The EPA's Recommendations To Further Improve the Submitted 
Rules
    D. Public Comment and Proposed Action
III. Incorporation by Reference
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

I. The State's Submittal

A. What documents did the State submit?

    Table 1 lists the submissions addressed by this proposal with the 
dates they were adopted or amended by the local air agency and 
submitted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to the EPA.

                                               Table 1--Submittals
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                                                                                     Adopted/
                Local agency                            Document title                amended        Submitted
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SDCAPCD....................................  Rule 61.2 Transfer of Organic            02/10/2021      04/20/2021
                                              Compounds into Mobile Transport
                                              Tanks.
SDCAPCD....................................  2020 Reasonably Available Control        10/14/2020      12/29/2020
                                              Technology (RACT) Demonstration
                                              for the National Ambient Air
                                              Quality Standards for Ozone in San
                                              Diego County, October 2020--
                                              Negative Declaration for Non-CTG
                                              Major VOC Sources.
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[[Page 33698]]

    Under CAA section 110(k)(1), the EPA must determine whether a SIP 
submittal meets the minimum completeness criteria established in 40 CFR 
part 51, appendix V for an official SIP submittal on which the EPA is 
obligated to take action. If the EPA does not make an affirmative 
determination of completeness or incompleteness within six months of 
receipt of a SIP submittal, the submittal is deemed to be complete by 
operation of law. The submittals listed in Table 1 were deemed complete 
by operation of law on October 20, 2021 (Rule 61.2) and June 29, 2021 
(SDCAPCD's negative declaration).

B. Are there other versions of these documents?

    We approved a previous version of Rule 61.2 (locally amended on 
July 26, 2000) into the California SIP on August 26, 2003 (68 FR 
51186). The SDCAPCD adopted revisions to the SIP-approved version on 
February 10, 2021, and CARB submitted them to us on April 20, 2021. If 
we take final action to approve the February 10, 2021 version of Rule 
61.2, this version will replace the previously approved version of this 
rule in the SIP.
    We approved portions of the RACT SIP and negative declarations on 
December 3, 2020 (85 FR 77996), not including the negative declaration 
for non-CTG major VOC sources because the SDCAPCD had not formally 
adopted it. The SDCAPCD formally adopted the negative declaration for 
non-CTG major VOC sources on October 14, 2020, and CARB submitted it to 
us on December 29, 2020.

C. What is the purpose of the submitted documents?

    Emissions of VOCs contribute to the production of ground-level 
ozone, smog and particulate matter, which harm human health and the 
environment. Section 110(a) of the CAA requires states to submit 
regulations that control VOC emissions. Sections 182(b)(2) and (f) 
require that SIPs for ozone nonattainment areas classified as Moderate 
or above implement RACT for any source covered by Control Techniques 
Guidelines (CTG). The SDCAPCD is subject to this requirement as it 
regulates an ozone nonattainment area that, at the time it prepared the 
original submittal for the negative declaration and Rule 61.2, was 
designated and classified as a Moderate nonattainment area for the 2008 
8-hour ozone NAAQS. Therefore, the SDCAPCD must, at a minimum, adopt 
RACT-level controls for all sources covered by a CTG document and for 
all major non-CTG sources of VOCs within the ozone nonattainment area 
that it regulates. Any stationary source that emits or has the 
potential to emit at least 100 tons per year (tpy) of VOCs or 
NOX is a major stationary source in a Moderate ozone 
nonattainment area (CAA section 182(b)(2), (f) and 302(j)).
    On December 3, 2020 (85 FR 77996), the EPA partially disapproved 
the SDCAPCD's 2008 RACT SIP demonstration for the source category 
covering the CTG for ``Control of Hydrocarbon from Tank Truck Gasoline 
Loading Terminals'' (EPA 450/2-77-026) (Tank Truck Gasoline Loading 
CTG). The EPA's technical support document (TSD) for the proposal 
(August 10, 2020, 85 FR 48127) states that, ``. . . Rule 61.2 sets a 
limit of 0.29 lb/1,000 gallons for transfers at bulk terminals. We 
determined that Rule 61.2 did not meet current RACT for tank truck 
loading at bulk terminals. This limit is higher than the emissions 
limit in nearly every nonattainment area in California, and in a number 
of nonattainment areas outside California.'' In addition, our partial 
disapproval of SDCAPCD's 2008 RACT SIP also included a disapproval of 
the District's RACT demonstration for non-CTG major sources of VOCs. 
The District had not formally adopted a negative declaration for non-
CTG major VOC sources.
    On December 29, 2020, CARB submitted to the EPA the SDCAPCD's 2015 
RACT SIP, which includes a negative declaration adopted for non-CTG 
major VOC sources for the 2008 RACT SIP which corrects the deficiency 
in EPA's 2020 disapproval action for the non-CTG major VOC source 
category. On April 20, 2021, CARB submitted to the EPA amended Rule 
61.2 that included a decrease in emission limit for bulk terminals to 
0.08 pound per 1,000 gallons, which corrects the deficiency in EPA's 
2020 disapproval action for the Tank Truck Gasoline Loading CTG 
category. The EPA's TSD has more information.

II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action

A. How is the EPA evaluating the submitted documents?

    Rules in the SIP must be enforceable (see CAA section 110(a)(2)), 
must not interfere with applicable requirements concerning attainment 
and reasonable further progress or other CAA requirements (see CAA 
section 110(l)), and must not modify certain SIP control requirements 
in nonattainment areas without ensuring equivalent or greater emissions 
reductions (see CAA section 193).
    Generally, SIP rules must require reasonably available control 
technology (RACT) for each category of sources covered by a CTG 
document as well as each major source of VOCs in ozone nonattainment 
areas classified as Moderate or above (see CAA section 182(b)(2)). The 
SDCAPCD regulates an ozone nonattainment area that is currently 
classified as a ``Severe'' nonattainment area for the 2008 8-hour ozone 
National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS).\1\ Therefore, this rule 
must implement RACT. Our action evaluates whether Rule 61.2 implements 
RACT for the Tank Truck Gasoline Loading CTG source category.
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    \1\ 86 FR 29522 (June 2, 2021).
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    States must submit for SIP approval negative declarations for those 
source categories for which they have not adopted CTG-based regulations 
(because they have no sources above the CTG-recommended applicability 
threshold) regardless of whether such negative declarations were made 
for an earlier SIP.\2\ The submittal should provide reasonable 
assurance that no sources subject to the CTG requirements currently 
exist in the portion of the ozone nonattainment area that is regulated 
by the SDCAPCD. Our action evaluates the negative declaration for non-
CTG major VOC sources.
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    \2\ 57 FR 13498, 13512 (April 16, 1992).
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    Guidance and policy documents that we used to evaluate 
enforceability, revision/relaxation and rule stringency requirements 
for the applicable criteria pollutants include the following:

    1. ``State Implementation Plans; General Preamble for the 
Implementation of Title I of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990,'' 
57 FR 13498 (April 16, 1992); 57 FR 18070 (April 28, 1992).
    2. ``Issues Relating to VOC Regulation Cutpoints, Deficiencies, 
and Deviations,'' EPA, May 25, 1988 (the Bluebook, revised January 
11, 1990).
    3. ``Guidance Document for Correcting Common VOC & Other Rule 
Deficiencies,'' EPA Region 9, August 21, 2001 (the Little Bluebook).
    4. ``Control of Hydrocarbons from Tank Truck Gasoline Loading 
Terminals,'' EPA-450/2-77-026, October 1977.
    5. ``Control of Volatile Organic Emissions from Bulk Gasoline 
Plants,'' EPA-450/2-77-035, December 1977.
    6. ``Control of Volatile Organic Compound Leaks from Gasoline 
Tank Trucks and Vapor Collection Systems,'' EPA-450/2-78-051, 
December 1978.

B. Do the documents meet the evaluation criteria?

    This rule and negative declaration are consistent with CAA 
requirements and relevant guidance regarding enforceability, RACT, and 
SIP revisions. Specifically, the rule requirements sufficiently ensure 
that affected sources

[[Page 33699]]

and regulators can consistently evaluate and determine compliance. 
Additionally, our analysis finds that Rule 61.2 represents current RACT 
for the Tank Truck Gasoline Loading CTG because the rule is as 
stringent as the CTG and is generally consistent with requirements in 
other air districts for tank truck gasoline loading at bulk terminals. 
In addition, our analysis of the District's negative declaration 
determined that there are no non-CTG VOC sources that exceed the 100 
tpy VOC threshold for Moderate ozone nonattainment areas. The Technical 
Support Document (TSD) has more information on our evaluation.

C. The EPA's Recommendations To Further Improve the Submitted Rule

    The TSD includes a recommendation for the next time the local 
agency modifies the Rule 61.2.

D. Public Comment and Proposed Action

    As authorized in section 110(k)(3) of the Act, the EPA proposes to 
fully approve the submitted Rule 61.2 because it fulfills all relevant 
requirements. In addition, the EPA proposes approval of the submitted 
negative declaration for non-CTG major VOC sources for 2008 RACT SIP 
Moderate area requirements. We will accept comments from the public on 
this proposal until July 5, 2022. If we take final action to approve 
the submitted rule and negative declaration, our final action will 
incorporate this rule into the federally enforceable SIP and stop the 
sanctions and FIP clocks that are associated with our previous 
disapproval.

III. Incorporation by Reference

    In this rule, the EPA is proposing to include in a final EPA rule 
regulatory text that includes incorporation by reference. In accordance 
with requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is proposing to incorporate by 
reference SDCAPCD Rule 61.2, ``Transfer of Organic Compounds into 
Mobile Transport Tanks'' as amended on February 10, 2021. The EPA has 
made, and will continue to make, these materials available through 
https://www.regulations.gov and at the EPA Region IX Office (please 
contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT 
section of this preamble for more information).

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

    Under the CAA, the Administrator is required to approve a SIP 
submission that complies with the provisions of the Act and applicable 
federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a). Thus, in 
reviewing SIP submissions, the EPA's role is to approve state choices, 
provided that they meet the criteria of the CAA. Accordingly, this 
proposed action merely proposes to approve state law as meeting federal 
requirements and does not impose additional requirements beyond those 
imposed by state law. For that reason, this proposed action:
     Is not a ``significant regulatory action'' subject to 
review by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Orders 
12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, January 21, 
2011);
     Does not impose an information collection burden under the 
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.);
     Is certified as not having a significant economic impact 
on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory 
Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.);
     Does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or 
uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded 
Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4);
     Does not have federalism implications as specified in 
Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999);
     Is not an economically significant regulatory action based 
on health or safety risks subject to Executive Order 13045 (62 FR 
19885, April 23, 1997);
     Is not a significant regulatory action subject to 
Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001);
     Is not subject to requirements of Section 12(d) of the 
National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 
note) because application of those requirements would be inconsistent 
with the CAA; and
     Does not provide the EPA with the discretionary authority 
to address disproportionate human health or environmental effects with 
practical, appropriate, and legally permissible methods under Executive 
Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994).
    In addition, the SIP is not approved to apply on any Indian 
reservation land or in any other area where the EPA or an Indian tribe 
has demonstrated that a tribe has jurisdiction. In those areas of 
Indian country, the rule does not have tribal implications and will not 
impose substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal 
law as specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 
2000).

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by 
reference, Intergovernmental relations, Ozone, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements, Volatile organic compounds.

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

    Dated: May 31, 2022.
Martha Guzman Aceves,
Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. 2022-11971 Filed 6-2-22; 8:45 am]
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