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Adequacy Status of the Bi-State Louisville 8-Hour Ozone Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets for Transportation Conformity Purposes 



[Federal Register: July 24, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 141)]
[Notices]
[Page 40295-40296]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr24jy07-60]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-R04-OAR-2006-0584; FRL-8444-4]

Adequacy Status of the Bi-State Louisville 8-Hour Ozone Motor
Vehicle Emission Budgets for Transportation Conformity Purposes

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of adequacy.

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SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that we have found
that the Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets (MVEBs) in Kentucky's bi-state
Louisville 8-Hour Ozone Maintenance State Implementation Plan (SIP),
submitted on September 29, 2006, by the Kentucky Division of Air
Quality (KDAQ), are adequate for transportation conformity purposes. As
a result of EPA's finding, the bi-state Louisville area must use the
MVEBs from the September 29, 2006, bi-state Louisville 8-Hour Ozone
Maintenance SIP for future conformity determinations for the 8-hour
ozone standard. In a separate rulemaking, EPA has already approved
these MVEBs. These MVEBs are identical to the MVEBs established for
this area in the Indiana SIP.

DATES: These MVEBs were effective the date of publication (July 5,
2007) for the final rulemaking.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lynorae Benjamin, Environmental

[[Page 40296]]

Engineer, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, Air Planning
Branch, Air Quality Modeling and Transportation Section, 61 Forsyth
Street, SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. Ms. Benjamin can also be reached by
telephone at (404) 562-9040, or via electronic mail at 
benjamin.lynorae@epa.gov. The finding is available at EPA's conformity
Web site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/currsips.htm.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    This notice is simply an announcement of a finding that EPA has
already made. EPA Region 4 sent a letter to KDAQ on June 18, 2007,
stating that the MVEBs in Kentucky's SIP, submitted on September 29,
2006, are adequate. The bi-state Louisville 8-hour ozone nonattainment
area is comprised of the following five counties: Bullitt, Oldham and
Jefferson counties in Kentucky and Clark and Floyd counties in Indiana.
EPA's adequacy comment period for Kentucky's SIP ran from April 27,
2007, through May 29, 2007. During EPA's adequacy comment period no
comments regarding the adequacy of the MVEBs were received. This
finding has also been announced on EPA's conformity Web site: 
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/pastsips.htm.
The adequate MVEBs are provided in the following table:

                 Bi-State Louisville 8-Hour Ozone MVEBs
                             [Tons per day]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                    2003         2020
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VOC...........................................        40.97        22.92
NOX...........................................        95.51        29.46
------------------------------------------------------------------------

EPA has already approved these MVEBs in a separate rulemaking (72 FR
36601, July 5, 2007), and is providing this notice for informational
purposes.

    Transportation conformity is required by section 176 (c) of the
Clean Air Act, as amended in 1990. EPA's conformity rule requires that
transportation plans, programs and projects conform to state air
quality implementation plans 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 EPA determines whether a SIP's MVEBs are
adequate for transportation conformity purposes are outlined in 40 Code
of Federal Regulations 93.118(e)(4). We have described the process for
determining the adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in our July 1, 2004,
final rulemaking entitled, `` Transportation Conformity Rule Amendments
for the New 8-hour Ozone and PM2.5 National Ambient Air
Quality Standards and Miscellaneous Revisions for Existing Areas;
Transportation Conformity Rule Amendments: Response to Court Decision
and Additional Rule Changes'' (69 FR 40004). Please note that an
adequacy review is separate from EPA's completeness review, and it also
should not be used to prejudge EPA's ultimate approval of the SIP. Even
if EPA finds the MVEBs adequate, the Agency may later determine that
the SIP itself is not approvable.

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

    Dated: June 25, 2007.
Russell L. Wright, Jr.,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. E7-14316 Filed 7-23-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P

 
 

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