Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Budgets in Submitted State
Implementation Plan for Transportation Conformity Purposes;
Connecticut; Revised Attainment Plan for the Connecticut Portion of the
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island and the Greater Connecticut
Ozone Nonattainment Areas
[Federal Register: January 20, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 12)]
[Notices]
[Page 2711-2712]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20ja04-33]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[CT-057-7216f; A-1-FRL-7611-8]
Adequacy Status of Motor Vehicle Budgets in Submitted State
Implementation Plan for Transportation Conformity Purposes;
Connecticut; Revised Attainment Plan for the Connecticut Portion of the
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island and the Greater Connecticut
Ozone Nonattainment Areas
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of adequacy.
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SUMMARY: In this notice, EPA is notifying the public that EPA has found
that the 2007 motor vehicle emissions budgets in the June 17, 2003
Connecticut State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision are adequate for
conformity purposes. The submittal included MOBILE6.2 motor vehicle
emissions budgets for 2007 for the Connecticut portion of the New York-
Northern New Jersey-Long Island ozone nonattainment area and the
Greater Connecticut ozone nonattainment area. On March 2, 1999, the DC
Circuit Court ruled that budgets in submitted state implementation
plans cannot be used for conformity determinations until EPA has
affirmatively found them adequate. As a result of our finding, the
Connecticut portion of the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island
ozone nonattainment area and the Greater Connecticut ozone
nonattainment area can use the MOBILE6.2 motor vehicle emissions
budgets from the submitted plan for future conformity determinations.
DATES: These budgets are effective February 4, 2004.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donald O. Cooke, Environmental
Scientist, Air Quality Unit, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA
New England Regional Office, One Congress Street, Suite 1100 (CAQ),
Boston, MA 02114-2023, (617) 918-1668, cooke.donald@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Today's notice is simply an announcement of
a finding that we have already made. EPA New England sent a letter to
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection on January 6, 2004
stating that the 2007 MOBILE6.2 motor vehicle emissions budgets in the
June 17, 2003 SIP are adequate. This finding will also be announced on
EPA's conformity Web site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/transp/conform/
adequacy.htm (once there, click on ``What SIP submissions has EPA
already found adequate or inadequate?'').
Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the
Clean Air Act. 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.
[[Page 2712]]
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). 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 we find a budget
adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved.
We've described our process for determining the adequacy of
submitted SIP budgets in a May 14, 1999 memorandum entitled
``Conformity Guidance on Implementation of March 2, 1999 Conformity
Court Decision.'' Additional guidance on EPA's adequacy process was
published in a June 30, 2003 Federal Register notice of proposed
rulemaking, ``Transportation Conformity Rule Amendments: Response to
Court Decision and Additional Rule Changes'' (68 FR 38973). We followed
this guidance in making our adequacy determination.
The MOBILE6.2 motor vehicle emission budgets for 2007 are as
follows: 16.4 tons per summer day (tpsd) for volatile organic compounds
(VOC) and 29.7 tpsd for nitrogen oxides (NOX) in the
Connecticut portion of the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island
severe ozone nonattainment area, and 51.9 tpsd for VOC and 98.4 tpsd
for NOX in the Greater Connecticut serious ozone
nonattainment area.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671 q.
Dated: January 8, 2004.
Robert W. Varney,
Regional Administrator, EPA New England.
[FR Doc. 04-1109 Filed 1-16-04; 8:45 am]
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