Adequacy Status of Submitted State Implementation Plans (SIP) for
Transportation Conformity Purposes: MOBILE6 Motor Vehicle Emissions
Budgets for the Baton Rouge 1-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Area
[Federal Register: June 2, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 105)]
[Notices]
[Page 32748-32749]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr02jn03-77]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[LA-68-1-7599; FRL-7506-3]
Adequacy Status of Submitted State Implementation Plans (SIP) for
Transportation Conformity Purposes: MOBILE6 Motor Vehicle Emissions
Budgets for the Baton Rouge 1-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Area
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
the on-road motor vehicle emissions budget contained in the revision to
the Baton Rouge serious ozone nonattainment area attainment
demonstration SIP adequate for transportation conformity purposes. As a
result of our finding, the budgets from the submitted attainment
demonstration SIP revision must be used for future conformity
determinations in the Baton Rouge area.
DATES: These budgets are effective June 17, 2003.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The essential information in this
notice will be available at EPA's conformity Web site:
http://www.epa.gov/oms/transp/conform/adequacy.htm. You may also
contact Ms. Peggy Wade, Air Planning Section (6PD-L), U.S. EPA Region 6,
1445 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75202-2733, telephone (214) 665-7247,
Email address: Wade.Peggy@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document ``we,'' ``us,'' and
``our'' refers to EPA. The word ``budget(s)'' refers to the mobile
source emissions budget for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the
mobile source emissions budget for nitrogen oxides (NOX).
The word ``SIP'' in this document refers to the State Implementation
Plan revision submitted to satisfy the commitment of the State of
Louisiana to revise its mobile source budgets for the Baton Rouge ozone
nonattainment area with MOBILE6. (MOBILE6 is the most recent emissions
factor model, released by EPA on January 29, 2001.)
On January 21, 2003, we received the MOBILE6 SIP revision for the
Baton Rouge 5-Parish ozone nonattainment area. There are two motor
vehicle emissions budgets found in this plan for 2005. The emissions
budget for VOCs is 18.82 tons/day; the NOX emissions budget
is 30.00 tons/day. On January 31, 2003, the availability of these
budgets was posted on EPA's Web site for the purpose of soliciting
public comments.
[[Page 32749]]
The comment period closed on March 3, 2003, and we received no
comments.
Today's notice is simply an announcement of a finding that we have
already made. EPA Region 6 delivered a letter to the Louisiana
Department of Environmental Quality on March 27, 2003, finding that the
motor vehicle emissions budgets in the Baton Rouge 5-Parish ozone
nonattainment area are adequate and must be used for transportation
conformity determinations.
Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the
Clean Air Act. EPA's conformity rule, 40 CFR part 93, requires that
transportation plans, programs and projects conform to SIPs and
establishes the criteria and procedures for determining whether or not
they do so. 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
motor vehicle emission budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are
outlined in 40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). Please note that such an adequacy
review is separate from EPA's completeness review, and it 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.
On March 2, 1999, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that
budgets contained in submitted SIPS cannot be used for conformity
determinations unless EPA has affirmatively found the conformity budget
adequate. We have described our process for determining the adequacy of
submitted SIP budgets in the policy guidance dated May 14, 1999, and
titled Conformity Guidance on Implementation of March 2, 1999,
Conformity Court Decision. We followed this guidance in making our
adequacy determination. You may obtain a copy of this guidance from
EPA's conformity website or by contacting us at the address above.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: May 16, 2003.
Lawrence E. Starfield,
Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 6.
[FR Doc. 03-13718 Filed 5-30-03; 8:45 am]
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