Adequacy Status of the Lamar and Steamboat Springs, CO PM10
Maintenance Plans for Transportation Conformity Purposes
[Federal Register: October 28, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 208)]
[Notices]
[Page 65789-65790]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr28oc02-54]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[CO-001-0071; FRL-7400-8]
Adequacy Status of the Lamar and Steamboat Springs, CO PM10
Maintenance Plans for Transportation Conformity Purposes
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of adequacy.
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SUMMARY: In this document, EPA is notifying the public that we have
found that the motor vehicle emissions budgets in the Lamar and
Steamboat Springs, Colorado particulate matter of 10 micrograms in size
or smaller (PM10) maintenance plans submitted on July 31,
2002, are adequate for conformity purposes. On March 2, 1999, the DC
Circuit Court ruled that budgets in submitted State Implementation
Plans (SIPs) cannot be used for conformity determinations until EPA has
affirmatively found them adequate. As a result of our finding, the City
of Lamar, the City of Steamboat Springs, the Colorado Department of
Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation are required
to use the motor vehicle emissions budgets from these submitted
maintenance plans for future conformity determinations.
DATES: This finding is effective November 12, 2002.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kerri Fiedler, Air & Radiation Program
(8P-AR), United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8, 999
18th Street, Suite 300, Denver, Colorado 80202-2466, (303) 312-6493.
The letter documenting our finding is available at EPA's conformity Web
site: http://www.epa.gov/oms/transp/conform/adequacy.htm.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document wherever ``we'',
``us'', or ``our'' are used we mean EPA.
This action is simply an announcement of a finding that we have
already made. We sent a letter to the Colorado Air Pollution Control
Division on September 25, 2002 stating that the motor vehicle emissions
budgets in the submitted Lamar and Steamboat Springs PM10
maintenance plans are adequate. This finding has also been announced on
our conformity Web site at http://www.epa.gov/oms/transp/conform/
adequacy.htm.
Transportation conformity is required by section 176(c) of the
Clean Air Act. Our conformity rule requires that transportation plans,
programs, and projects conform to SIPs 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 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 our completeness review, and it also should not be used to
prejudge our ultimate approval of the SIP. Even if we find a budget
adequate, the SIP could later be disapproved, and vice versa.
We've described our process for determining the adequacy of
submitted SIP budgets in a memo entitled, ``Conformity Guidance on
Implementation of March 2, 1999 Conformity Court Decision,'' dated May
14, 1999. We followed this guidance in making our adequacy
determination.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: October 21, 2002.
Robert E. Roberts,
Regional Administrator, Region VIII.
[FR Doc. 02-27345 Filed 10-25-02; 8:45 am]
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