Adequacy Status of the Maricopa County, Arizona, Submitted CO
Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan for Transportation
Conformity Purposes
[Federal Register: September 29, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 188)]
[Notices]
[Page 55950-55951]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29se03-62]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[AZ-096-FIN; FRL-7564-3]
Adequacy Status of the Maricopa County, Arizona, Submitted CO
Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan 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 contained in the submitted
Maricopa County 2003 Carbon Monoxide (CO) Redesignation Request and
Maintenance Plan are adequate for conformity purposes.
As a result of our finding, the Maricopa Association of Governments
and the U.S. Department of Transportation must use the CO motor vehicle
emissions budgets from the submitted CO Redesignation Request and
Maintenance Plan for future conformity determinations.
DATES: This determination is effective October 14, 2003.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The finding is available at EPA's
conformity Web site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/transp/conform/
adequacy.htm, (once there, click on the ``What SIP submissions has
EPA already found adequate or inadequate?'' button.)
[[Page 55951]]
You may also contact Wienke Tax, U.S. EPA, Region IX, Air Division
AIR-2, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-3901; (520) 622-1622
or tax.wienke@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice announces our finding that the
emissions budgets contained in the submitted Maricopa County 2003
Carbon Monoxide (CO) Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan,
submitted by the State of Arizona on behalf of the Maricopa Association
of Governments, are adequate for conformity purposes. EPA Region IX
made this finding in a letter to the State of Arizona, Department of
Environmental Quality, on September 10, 2003. We are also announcing
this finding on our conformity Web site: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/transp/
conform/adequacy.htm, (once there, click on the ``What SIP
submissions has EPA already found adequate or inadequate?'' button).
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 state air quality implementation
plans (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). One of these criteria is that the motor vehicle
emissions budgets, when considered together with all other emissions
sources, are consistent with applicable requirements for a maintenance
plan. We have preliminarily determined that the MAG 2003 CO
Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan meets the necessary
emissions reductions and therefore, the motor vehicle emissions budgets
can be found adequate. Please note that an adequacy review is separate
from EPA's completeness review which is required by section 110(k)(1)
of the Clean Air Act, and it also should not be used to prejudge EPA's
ultimate approval of the submitted plan itself. Even if we find a
budget adequate, the submitted plan could later be disapproved.
We have described our process for determining the adequacy of
submitted SIP budgets in guidance (May 14, 1999 memo titled
``Conformity Guidance on Implementation of March 2, 1999 Conformity
Court Decision''). We followed this guidance in making our adequacy
determination on the emissions budgets contained in the MAG 2003 CO
Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q.
Dated: September 12, 2003.
Deborah Jordan,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. 03-24559 Filed 9-26-03; 8:45 am]
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