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Adequacy Status of the Massachusetts 8-Hour Ozone Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets for Transportation Conformity Purposes; Massachusetts 

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[Federal Register: March 18, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 53)]
[Notices]
[Page 14466-14467]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18mr08-69]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-R01-OAR-2008-0107; A-1-FRL-8543-3]

Adequacy Status of the Massachusetts 8-Hour Ozone Motor Vehicle
Emissions Budgets for Transportation Conformity Purposes; Massachusetts

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

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SUMMARY: EPA is notifying the public that EPA has found that the 2008
and 2009 motor vehicle emissions budgets in the January 31, 2008
Massachusetts 8-hour ozone State Implementation Plan revision are
adequate for transportation conformity purposes. The submittal includes
2008 and 2009 motor vehicle emission budgets for the Boston-Lawrence-
Worcester (Eastern Massachusetts) and Springfield (Western
Massachusetts) 8-hour ozone nonattainment areas. As a result of our
finding, Massachusetts must use these motor vehicle emission budgets
for future conformity determinations.

DATES: This finding is effective April 2, 2008.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donald O. Cooke, Environmental
Scientist, Air Quality Planning 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: Throughout this document, whenever ``we,''
``us'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA.
    Today's action is simply an announcement of a finding that we have
already made. EPA New England sent a letter to the Massachusetts
Department of Environmental Protection on March 7, 2008, stating that
the 2008 and 2009 motor vehicle emissions budgets (MVEBs) in the
Boston-Lawrence-Worcester (Eastern Massachusetts) and Springfield
(Western Massachusetts) 8-hour ozone nonattainment areas are adequate.
Massachusetts submitted the budgets on January 31, 2008, as part of the
8-hour ozone attainment demonstration and reasonable further progress
plan for Eastern and Western Massachusetts. This submittal was
announced on EPA's conformity website, and received no comments. (See
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/adequacy.htm. Once
there, click on ``What SIP submissions are currently under EPA adequacy
review?'')
    The 2008 and 2009 MVEBs, in tons per summer day (tpsd), for
volatile organic compounds (VOC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOX) for
Eastern and Western Massachusetts, are as follows:

                                    Adequate Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Boston-Lawrence-Worcester         Springfield  (Western
                                                   (Eastern Massachusetts) Area         Massachusetts) Area
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
                                                    VOC (tpsd)      NOX (tpsd)      VOC (tpsd)      NOX (tpsd)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year 2008.......................................           68.30          191.30           11.80           31.30
Year 2009.......................................           63.50          174.96           10.73           27.73
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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

[[Page 14467]]

timely attainment of the national ambient air quality standards.
    The criteria by which we determine whether a SIP's motor vehicle
emissions budgets are adequate for conformity purposes are outlined in
40 CFR 93.118(e)(4). We have described our process for determining the
adequacy of submitted SIP budgets in our July 1, 2004, preamble
starting at 69 FR 40038, and we used the information in these resources
while making our adequacy determination. 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.

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q.

    Dated: March 10, 2008.
Robert W. Varney,
Regional Administrator, EPA New England.
[FR Doc. E8-5399 Filed 3-17-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P

 
 

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