Quiero saber acerca de...

8742

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 25 / Tuesday, February 9, 2021 / Proposed Rules
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
EPAR03OAR20200528; FRL10018
15Region 3

Air Plan Approval; Maryland; Negative Declaration for the Oil and Gas Industry Environmental Protection Agency EPA.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
AGENCY:

The Environmental Protection Agency EPA is proposing to approve a state implementation plan SIP revision submitted by the State of Maryland.
This revision provides Marylands determination, via a negative declaration, that there are no sources within its borders subject to EPAs 2016
Oil and Natural Gas Control Techniques Guidelines 2016 Oil and Gas CTG.
This action is being taken under the Clean Air Act CAA.
DATES: Written comments must be received on or before March 11, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPAR03
OAR20200528 at https
www.regulations.gov, or via email to gordon.mike@epa.gov. For comments submitted at Regulations.gov, follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. For either manner of submission, EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket.
Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be confidential business information CBI
or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions audio, video, etc. must be accompanied by a written comment.
The written comment is considered the official comment and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. EPA will generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary submission i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system. For additional submission methods, please contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section. For the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit https www.epa.gov/dockets/
commenting-epa-dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
David Talley, Planning &
Implementation Branch 3AD30, Air &

khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with PROPOSALS

SUMMARY:

VerDate Sep<11>2014

16:53 Feb 08, 2021

Jkt 253001

Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1650
Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. The telephone number is 215
8142117. Mr. Talley can also be reached via electronic mail at talley.david@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 18, 2020, the Maryland Department of the Environment MDE submitted the negative declaration for the 2016 Oil and Gas CTG as a revision to the Maryland SIP.
I. Background The CAA regulates emissions of nitrogen oxides NOX and volatile organic compounds VOCs to prevent photochemical reactions that result in ozone formation. Reasonably available control technology RACT is a strategy for reducing NOX and VOC emissions from stationary sources within areas not meeting the National Ambient Air Quality Standards NAAQS for ozone.
EPA has consistently defined RACT
as the lowest emission limit that a particular source is capable of meeting by the application of the control technology that is reasonably available considering technological and economic feasibility.
Control Technique Guidelines CTGs and Alternative Control Techniques ACTs form important components of the guidance that EPA provides to states for making RACT determinations. CTGs are used to presumptively define VOC
RACT for applicable source categories.
CAA section 182b2A requires that for ozone nonattainment areas classified as moderate or above, states must revise their SIPs to include provisions to implement RACT for each category of VOC sources covered by a CTG
document. CAA section 184b1B
extends the RACT obligation to all areas of states within the Ozone Transport Region OTR, including Maryland.1
States subject to RACT requirements are required to enact controls for sources subject to CTGs that are at least as stringent as those found within the CTG either via the adoption of regulations, or by issuance of single source permits that outline what the source is required to do to meet RACT.2
On March 6, 2016 80 FR 12264, EPA
issued a final rule entitled Implementation of the 2008 National 1 CAA section 184a establishes a single OTR
comprised of 11 eastern states including Maryland and the Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area CMSA that includes the District of Columbia.
2 EPA took final action to approve Marylands SIP
revision addressing VOC RACT requirements including the other CTGs for the 2008 8-hour ozone NAAQS on February 20, 2019. See 84 FR
5004.

PO 00000

Frm 00022

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: State Implementation Plan Requirements 2008 Ozone Implementation Rule. In the preamble to the final rule, EPA makes clear that if there are no sources covered by a specific CTG source category located in an ozone nonattainment area or an area in the OTR, the state may submit a negative declaration for that CTG. See 80 FR 12264, 12278.
On October 27, 2016 81 FR 74798, EPA published in the Federal Register the Release of Final Control Techniques Guidelines for the Oil and Natural Gas Industry, 2016 Oil and Gas CTG.3 This CTG provided information to state, local, and tribal air agencies to assist in determining RACT
for VOC emissions from certain VOC
emission source within the oil and natural gas industry. The 2016 Oil and Gas CTG replaces an earlier 1983 CTG
entitled Control of Volatile Organic Compound Equipment Leaks from Natural Gas/Gasoline Processing Plants.
December 1983. EPA450/383007
1983 CTG 49 FR 4432; February 6, 1984. See 2016 Oil and Gas CTG, p. 8
1.
II. Summary of SIP Revision and EPA
Analysis The 2016 Oil and Gas CTG divides the industry into four segments: Production, processing, transmission and storage, and distribution. The transmission and storage sector includes compressor stations, pipelines and storage facilities.
The distribution sector is the final step in delivering natural gas to customers and includes gas mains and service pipelines. See CTG p. 31; see also CTG
pp. 31 through 33 for a brief explanation of each segment. However, not all four segments of the industry are subject to the requirements of the CTG.
The CTG covers select sources of VOC
emissions in the onshore production and processing segments of the oil and natural gas industry i.e., pneumatic controllers, pneumatic pumps, compressors, equipment leaks, fugitive emissions and storage vessel VOC
emissions in all segments except distribution of the oil and natural gas industry. These sources were selected for RACT recommendations because current information indicates that they are significant sources of VOC
emissions.
According to Marylands June 18, 2020 submittal, MDE conducted a review of potential sources subject to 3 The CTG is available at https www.epa.gov/
sites/production/files/2016-10/documents/2016-ctgoil-and-gas.pdf and is also included in the docket for this action.

E:FRFM09FEP1.SGM

09FEP1