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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 107 / Monday, June 7, 2021 / Proposed Rules Available Control Technology RACT
rules as expeditiously as practicable but no later than 18 months from the date when the Severe area RACT SIP will be due.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before July 7, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPAR09
OAR20210341 at https
www.regulations.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. The 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. The 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. If you need assistance in a language other than English or if you are a person with disabilities who needs a reasonable accommodation at no cost to you, please contact the person identified in the FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben Leers, Air Planning Office AIR2, EPA
Region IX, 415 9474279, Leers.Benjamin@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Throughout this document, we, us, and our refer to the EPA.

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Table of Contents I. Background II. Severe Area Requirements and Proposed Schedule A. Severe Area Plan Requirements B. NSR and Title V Program Revisions C. Federal Reformulated Gasoline III. Proposed Action and Request for Public Comment IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. Background In March 2008, the EPA strengthened the primary and secondary eight-hour
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ozone NAAQS from 0.08 parts per million ppm to 0.075 ppm 2008
ozone NAAQS.1 In accordance with section 107d of the CAA, the EPA
must designate an area nonattainment if it is violating the NAAQS or if it is contributing to a violation of the NAAQS in a nearby area. With respect to the ozone NAAQS, the EPA further classifies nonattainment areas as Marginal, Moderate, Serious, Severe, 2 or Extreme, depending upon the ozone design value for an area.3 See CAA section 181a1. As a general matter, higher classified ozone nonattainment areas are subject to a greater number of, and more stringent, CAA planning requirements than lower classified areas but are allowed more time to attain the ozone NAAQS. See, generally, subpart 2 of part D of title I
of the CAA.
Effective July 20, 2012, the EPA
designated and classified the Eastern Kern area 4 under the CAA as Marginal nonattainment for the 2008 8-hour ozone NAAQS.5 EPAs classification of Eastern Kern as a Marginal ozone nonattainment area established a requirement that the area attain the 2008
ozone NAAQS as expeditiously as practicable, but no later than three years from the date of designation as nonattainment, i.e., July 20, 2015. Under CAA section 181b2, the EPA is required to determine whether an area attained the ozone NAAQS by the applicable attainment date. In May 2016, the EPA found that Eastern Kern failed to attain the 2008 ozone NAAQS
by the July 20, 2015 Marginal attainment date and reclassified the area as Moderate for the 2008 ozone NAAQS
with a new maximum attainment date of July 20, 2018.6
1 73

FR 16436 March 27, 2008.
this document, we use the term Severe to refer to Severe areas that have up to 15
years to attain the ozone standards. The ozone area designation tables in 40 CFR part 81 specify Severe-15 to distinguish such areas from Severe17 areas, which are Severe areas that have up to 17 years to attain the ozone standards.
3 For the 2008 ozone NAAQS, the design value at each monitoring site is the annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour average ozone concentration, averaged over three years. The design value for an area is the highest design value among the monitoring sites.
4 Kern County is located in the southern-most portion of Californias Central Valley. The western portion of Kern County is part of the San Joaquin Valley air basin and is included within the San Joaquin Valley ozone nonattainment area. The eastern portion of Kern County is part of the Mojave Desert air basin. The Eastern Kern ozone nonattainment area covers the eastern portion of the county excluding Indian Wells Valley. For more detail on the boundaries of the Eastern Kern ozone nonattainment area, see the 2008 ozone table in 40
CFR 81.305.
5 77 FR 30088 May 21, 2012.
6 81 FR 26697 May 4, 2016.
2 Throughout
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On October 25, 2017, CARB submitted the Eastern Kern Air Pollution Control District 2017 Ozone Attainment Plan for the Federal 75 ppb 8-Hour Ozone Standard the Eastern Kern 2017
Ozone Plan, which included a request for voluntary reclassification of the Eastern Kern ozone nonattainment area from Moderate to Serious. Effective August 6, 2018, the EPA granted CARBs request and reclassified the Eastern Kern ozone nonattainment area as Serious for the 2008 ozone NAAQS with a new maximum attainment date of July 20, 2021.7
By letter dated May 15, 2021, CARB
submitted a request from the Eastern Kern Air Pollution Control District District to the EPA to voluntarily reclassify the Eastern Kern ozone nonattainment area from Serious to Severe for the 2008 8-hour ozone NAAQS.8 In the Rules and Regulations section of this Federal Register, the EPA
is granting Californias request and reclassifying the Eastern Kern area from Serious to Severe nonattainment for the 2008 8-hour ozone NAAQS. In this action, we are proposing a schedule for the State to submit the plan elements for a Severe ozone nonattainment area.
II. Severe Area Requirements and Proposed Schedule In this action, we are proposing to require the State to submit SIP revisions to address the requirements resulting from the EPAs reclassification of Eastern Kern to Severe nonattainment for the 2008 ozone NAAQS by no later than 18 months from the effective date of the EPAs final rule reclassifying Eastern Kern to Severe. Under this proposal, the States submittals would need to include a Severe area plan that addresses the requirements of CAA
section 182d as well as revisions to the NSR rules applicable to the area. We are also proposing a schedule for submittal of revised title V rules within six months of the effective date of the EPAs final reclassification rule as explained in greater detail below.
A. Severe Area Plan Requirements CARB must submit SIP revisions for Eastern Kern that satisfy the general air quality planning requirements under CAA section 172c and specific requirements for Severe areas under 7 83

FR 31334 July 5, 2018.
dated May 15, 2021, from Richard W.
Corey, Executive Officer, CARB, to Deborah Jordan, Acting Regional Administrator, EPA Region IX. In the letter, CARB also requests reclassification of Eastern Kern to Serious for the 2015 ozone NAAQS.
The EPA will take action on the reclassification request with respect to the 2015 ozone NAAQS in a separate rulemaking.
8 Letter
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