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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 125 / Friday, July 2, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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jurisdictional boundaries.2 3 The guidance also referenced EPAs nonbinding Monitoring Technical Assistance Document Monitoring TAD 4 and Modeling Technical Assistance Document Modeling TAD,5
which contain scientifically sound recommendations on how air agencies should conduct such monitoring or modeling.
EPA completed the first set of initial area designations for the 2010
1-hour SO2 NAAQS in 2013 Round 1.
Pursuant to a March 2, 2015, consent decree and court-ordered schedule,6
EPA finalized a second set of initial area designations for the 2010 1-hour SO2
NAAQS in 2016 Round 2. The March 2, 2015, consent decree identified the following emissions criteria such that EPA must designate, in Round 2, an area surrounding any stationary source which had: a Annual emissions in 2012 exceeding 16,000 tons of SO2, or b both an annual average emissions rate of at least 0.45 pounds of SO2 per one million British thermal units, according to EPAs Clean Air Markets Division Database, and annual emissions of at least 2,600 tons of SO2
in 2012. North Carolina had one source, the Capital Power Incorporated CPI
Southport Cape Fear facility in Brunswick County, that met these Round 2 criteria.
EPA evaluated the Brunswick County Area, using the five factors identified previously, during the Round 2
designations. This evaluation is discussed further in Section III of this notice. The CPI Southport facility, located on the coast of southeastern North Carolina in the southeastern portion of Brunswick County, was an 2 The 2015 memorandum is available at https
www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-04/
documents/20150320so2designations.pdf.
3 This designation guidance has since been supplemented by a July 22, 2016, designation guidance memorandum from Stephen D. Page, Director, U.S. EPA, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, to Regional Air Division Directors, U.S. EPA Regions 110. The 2016 memorandum is available at https www.epa.gov/sites/production/
files/2016-07/documents/areadesign.pdf.
4 The version of the EPAs SO NAAQS
2 Designations Source-Oriented Monitoring Technical Assistance Document Monitoring TAD available at the time of the Round 2 designations action was released in December 2013. The current version of the Monitoring TAD was released in February 2016
and superseded the version released in December 2013.
5 Sulfur Dioxide SO National Ambient Air 2
Quality Standards Designations Modeling Technical Assistance Document, August 2016 draft, available at https www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/201606/documents/so2modelingtad.pdf. EPA released earlier drafts of this document in May 2013 and February 2016.
6 See Sierra Club et. al. v. McCarthy, Civil Action No. 3:13cv3953SI N.D. Cal. and 79 FR 31325
June 2, 2014.

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electric power generation plant with two electric generating units EGUs that were permitted to combust a variety of solid fuels, including coal, woody biomass fuels, and tire derived fuel. CPI
was included in the list of facilities to be designated pursuant to the March 2, 2015, Consent Decree.7
EPAs March 20, 2015, guidance specified the designation category definitions to be used in the Round 2
designations. Specifically, EPA defined a nonattainment area as an area that EPA has determined violates the 2010
1-hour SO2 NAAQS based on the most recent three years of quality-assured, certified ambient air quality monitoring data or an appropriate modeling analysis, or that EPA has determined contributes to a violation in a nearby area; and defined an attainment area as an area that EPA has determined meets the 2010 1-hour SO2 NAAQS and does not contribute to a violation of the NAAQS in a nearby area based on either: a The most recent three years of ambient air quality monitoring data from a monitoring network in an area that is sufficient to be compared to the NAAQS per EPA interpretations in the Monitoring TAD, or b an appropriate modeling analysis.
As discussed further in Section III of this notice, EPA was unable to determine whether the Brunswick County Area met the definition of a nonattainment area or the definition of an attainment area based on the available information at the time of the Round 2 designations. As a result, EPA
designated the Brunswick County Area as unclassifiable in the Round 2
designations published on July 12, 2016.8 The Area includes all six townships Lockwood Folly Township, Northwest Township, Shallotte Township, Smithville Township, Town Creek Township, Waccamaw Township within the jurisdictional boundary of 7 CPI Southport was also subject to EPAs 2015
Data Requirements Rule DRR for the 2010 SO2
1-hour NAAQS. See https www.epa.gov/sites/
production/files/2016-06/documents/nc.pdf for North Carolinas letter and DRR source list, dated January 15, 2016. EPA separately promulgated the DRR which required states to undertake air quality characterization for areas with SO2 sources meeting certain criteria. Specifically, the DRR required state air agencies to provide additional monitoring or modeling information to characterize air quality in areas associated with sources meeting certain criteria or that have otherwise been listed under the DRR by EPA or state air agencies, or to instead impose federally enforceable emission limitations on those sources restricting their annual SO2
emissions to less than 2,000 tons per year, or provide documentation that the sources have been shut down, by specified dates. The information generated by implementation of the DRR informed EPAs designations.
8 See 81 FR 45039 July 12, 2016, effective September 12, 2016 codified at 40 CFR 81.334.

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Brunswick County. Detailed rationale, analyses, and other information supporting EPAs original Round 2
designation for this Area can be found in the Round 2 designations technical support document TSD for North Carolina. All supporting materials for the original 2010 1-hour SO2 NAAQS
designation for the Brunswick County Area, including the TSD, can be found on EPAs SO2 designations website.9
After reviewing North Carolinas redesignation request under CAA
section 107d3D and all available information, EPA is proposing to redesignate the Brunswick County Area from unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable for the 2010 1-hour SO2
standard based on a valid ambient SO2
design value that adequately characterizes the SO2 air quality in the Brunswick County Area. See Sections II
and III below for more information on the criteria to redesignate unclassifiable SO2 areas and the rationale for this proposed action.
II. What are the criteria for redesignating an area from unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable?
Section 107d3A of the CAA
provides that the Administrator may notify the Governor of any state that the designation of an area should be revised on the basis of air quality data, planning and control considerations, or any other air quality-related considerations the Administrator deems appropriate. 10 The Act further provides in section 107d3D that even if the Administrator has not notified a state Governor that a designation should be revised, the Governor of any state may, on the Governors own motion, submit a request to revise the designation of any area, and the Administrator must approve or deny the request. In keeping with CAA section 107d3A, areas that are redesignated to attainment/
unclassifiable 11 must meet the 9 EPAs SO designations website can be found at 2
https www.epa.gov/sulfur-dioxide-designations/
epa-completes-second-round-sulfur-dioxidedesignations.
10 While CAA section 107d3E also lists specific requirements for redesignations, those requirements only apply to redesignations of nonattainment areas to attainment and, therefore, are not applicable in the context of a redesignation of an area from unclassifiable to attainment/
unclassifiable.
11 Historically, EPA has designated most areas that do not meet the definition of nonattainment as unclassifiable/attainment. EPA has reversed the order of the label to be attainment/unclassifiable to better convey the definition of the designation category and so that the category is more easily distinguished from the separate unclassifiable
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