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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 40 / Wednesday, March 3, 2021 / Rules and Regulations best available science. As EPA laid out in the NPRM, EPA has interpreted the provision in CAA section 175A that requires states to provide for maintenance of the NAAQS to be satisfied when the design values are consistently below 85% of the relevant standard, which in this case means at or below 0.071 parts per million ppm. At the time of submission, on December 10, 2019, the Huntington Areas 2016 to 2018 design value was at 0.064 ppm.
The 2017 to 2019 period design value fell to 0.062 ppm. As EPA noted in the NPRM the area has maintained design values below 0.065 ppm since 2014. The commenter did not identify what science might provide a better basis for demonstrating maintenance with the ozone NAAQS than what West Virginia relied upon in the second maintenance plan, or that EPA should consider in its evaluation of the plan. The commenter had provided EPA with no basis to change its conclusion that the data and analysis of the data provided by West Virginia in support of the second maintenance plan will result in maintenance of the NAAQS for the remainder of the second maintenance period. See, e.g., International Fabricare Institute v. E.P.A., 972 F.2d 384, 391
D.C. Cir. 1992. The Administrative Procedures Act does not require that EPA change its decision based on comments consisting of little more than assertions that in the opinions of the commenters the agency got it wrong, when submitted with no accompanying data.
The commenter further asserts that:
1 The plan did not provide information about prevention and reduction of future impacts of oil and gas development activity; 2 the plan did not take into consideration future installation of oil and gas pipelines in the area; and 3 the plan failed to consider potential emissions from oil and gas pipeline. We do not agree with the commenter that a demonstration of maintenance under CAA section 175A
is required to prevent potential future emissions activities in the area, or to consider potential future emissions from sources that do not yet exist. As noted above and in the proposal, under the LMP option, states may demonstrate that areas will maintain the NAAQS by showing that design values in the area in question are stably and significantly below the level of the NAAQS. In this case, the Huntington Areas most recent design value 5 is below 0.065 ppm and 5 The ozone design value for a monitoring site is the 3-year average of the annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour average ozone concentrations.
The design value for an ozone nonattainment area
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has been since 2014. The design values for the Huntington Area, that includes Cabell County in West Virginia and Boyd County in Kentucky KY, consistently have been below 0.071 ppm since 2013 through 2019, the last year for which EPA has data.6 See Table 1 of this preamble for the design value data in ppm for both counties. Based on these trends, EPA has a high degree of confidence that the Area will be able to continue to maintain the NAAQS.

TABLE 1REPORTED DESIGN VALUE
DATA BETWEEN 2006 AND 2019
FOR CABELL COUNTY, WV AND
BOYD COUNTY, KY 7
Design value ppm Year 2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019

Cabell County, WV

Boyd County, KY

0.076
0.084
0.080
0.073
0.066
0.067
0.072
0.069
0.065
0.062
0.064
0.064
0.064
0.062

0.076
0.077
0.074
0.070
0.070
0.069
0.072
0.069
0.068
0.066
0.066
0.065
0.064
0.062

Moreover, in addition to demonstrating maintenance via the LMP
option, West Virginia also pointed to EPAs Air Quality Modeling TSD which projects future design values, including the Huntington Area, in 2023. This modeling takes into consideration all on-the-books control measures and any known future planned projects and sources. The Air Quality Modeling TSD
projects that the average design value for the area in 2023 to be 0.058 ppm.
This value is so far below the level of the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS that even if additional oil and gas sources is the highest design value of any monitoring site in the area.
6 Design values for 2020 are not expected to be available before May 1, 2021. Design values are calculated for the year after states, locals and/or tribes certify their data on May 1st of the following year. Typically, design values are not finalized and posted until July of the following year. Design values are published annually by EPA and currently available through calendar year 2019. For more information on air quality design values visit:
https www.epa.gov/air-trends/air-quality-designvalues.
7 See EPA Air Quality SystemHuntington WV
Design Value Report of WVDEPs December 10, 2019 submittal, which includes details about the design values from the Huntington Area in WV
from 2006 until 2019. Air quality data is also available at: https www.epa.gov/outdoor-airquality-data.

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were to be sited in the Huntington Area any of which would be subject to applicable CAA controls such as Prevention of Significant Deterioration PSD, those emissions increases would be unlikely to cause the area to violate the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS. Any emissions increases above the trigger levels specified in the LMP, whatever the cause, will result in West Virginia having to implement contingency measures as described in the NPRM.
Moreover, as stated in the NPRM, if there is indeed a violation and the design value exceeds the NAAQS, the contingency plan will be triggered, based on the following schedule: 1
Quality assurance procedures must confirm the monitored violation within 45 days of occurrence; 2 a draft rule would be developed by WVDEP for any regulation chosen; 3 WVDEP will adopt the selected control measures as emergency rules which will be implemented within six months after adoption and will file the rules as legislative rules for permanent authorization by the legislature; and 4
for each voluntary measure selected, WVDEP will initiate program development with local governments within the area by the start of the following ozone season. These measures are part of the CAA section 175A
requirements for an approvable LMP
and West Virginias second maintenance plan meets these requirements.
The commenter also contends that the LMP does not present adequate funding to cover the costs and fails to comply with other provisions of state policy, but provides no further details or explanation. Similar to the comment regarding the alleged failure of West Virginia to use the best available science, the commenter has made an allegation without providing any support. The commenter provides no basis for EPA to be able to evaluate whether or not a funding issue exists.
With respect to an alleged failure to comply with state policy, no specific policies that make it impossible for it to meet the EPA standards are cited by the commenter. Even had the commenter cited specific policies, Comments consisting of little more than assertions that in the opinions of the commenters the agency got it wrong, when submitted with no accompanying data do not provide sufficient ground for EPA to change its evaluation of a plan that on its face comports with EPAs governing law and with the Agencys consistent and longstanding policies for LMPs. See International Fabricare at 391.
Furthermore, CAA section 175A does
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