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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 47 / Friday, March 12, 2021 / Rules and Regulations NAAQS. See 44 FR 8202 February 8, 1979.
The EPA redesignated the Kansas City area to attainment of the 1979 1-hour ozone standard and approved Kansass ozone maintenance plan for the Kansas City area on July 23, 1992. See 57 FR
27936 June 23, 1992. Pursuant to section 175A of the CAA, the first 10year maintenance period for the 1-hour ozone standard began on July 23, 1992, the effective date of the redesignation approval.
In 1995, the Kansas City area violated the 1979 1-hour ozone standard. Kansas revised the control strategy and contingency measures in the maintenance plan, which was approved on December 30, 2002. See 67 FR 66058
October 30, 2002. The revised control strategy included K.A.R. 2819719, Fuel Volatility.
On May 2, 1997, Kansas adopted the seven and two tenths 7.2 psi RVP limit from June 1 to September 15.2 The EPA
approved this rule into the SIP on July 7, 1997.3 Following a violation of the ozone standard for the three-year period of 19951997, on April 3, 2001, Kansas revised the rule to seven 7.0 psi RVP
limit from June 1 to September 15.4 The EPA approved this rule into the SIP on February 13, 2002.5
On July 18, 1997, the EPA established a new 8-hour ozone NAAQS hereafter the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS. See 62
FR 38856 July 18, 1997. This newly established 8-hour ozone NAAQS
replaced the prior 1-hour ozone NAAQS.
On April 30, 2004, the EPA published a final rule in the Federal Register stating the 1979 1-hour ozone NAAQS
would no longer apply i.e., would be revoked for an area one year after the effective date of the areas designation for the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS. See 69 FR 23951 April 30, 2004. The Kansas City Area was designated as an unclassifiable area for the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS, effective June 15, 2004.
See id. However, on May 3, 2005, the EPA published a final rule designating the Kansas City area as an attainment area for the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS
based on new monitoring data. See 70
FR 22801 May 3, 2005. The effective date of the revocation of the 1979 1-hour ozone standard for the Kansas City area was June 15, 2005. See 70 FR 44470
August 3, 2005. Kansas achieved the required maintenance of the 1979 1hour ozone standard in 2014.
2 The Kansas rule allowed an additional one psi for gasoline containing 9 to 10% ethanol.
3 See 62 FR 36212.
4 The Kansas rule allows an additional one psi for gasoline containing 9 to 10% ethanol.
5 See 67 FR 6655.

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On December 9, 2020, Kansas requested that the EPA remove K.A.R.
2819719 from the SIP. Section 110l of the CAA prohibits the EPA from approving a SIP revision that interferes with any applicable requirement concerning attainment and reasonable further progress RFP, or any other applicable requirement of the CAA. As detailed in the proposal, Kansas adequately demonstrated that removal of this rule will not affect the areas ability to attain or maintain any air quality standards.
III. The EPAs Response to Comments The public comment period on the EPAs proposed rule opened January 19, 2021 the date of its publication in the Federal Register and closed on February 18, 2021. During this period, EPA
received three supportive comments and one adverse comment. The adverse comment is discussed below.
Comment: Jeopardizing the health of Kansas City residents is not worth the proposed change because cities are hotspots for air pollution, air pollution leads to respiratory issues and low income populations suffer more from air pollution.
Response: As discussed in our proposal, the increases in emissions from this change will be offset by emissions decreases from fleet turnover and the Tier 3 motor vehicle and fuel standards. In addition, the NAAQS are set at a level protective of public health allowing an adequate margin of safety,6
and the Kansas City Area is currently monitoring air quality that is attaining all NAAQS.
To determine if the removal of the RVP requirement would interfere with attainment of the NAAQS, KDHE
conducted emission calculations for a baseline year of 2017 with the state RVP requirement and an implementation year of 2020 without the state RVP requirement. KDHE
found that emissions from motor vehicles decreased from the baseline year to the implementation year. We find this analysis an acceptable showing that the removal of the RVP requirement will not interfere with the attainment of the NAAQS. See our proposal of this action and the KDHE submittal in the docket for more information.
In addition to comparing emissions between 2017 and 2020, KDHE also compared emissions in the same year with and without the state RVP
requirement. While there is an increase in emissions from removing the state RVP requirement, the state has 6 See https www.epa.gov/naaqs for more information on the NAAQS.

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demonstrated that the removal of the RVP requirement will not interfere with attainment and maintenance of the NAAQS because emissions will be reduced by continued fleet turnover and Tier 3 motor vehicle and fuel standards.
As such, the EPA finds that removal of the RVP requirement will not impair air quality in the Kansas City area and therefore will not result in the public health concerns expressed by the commenter.
IV. Have the requirements for approval of a SIP revision been met?
The State submission has met the public notice requirements for SIP
submissions in accordance with 40 CFR
51.102. The submission also satisfied the completeness criteria of 40 CFR part 51, appendix V. The State provided public notice on this SIP revision from August 27, 2020 to November 4, 2020
and held a public hearing on November 4, 2020. Kansas received eight comments. Kansas adequately responded to the comments but did not change the removal request based on the comments. In addition, as explained in the proposal, the revision meets the substantive SIP requirements of the CAA, including section 110 and implementing regulations.7
V. What action is the EPA taking?
The EPA is taking final action to approve Kansass removal of the state RVP requirement from the SIP for the Kansas City, Kansas area. As discussed in the proposal the removal of the RVP
requirement will not affect the areas ability to attain or maintain any air quality standard.
The EPA published the proposed approval of Kansass removal of the state RVP requirement from the SIP for the Kansas City, Kansas area on January 19, 2021. The thirty-day public comment period closed on February 18, 2021. The EPA received four public comments on the proposal, discussed above. Also, the proposal contained an error concerning 40 CFR 52.873, paragraph a, as it included a rescinded date, February 18, 2021. The date should have contained a placeholder that indicated that the effective date of the rescission was 30 days following publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. We are noting the error here and are correcting 40 CFR
52.873 paragraph a to reflect the correct effective date of the rescission.
VI. Impacts on the Boutique Fuels List Section 1541b of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 required the EPA, in 7 See
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85 FR 83877 December 23, 2020.

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