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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 229 / Thursday, December 2, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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redesignation request.2 One of the criteria for redesignation is to have an approved maintenance plan under CAA
section 175A. The maintenance plan must demonstrate that the area will continue to maintain the NAAQS for the period extending ten years after redesignation, and it must contain such additional measures as necessary to ensure maintenance and such contingency provisions as necessary to assure that violations of the NAAQS
will be promptly corrected. Eight years after the effective date of redesignation, the state must also submit a second maintenance plan to ensure ongoing maintenance of the NAAQS for an additional ten years pursuant to CAA
section 175Ab i.e., ensuring maintenance for 20 years after redesignation.
EPA has published long-standing guidance for states on developing maintenance plans.3 The Calcagni memo provides that states may generally demonstrate maintenance by either performing air quality modeling to show that the future mix of sources and emission rates will not cause a violation of the NAAQS or by showing that projected future emissions of a pollutant and its precursors will not exceed the level of emissions during a year when the area was attaining the NAAQS i.e., attainment year inventory. See Calcagni memo at page 9. EPA clarified in three subsequent guidance memos that certain areas could meet the CAA section 175A
requirement to provide for maintenance by showing that the area was unlikely to violate the NAAQS in the future, using information such as the areas design value 4 being significantly below the standard and the area having a historically stable design value.5 EPA
2 Section 107d3E of the CAA sets out the requirements for redesignating a nonattainment area to attainment. They include attainment of the NAAQS, full approval of the applicable SIP
pursuant to CAA section 110k, determination that improvement in air quality is a result of permanent and enforceable reductions in emissions, demonstration that the state has met all applicable section 110 and part D requirements, and a fully approved maintenance plan under CAA section 175A.
3 John Calcagni, Director, Air Quality Management Division, EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards OAQPS, Procedures for Processing Requests to Redesignate Areas to Attainment, September 4, 1992 Calcagni memo.
4 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 area is the highest design value of any monitoring site in the area.
5 See Limited Maintenance Plan Option for Nonclassifiable Ozone Nonattainment Areas, from Sally L. Shaver, OAQPS, November 16, 1994;
Limited Maintenance Plan Option for Nonclassifiable CO Nonattainment Areas, from
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refers to a maintenance plan containing this streamlined demonstration as an LMP.
EPA has interpreted CAA section 175A as permitting the LMP option because section 175A of the Act does not define how areas may demonstrate maintenance, and in EPAs experience implementing the various NAAQS, areas that qualify for an LMP and have approved LMPs have rarely, if ever, experienced subsequent violations of the NAAQS. As noted in the LMP
guidance memoranda, states seeking an LMP must still submit the other maintenance plan elements outlined in the Calcagni memo, including: An attainment emissions inventory, provisions for the continued operation of the ambient air quality monitoring network, verification of continued attainment, and a contingency plan in the event of a future violation of the NAAQS. Moreover, a state seeking an LMP must still submit its section 175A
maintenance plan as a revision to its SIP, with all attendant notice and comment procedures. While the LMP
guidance memoranda were originally written with respect to certain NAAQS,6
EPA has extended the LMP
interpretation of section 175A to other NAAQS and pollutants not specifically covered by the previous guidance memos.7
In a notice of proposed rulemaking NPRM, published on September 23, 2021 86 FR 52864, EPA proposed to approve Tennessees LMP because the State made a showing, consistent with EPAs prior LMP guidance, that the Areas ozone concentrations are well below the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS
and have been historically stable and that it met the other maintenance plan requirements. The details of Tennessees submission and the rationale for EPAs action are explained in the NPRM.
Comments on the September 23, 2021, NPRM were due on or before October 25, 2021. EPA did not receive any comments on the September 23, 2021, NPRM.
Joseph Paisie, OAQPS, October 6, 1995; and Limited Maintenance Plan Option for Moderate PM10 Nonattainment Areas, from Lydia Wegman, OAQPS, August 9, 2001. Copies of these guidance memoranda can be found in the docket for this rulemaking.
6 The prior memos addressed: Unclassifiable areas under the 1-hour ozone NAAQS, nonattainment areas for the PM10 particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10
microns NAAQS, and nonattainment for the carbon monoxide CO NAAQS.
7 See, e.g., 79 FR 41900 July 18, 2014 approval of the second ten-year LMP for the Grant County 1971 SO2 maintenance area.

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II. Final Action EPA is taking final action to approve the Montgomery County Area LMP for the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS, submitted by TDEC on June 23, 2020, as a revision to the Tennessee SIP. EPA is approving the Montgomery County Area LMP because it includes a sufficient update of the various elements of the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS
Maintenance Plan approved by EPA for the first 10-year portion of the maintenance period including emissions inventory, assurance of adequate monitoring and verification of continued attainment, and contingency provisions and retains the relevant provisions of the SIP under sections 110k and 175A of the CAA.
EPA also finds that the Montgomery County Area qualifies for the LMP
option and that the Montgomery County Area LMP is sufficient to provide for maintenance of the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS in the Clarksville-Hopkinsville Area over the second 10-year maintenance period i.e., through 2025.
III. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews Under the CAA, the Administrator is required to approve a SIP submission that complies with the provisions of the Act and applicable Federal regulations.
See 42 U.S.C. 7410k; 40 CFR 52.02a.
Thus, in reviewing SIP submissions, EPAs role is to approve state choices, provided that they meet the criteria of the CAA. This action merely approves state law as meeting Federal requirements and does not impose additional requirements beyond those imposed by state law. For that reason, this action:
Is not a significant regulatory action subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Orders 12866 58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993 and 13563 76 FR 3821, January 21, 2011;
Does not impose an information collection burden under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act 44
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.;
Is certified as not having a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory Flexibility Act 5
U.S.C. 601 et seq.;
Does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 Pub. L. 1044;
Does not have Federalism implications as specified in Executive Order 13132 64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999;

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