[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 46 (Monday, March 9, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 13602-13603]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-04774]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R03-OAR-2017-0615; FRL-10006-16-Region 3]
Supplemental Information and Data for the Indiana, Pennsylvania
Nonattainment Area for the 2010 Sulfur Dioxide Primary National Ambient
Air Quality Standard; Notice of Data Availability (NODA)
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of data availability; request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the
availability of new modeling, meteorological and emissions information
and data contained in a package submitted to EPA by the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania on February 5, 2020 in support of the Indiana,
Pennsylvania state implementation plan (SIP, or Attainment Plan) for
the 2010 sulfur dioxide (SO2) primary National Ambient Air
Quality Standard (NAAQS). EPA will be evaluating this information as
well as any public comments received to take final action on the
Attainment Plan. The modeling and large data files submitted are not
provided in the docket but are available upon request by contacting the
person named in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.
DATES: Written comments must be received on or before April 8, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R03-
OAR-2017-0615 at https://www.regulations.gov, or via email to
[email protected]. For comments submitted at Regulations.gov,
follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted,
comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. For either
manner of submission, 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. 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
[[Page 13603]]
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 http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Megan Goold, Planning & Implementation
Branch (3AD30), Air & Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Region III, 1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103.
The telephone number is (215) 814-2027. Ms. Goold can also be reached
via electronic mail at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. General Information
EPA proposed approval of the Attainment Plan for the Indiana,
Pennsylvania Nonattainment Area for the 2010 SO2 NAAQS on
July 13, 2018. 83 FR 32606. As part of approving the Attainment Plan,
EPA also proposed to approve into the Pennsylvania SIP SO2
emission limits and associated compliance parameters for Keystone,
Conemaugh, Homer City and Seward Generating Stations. The public
comment period for EPA's proposal closed on August 13, 2018. During the
public comment period, EPA received from one commenter new information
and analysis purporting to show that, using an alternative receptor
grid, the critical emission values (CEVs) for Seward and Conemaugh
Stations modeled a violation of the standard within the boundaries of
the nonattainment area (NAA). In response, the Pennsylvania Department
of Environmental Protection (PADEP) opted to provide EPA with
supplemental information to provide further support for their submitted
Attainment Plan. The supplemental information includes: (1) A
supplemental air dispersion modeling report, (2) Supplemental air
dispersion modeling data, (3) Supplemental air dispersion modeling
protocol, (4) A meteorological monitoring plan, (5) Meteorological
monitoring data, (6) Meteorological monitoring quality assurance,
quality control, and audit reports, (7) Clean Air Markets Division
(CAMD) emission data for 2010-2018, and (8) Continuous Emissions
Monitoring (CEM) data for 2010-2019 (3rd Quarter).
PADEP's supplemental modeling report provides additional modeling
using the newly provided site specific meteorological data to support
the SO2 emission limits established in the original
attainment plan. The study supplements the modeling submitted in 2017
(see Docket EPA-R03-OAR-2017-0615-0018 which can be located via https://www.regulations.gov) to focus on the area in the NAA near Conemaugh
and Seward stations. The meteorological data collection spanned the 13-
month period of August 1, 2015 through August 31, 2016. Due to better
SOnic Detection And Radar (SODAR) data capture percentages for the
September 1, 2015 through August 31, 2016 period, this 12-month period
was used for this supplemental modeling analysis. PADEP used AERMOD
dispersion model 16 (Version 19191), current as of August 2019, to
evaluate air quality impacts from the emission sources of interest. The
South Fayette, Pennsylvania monitor, which is located about 62
kilometers to the west-southwest of the Indiana County NAA, was used to
determine the uniform regional background component for the NAAQS
SO2 modeling. The most recent 3-year period (2016-2018) of
emissions data were used in the modeling analysis and details on the
emissions processing are provided in the submittal, which can be found
in the docket for this notice.
The modeling was used to define CEVs for Seward and Conemaugh
Generating Stations that show 99th percentile peak daily 1-hour maximum
concentrations (``design concentrations'') complying with the 1-hour
SO2 NAAQS. For the Seward and Conemaugh Generating Stations,
longer-term emission rates that are discounted from the 1-hour CEV
rates were derived. Different averaging times were selected to best fit
the emission source profiles at each plant. Conemaugh emission rates
are based upon a 3-hour block emission average, and the Seward emission
rate is based upon a rolling 30-day average. The current SO2
emission limits for the modeled emission sources at the Conemaugh and
Seward Stations are lower than the longer-term emission rates that
demonstrate attainment with the NAAQS through modeling.
To demonstrate that Seward's rolling 30-day emission limit is
protective of the NAAQS, PADEP submitted randomly reassigned emissions
(RRE) modeling. One hundred AERMOD simulations were run using randomly
reassigned 1-hour emission rates for Seward's emissions along with
constant CEV 1-hour emission rates for the remaining three
SO2 sources in the NAA plus regional background (South
Fayette monitor for 2016-2018 as discussed in Section 4.7 of the
Modeling Report). For each of the 100 modeling runs with one year of
on-site meteorology, the 99th percentile peak daily 1-hour maximum at
each receptor resulted in design concentrations that comply with the
NAAQS. The highest 99th percentile daily maximum SO2
concentration of the 100 model simulations was 190.05 micrograms per
meter cubed ([mu]g/m \3\) (this occurred in simulation run 44) and is
less than the NAAQS (196.4 [mu]g/m \3\).
The supplemental modeling purports to demonstrate that a lower CEV
for Seward Generating Station demonstrates attainment compared to the
CEV provided in the original attainment plan. The rolling 30-day
emission limit for Seward has remained unchanged. The newly submitted
RRE modeling purportedly demonstrates that the rolling 30-day emission
limit for Seward is protective of the NAAQS. The CEV for Conemaugh
Generating Station has not changed from the original Attainment Plan as
a result of the supplemental modeling analysis, and therefore no
additional analysis was provided in support of the source's longer term
3-hour block limit.
EPA is seeking comment on the Pennsylvania supplemental information
submitted on February 5, 2020 as supporting analysis that shows the
previously-established longer term emission limits for Seward and
Conemaugh Generating Stations demonstrate attainment of the 2010
SO2 NAAQS in the Nonattainment Area. EPA is not seeking
comment on any other aspect of the Attainment Plan, which has already
gone through the public comment process from July 13, 2018 through
August 13, 2018.
Dated: February 24, 2020.
Cosmo Servidio,
Regional Administrator, Region III.
[FR Doc. 2020-04774 Filed 3-6-20; 8:45 am]
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