Proposed Rule2024-24714
Air Plan Approval; Washington; Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, Recreational Fires
Primary source
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Published
October 24, 2024
Issuing agencies
Environmental Protection Agency
Abstract
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a revision to the Washington State Implementation Plan (SIP) that was submitted by the Department of Ecology (Ecology) in coordination with the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency (ORCAA). In 2013, Ecology and ORCAA inadvertently submitted for incorporation into the SIP a ban on small, recreational fires in Thurston County. These fires are defined as having a maximum pile size of three feet in diameter by two feet high using seasoned firewood or charcoal, generally associated with backyard, summer campfires. Ecology and ORCAA provided a review of the historical record to demonstrate that the ban on recreational fires was not relied upon for attainment, maintenance, or reasonable further progress in the Thurston County area. Ecology and ORCAA also provided data to demonstrate that removing the ban on recreational fires would not interfere with maintenance of the national ambient air quality standards. Therefore, we are proposing to approve the request by Ecology and ORCAA to remove this provision from the SIP.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 206 (Thursday, October 24, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 206 (Thursday, October 24, 2024)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 84842-84845]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-24714]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R10-OAR-2024-0430: FRL-12243-01-R10]
Air Plan Approval; Washington; Olympic Region Clean Air Agency,
Recreational Fires
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to
approve a revision to the Washington State Implementation Plan (SIP)
that was submitted by the Department of Ecology (Ecology) in
coordination with the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency (ORCAA). In 2013,
Ecology and ORCAA inadvertently submitted for incorporation into the
SIP a ban on small, recreational fires in Thurston County. These fires
are defined as having a maximum pile size of three feet in diameter by
two feet high using seasoned firewood or charcoal, generally associated
with backyard, summer campfires. Ecology and ORCAA provided a review of
the historical record to demonstrate that the ban on recreational fires
was not relied upon
[[Page 84843]]
for attainment, maintenance, or reasonable further progress in the
Thurston County area. Ecology and ORCAA also provided data to
demonstrate that removing the ban on recreational fires would not
interfere with maintenance of the national ambient air quality
standards. Therefore, we are proposing to approve the request by
Ecology and ORCAA to remove this provision from the SIP.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before November 25, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R10-
OAR-2024-0430 at <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>. Follow the online
instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot
be edited or removed from <a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>. The 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. The 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 methods, the full EPA
public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions,
and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets">https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeff Hunt, EPA Region 10, 1200 Sixth
Avenue--Suite 155, Seattle, WA 98101, at (206) 553-0256, or
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#adc5d8c3d983c7c8cbcbedc8ddcc83cac2db"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="660e130812480c0300002603160748010910">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Background for Proposed Action
A. Review of Attainment and Maintenance Plan Control
Requirements
B. Review of Particulate Matter Monitoring Data
II. The EPA's Proposed Action
III. Incorporation by Reference
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. Background for Proposed Action
A. Review of Attainment and Maintenance Plan Control Requirements
On August 7, 1987, the EPA identified a portion of Thurston County
as a ``Group I'' area of concern due to measured violations of the
then-newly promulgated 24-hour national ambient air quality standard
(NAAQS) for particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than
or equal to a nominal 10 micrometers, referred to as PM<INF>10</INF>
(52 FR 29383). The Thurston County PM<INF>10</INF> area consists of the
adjoining cities of Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater, Washington.
Geographically, the area is characterized by low rolling terrain with
hills rising higher toward its southern and western boundaries. The
surrounding hills trap pollutants during certain meteorological
conditions occurring in the late fall and winter, called inversions,
that create a shallow, stagnant layer of air near ground level. Studies
at the time showed that woodsmoke from residential home heating
contributed 80-95% of ambient PM<INF>10</INF> concentrations on the
high pollution days of concern. In response to this problem in Thurston
County and other areas in the State, the Washington Legislature adopted
a comprehensive, statewide residential wood heating control program in
1987. Ecology promulgated regulations to implement the program under
Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 173-433 Solid Fuel Burning Device
Standards, establishing a curtailment program regulating fireplace and
woodstove usage on high PM<INF>10</INF> concentration days, as well as
other requirements related to residential wood heating. This set of
regulations, and ORCAA's implementation and enforcement of the
regulations, formed the control measures relied upon in the attainment
plan submitted in February 1989.
On November 15, 1990, the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments under
section 107(d)(4)(B), designated the Thurston County Group I area as
nonattainment for PM<INF>10</INF> by operation of law. To address the
additional moderate area requirements imposed by the 1990 CAA
Amendments, Ecology submitted a supplement to the attainment plan in
November 1991. However, the 1991 supplement to the attainment plan did
not alter the primary focus on residential wood heating. The EPA took
final action to approve the entire plan on July 27, 1993 (58 FR 40056).
Importantly, in our final action, we clarified that the open burning
ban for the area, which includes the smaller subset of recreational
fires, was not submitted for approval and was not relied upon to
demonstrate attainment of the PM<INF>10</INF> NAAQS.
The implementation of WAC 173-433 rapidly brought the area into
attainment by 1991. As PM<INF>10</INF> levels in the area steadily
declined, the EPA redesignated the Thurston County nonattainment area
to a maintenance area on October 4, 2000 (65 FR 59128). In addition to
approving Ecology's redesignation request for the area, the EPA also
approved a maintenance plan. The maintenance plan reaffirmed that the
residential wood heating program was responsible for the permanent and
enforceable reductions and would ensure continued compliance with the
PM<INF>10</INF> NAAQS for ten years, without any changes to the control
measures already in place.
On July 1, 2013, Ecology and ORCAA submitted a limited maintenance
plan to fulfill the second 10-year planning requirement of Clean Air
Act section 175A(b) to ensure compliance through 2020. A limited
maintenance plan is used when monitored PM<INF>10</INF> concentrations
are very low relative to the NAAQS, and the suite of control measures
that brought the area into attainment remain in place. In this case,
the EPA promulgated a new 24-hour NAAQS for particulate matter with an
aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to a nominal 2.5 micrometers,
referred to as PM<INF>2.5</INF> (62 FR 38652, July 18, 1997). The EPA
subsequently revised the 24-hour PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS to 35
micrograms per cubic meter ([micro]g/m\3\), while leaving the 24-hour
PM<INF>10</INF> NAAQS unchanged at 150 [micro]g/m\3\. Ecology and ORCAA
submitted a demonstration as part of the 2013 limited maintenance plan
to show that converting the existing residential wood heating program
from a focus on PM<INF>10</INF> to the new PM<INF>2.5</INF> standard
would continue to protect the PM<INF>10</INF> NAAQS. The agencies
provided an analysis of PM<INF>10</INF> and PM<INF>2.5</INF> data
collected by collocated Federal reference monitors at the Thurston
County monitoring site, finding that in the critical winter season, the
majority of PM<INF>10</INF> was PM<INF>2.5</INF>. The statistical
relationship between the two PM parameters indicated that
PM<INF>2.5</INF> levels would need to exceed 139 [micro]g/m\3\ before
the PM<INF>10</INF> NAAQS was exceeded. Therefore, the State determined
that conversion of the residential wood heating program from a focus on
the PM<INF>10</INF> NAAQS to the PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS would increase
the stringency and effectiveness of the program. In conjunction with
this demonstration, Ecology and ORCAA submitted revised State and local
regulations to reflect the update to the PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS and
wood burning, generally. It was during this update that Ecology and
ORCAA inadvertently submitted ORCAA regulation 6.2.7(c) banning
recreational fires in the area, which was not a control measure
contained or relied upon in the attainment or maintenance plans. On
October 3, 2013, EPA approved ORCAA regulation 6.2.7(c) into the ORCAA
portion of the
[[Page 84844]]
Washington SIP as part of EPA's approval of the area's second 10-year
PM<INF>10</INF> limited maintenance plan (78 FR 61188).
B. Review of Particulate Matter Monitoring Data
In addition to providing a historical analysis that ORCAA
regulation 6.2.7(c) was not relied upon as part of the 1989 and 1991
attainment plans or the 1999 maintenance plan, ORCAA provided an
analysis of particulate matter monitoring data to show that removing
the ban on recreational fires is highly unlikely to affect compliance
with the PM<INF>10</INF> or PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS in any meaningful
way.\1\ A graph of maximum summer and winter concentrations in Thurston
County, calculated with the EPA's assistance and included in docket for
this action, shows two important trends. The first trend is that,
historically, winter concentrations are well above summer
concentrations as the season of concern. As noted by ORCAA in the
agency's demonstration, ``if we consider the usual backyard social
event with a BBQ and people getting together and perhaps in the evening
sitting around a fire, those generally happen in the warmer months of
the year which are opposite of the wood stove season use.''
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\1\ As part of the 2013 limited maintenance plan, the EPA
approved use of PM<INF>2.5</INF> monitoring data as a surrogate for
PM<INF>10</INF>. Thurston County does not experience significant
windblown dust events like some eastern Washington maintenance
areas, therefore the statistical relationship between
PM<INF>2.5</INF> and PM<INF>10</INF> can be relied upon with a high
degree of confidence in the Thurston area.
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Even if one does not accept that assumption, the second trend shows
the diminishing PM<INF>10</INF> concentrations in the winter season,
both in terms of maximum and mean PM<INF>10</INF> concentrations. The
EPA attributes this to two factors. The first is the conversion of the
residential wood heating program to the more stringent 24-hour
PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS enshrined in the Ecology and ORCAA regulations
and submitted as part of the 2013 limited maintenance plan, which led
to the implementation of more stringent thresholds for when wood stove
use is curtailed due to air quality conditions. The second factor is
the Ecology grant program administered by ORCAA which replaced
uncertified wood burning devices with certified devices and non-
emitting devices such as heat pumps.
The EPA proposes to determine that this significant decline in
particulate matter emissions over the years almost certainly offsets
any potential emissions growth from allowing small, recreational fires.
Both graphs provided by ORCAA shows declining PM<INF>10</INF>
concentrations, especially during the winter months when concentrations
tend to be highest. The first graph representing ``max'' concentrations
indicates that recent levels are consistently less than a third of the
150 [micro]g/m\3\ PM<INF>10</INF> NAAQS. Additionally, the second graph
representing ``average'' conditions indicates that the mean
concentrations for both summer and winter are approximately 10
[micro]g/m\3\, less than a tenth of the 150 [micro]g/m\3\
PM<INF>10</INF> NAAQS. Given these extremely low concentrations, the
EPA proposes to find that it is highly unlikely that potential
emissions growth from removing the ban on recreational fires could
imperil compliance with the NAAQS. Even if one were to take that worst
case scenario, the EPA notes that ORCAA Rule 6.2.6 Curtailment remains
in the approved SIP and bans any form of outdoor burning, including
recreational fires, on high concentration days when a burn ban has been
declared by ORCAA.
II. The EPA's Proposed Action
The EPA is proposing to approve ORCAA regulation 6.2.7, State
effective March 6, 2023, and incorporate it by reference into the
Washington SIP at 40 CFR 52.2470(c)--Table 6--Additional Regulations
Approved for the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency (ORCAA) Jurisdiction.
The effect of this action would be to repeal paragraph (c) of ORCAA
regulation 6.2.7 which historically banned recreational fires within
the city limits of Lacey, Olympia, and Tumwater, and unincorporated
areas of Thurston County lying within or between the municipal
boundaries of these cities. Based on the demonstration provided by
Ecology and ORCAA, we propose to find that the revision will not
interfere with attainment of the national ambient air quality standards
or other applicable requirements of the Clean Air Act.
III. Incorporation by Reference
In this document, the EPA is proposing to include in a final rule
regulatory text that includes the incorporation by reference. In
accordance with requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is proposing to
incorporate by reference ORCAA regulation 6.2.7, State effective March
6, 2023, as described in section II of this preamble. The EPA has made,
and will continue to make, these documents generally available through
<a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and at the EPA Region 10 Office (please
contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
section of this preamble for more information).
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
Under the Clean Air Act, the Administrator is required to approve a
SIP submission that complies with the provisions of the Clean Air Act
and applicable Federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a).
Thus, in reviewing SIP submissions, the EPA's role is to approve State
choices, provided that they meet the criteria of the Clean Air Act.
Accordingly, 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:
<bullet> 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 14094 (88 FR 21879, April 11, 2023);
<bullet> Does not impose an information collection burden under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.);
<bullet> 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.);
<bullet> 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. 104-4);
<bullet> Does not have federalism implications as specified in
Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999);
<bullet> Is not subject to Executive Order 13045 (62 FR 19885,
April 23, 1997) because it approves a State program;
<bullet> Is not a significant regulatory action subject to
Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001); and
<bullet> Is not subject to requirements of section 12(d) of the
National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272
note) because application of those requirements would be inconsistent
with the Clean Air Act.
In addition, the SIP is not approved to apply on any Indian
reservation land or in any other area where the EPA or an Indian Tribe
has demonstrated that a Tribe has jurisdiction. In those areas of
Indian country, the rulemaking does not have Tribal implications and
will not impose substantial direct costs on Tribal governments or
preempt Tribal law as specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249,
November 9, 2000).
Executive Order 12898 (Federal Actions to Address Environmental
[[Page 84845]]
Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations, 59 FR 7629,
February 16, 1994) directs Federal agencies to identify and address
``disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental
effects'' of their actions on communities with environmental justice
(EJ) concerns to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law.
The EPA defines EJ as ``the fair treatment and meaningful involvement
of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income
with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of
environmental laws, regulations, and policies.'' The EPA further
defines the term fair treatment to mean that ``no group of people
should bear a disproportionate burden of environmental harms and risks,
including those resulting from the negative environmental consequences
of industrial, governmental, and commercial operations or programs and
policies.''
The Olympic Region Clean Air Agency did not evaluate environmental
justice considerations as part of its SIP submittal; the CAA and
applicable implementing regulations neither prohibit nor require such
an evaluation. The EPA did not perform an EJ analysis and did not
consider EJ in this action. Due to the nature of the action being taken
here, this action is expected to have a neutral impact on the air
quality of the affected area. Consideration of EJ is not required as
part of this action, and there is no information in the record
inconsistent with the stated goal of Executive Order 12898 of achieving
environmental justice for communities with EJ concerns.
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Carbon monoxide,
Incorporation by reference, Intergovernmental relations, Lead, Nitrogen
dioxide, Ozone, Particulate matter, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements, Sulfur oxides, Volatile organic compounds.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Dated: October 18, 2024.
Casey Sixkiller,
Regional Administrator, Region 10.
[FR Doc. 2024-24714 Filed 10-23-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
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