Special Notice

This notice was published in the September 15, 2013, issue (Vol. 2013, No. 18) of the Utah State Bulletin.


Special Notice: Notice of Public Comment Period for Exceptional Events -- PM2.5 Wildfire: Logan Monitoring Station - September 18 and 21, 2012; and Ogden Monitoring Station - September 17, 2012

Federal regulations, 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 50, allow states to exclude air quality data that exceed or violate a National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) if they can demonstrate that an "exceptional event" has caused the exceedance or violation. Exceptional events are unusual or naturally occurring events that can affect air quality but are not reasonably controllable or preventable using techniques implemented to attain and maintain the NAAQS.

Exceptional events may be caused by human activity that is unlikely to recur at a particular location, or may be due to a natural event. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines a "natural event" as an event in which human activity plays little or no direct causal role to the event in question. For example, a natural event could include such things as high winds, wildfires, and seismic/volcanic activity. In addition, the EPA will allow states to exclude data from regulatory determinations on a case-by-case basis for monitoring stations that measure values that exceed or violate the NAAQS due to emissions from fireworks displays from cultural events.

Federal regulations (40 CFR Part 50.14 (c)(3)(i)) require that all relevant flagged data, the reasons for the data being flagged, and a demonstration that the flagged data are caused by exceptional events be made available by the state for 30 days of public review and comment. These comments will be considered in the final demonstration of the event that is submitted to EPA. The following monitoring station air quality exceedances have been attributed to a wildfire exceptional event.

Monitoring PM10 microg/m 3 Standard microg/m 3 PM2.5microg/m 3 Standard microg/m 3

Station

Ogden NA NA 35.5 35

Logan NA NA 36.3-36.8 35

The documentation for public review and comment to support removing these data from use in regulatory determinations will be available beginning September 15, 2013 at www.airquality.utah.gov\Public-Interest\Public-Commen-Hearings\Exceptional_Events\Exceptional_Events.htm or at the Multi Agency State Office Building, 195 North 1950 West in Salt Lake City. In compliance with the American with Disabilities Act, individuals with special needs (including auxiliary communicative aids and services) should contact Brooke Baker, Office of Human Resources at 801-536-4412 (TDD 801-536-4414).

The comment period will close at 5:00 p.m. on October 15, 2013. Comments postmarked on or before that date will be accepted. Comments may be submitted by electronic mail to jkarmazyn@utah.gov or may be mailed to:

Joel Karmazyn
Utah Division of Air Quality
PO Box 144820
195 N 1950 W
Salt Lake City, UT 84114-4820

 


Additional Information

The Portable Document Format (PDF) version of the Bulletin is the official version. The PDF version of this issue is available at https://rules.utah.gov/publicat/bull-pdf/2013/b20130915.pdf. The HTML edition of the Bulletin is a convenience copy. Any discrepancy between the PDF version and HTML version is resolved in favor of the PDF version.

For questions regarding this notice, please contact Mark Berger, by phone at 801-536-4000, by FAX at 801-536-0085, or by Internet E-mail at mberger@utah.gov.