California air pollution emergency plan.

§ 52.274 California air pollution emergency plan.

(a) Since the California Air Pollution Emergency Plan does not provide complete, implementable provisions for taking emission control actions necessary to prevent ambient pollutant concentrations from reaching significant harm levels, the requirements of subpart H of this chapter for Priority I and II areas are not met, except in the following areas:

(1) South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).

(2) Sacramento County Air Pollution Control District.

(3) Monterey Bay Unified APCD (MBUAPCD).

(4) Santa Barbara Air Quality Management Area portion of the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District.

(5) Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

(6) Ventura County Air Pollution Control District.

(7) San Diego County APCD.

(8) Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District.

(9) Riverside County Air Pollution Control District.

(10) San Bernardino County Desert Air Pollution Control District.

(11) Imperial County Air Pollution Control District.

(12) Fresno County Air Pollution Control District.

(13) Kern County Air Pollution Control District.

(b) The requirements of subpart H of this chapter are met in the SCAQMD with the following exceptions: SCAQMD Regulation VII has no schedule to assure that the emission control actions are fully implementable; does not provide specific emission control actions for interdistrict coordination; has no provisions for nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide and particulate matter combined episodes; has no criteria or provisions to protect the eight-hour averaged carbon monoxide significant harm level; and has no provisions for implementation of abatement plans for stage 2 or 3 carbon monoxide or oxidant episodes that are attained without being predicted.

(c) Regulation for prevention of air pollution emergency episodes—plan scheduling, interdistrict coordination, episode criteria, and declaration.

(1) The requirements of this paragraph are applicable in the SCAQMD.

(2) The owner or operator of any governmental, industrial, business, or commercial activity listed in Rules 708.1 and 708.3 of Regulation VII of the SCAQMD, as revised on May 6, 1977, shall submit a Stationary Source Curtailment Plan and/or Traffic Abatement Plan to the Administrator within sixty days after the effective date of this paragraph.

(3) The plans submitted pursuant to the requirements of this paragraph, shall be reviewed by the Administrator for approval or disapproval according to the following schedule:

(i) For sources with emissions of hydrocarbons (HC) or nitrogen oxides (NOX) greater than or equal to 454 metric tons (500 tons) per year, or for establishments employing 400 or more employees per shift, within 45 days after receipt.

(ii) For sources with emissions of HC or NOX greater than or equal to 91 metric tons (100 tons) per year and less than 454 metric tons (500 tons) per year, or for establishments employing more than 200 and less than 400 employees per shift, within 90 days after receipt.

(iii) For sources or establishments other than those addressed in paragraphs (c)(3) (i) through (ii) of this section, within 180 days after receipt.

(4) The owner or operator of an industrial, business, governmental or commercial establishment required to submit a plan by this paragraph shall be notified by the Administrator within thirty days after the plan has been evaluated if the plan is disapproved. Any plan disapproved by the Administrator shall be modified to overcome the disapproval and resubmitted to the Administrator within 30 days of the receipt of the notice of disapproval.

(5) In the event specific sources or source areas within the SCAQMD are determined to significantly contribute to a declared air pollution episode in a nearby Air Pollution Control District, emission control actions specified in Regulation VII of the SCAQMD, as revised on May 6, 1977, for that declared episode stage shall be taken in the SCAQMD to abate that episode.

(6) For the purposes of this paragraph, the following episode criteria shall apply to carbon monoxide concentrations averaged over eight hours:

(i) For stage 1, 15 parts per million.

(ii) For stage 2, 30 parts per million.

(iii) For stage 3, 40 parts per million.

(7) The provisions of SCAQMD Regulation VII, as revised on May 6, 1977, relating to carbon monoxide episodes averaged over 12 hours shall apply to carbon monoxide episodes averaged over 8 hours except that the Administrator shall provide for declaration, notification, source inspections, and termination of the episodes.

(8) Whenever the Administrator has determined that the stage 2 or 3 episode level for oxidant or carbon monoxide as specified in Rule 703 of Regulation VII of the SCAQMD, as amended May 6, 1977, is being attained or has been attained, and is predicted to remain at such level for 12 or more hours, or increase, or in the case of oxidant to reoccur within the next 24 hours, unless control actions are taken, the existence of the appropriate episode level and the location of the source-receptor areas shall be declared, and the actions specified in Rules 710(b)(1), 710(b)(2), 711(b)(1), or 711(b)(2) shall be taken by the Administrator.

(d) Regulation for prevention of air pollution emergency episodes—nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide and particulate matter combined.

(1) The requirements of this paragraph are applicable in the SCAQMD.

(2) For the purposes of this regulation the following definitions apply:

(i) “Ppm” means parts per million by volume.

(ii) “COH” means coefficient of haze.

(iii) “Ugm ” means micrograms per cubic meter.

(iv) “Administrator” means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency or his authorized representative.

(v) “Major National Holiday” means a holiday such as Christmas, New Year's Day, or Independence Day.

(vi) “Source/Receptor Areas” are defined for each episode occurrence based on air monitoring, geographical, and meteorological factors: Source area is that area in which contaminants are discharged and a receptor area is that area in which the contaminants accumulate and are measured.

(vii) “Air Contaminants” means nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and/or sulfur dioxide and particulate matter combined.

(3) For the purposes of this regulation, the following episode criteria shall apply:

Contaminants Averaging time (hours) Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Nitrogen dioxide10.6 ppm1.2 ppm1.6 ppm.
240.15 ppm0.3 ppm0.4 ppm.
Particulate matter243.0 COH5.0 COH7.0 COH.
24375 ugm−3625 ugm−3875 ugm−3.
Sulfur dioxide and particulate matter combined240.2 10.8 11.2 1.
2465,000 2261,000 2393,000 2.

1 Product of sulfur dioxide (ppm) and particulate matter (COH).

2 Product of sulfur dioxide (ugm−3 ) and particulate matter (ugm−3 ).

(4) Whenever the Administrator has determined that any episode level specified in paragraph (d)(3) of this section is being attained or has been attained, and is predicted to remain at such level for 12 or more hours, or increase, unless control actions are taken, the existence of the appropriate episode level and the location of the source-receptor areas shall be declared.

(5) Whenever the available scientific and meteorological data indicate that any episode level declared by paragraph (d)(4) of this section is no longer occurring and is not predicted to immediately increase again to episode levels, such episode shall be declared terminated.

(6) The following shall be notified by the Administrator whenever an episode is predicted, attained or terminated: (i) Public officials; (ii) persons operating any facility or activity named in paragraph (d)(8) of this section; (iii) public health, safety, and emergency agencies; (iv) news media.

(7) Upon request of the Administrator, persons operating any facility or activity named in paragraph (d)(8) of this section shall install, properly maintain, and operate radio-receiving equipment with decoding device capable of receiving broadcasts of the declaration and termination of episodes required under this paragraph and instructions as to the actions to be taken.

(8) Stationary source curtailment plans and traffic abatement plans shall be prepared by industrial, business, commercial, and governmental establishments as follows:

(i) The owner or operator of any industrial, business, commercial, or governmental activity listed below shall submit to the Administrator plans to curtail operations causing stationary source air contaminants in such activity:

(A) Petroleum refinery emitting 23 metric tons (25 tons) or more per year of air contaminants.

(B) Metal-melting plant requiring molten metal temperatures in excess of 540 °C (1,000 °F) or metal-refining plant or metal-smelting plant, in which a total of 1,135 kilograms (2,500 pounds) or more of metal are in a molten state at any one time or are poured in any 1 hour.

(C) Fossil fuel-fired electric generating facility having a total rated capacity of 50 megawatts or more.

(D) Any facility or plant emitting 91 metric tons (100 tons) or more per year of air contaminants.

(ii) The plans required by paragraph (d)(8)(i) of this section shall include the following:

(A) A list of equipment which emits nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and/or sulfur dioxide, including the SCAQMD permit number, the daily amount of air contaminants emitted, and a statement of the minimum time and recommended time to implement the abatement actions for each episode stage for the equipment listed and the percent reduction in emissions at each episode stage.

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