Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Utah; Revisions to New Source Review Rules

EPA is taking direct final action approving State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of Utah on November 9, 2001, and September 16, 2003. The revisions incorporate new and revise existing definitions in the State's New Source Review (NSR) rules. The revisions update the State's NSR rules so that they are consistent with the revisions EPA made to its NSR rules on July 21, 1992. These revisions were referred to as the WEPCO rule (for the Wisconsin Electric Power Company court ruling). In the July 1992 action, EPA adopted a broad NSR exclusion for utility pollution control projects and an "actual to future actual" methodology for determining whether all other non-routine physical or operational changes at utilities (other than the replacement of a unit or addition of a new unit) are subject to NSR, and modified its regulations to reflect changes made by Congress in the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act to the applicability of new source requirements to clean coal technology (CCT) and repowering projects, and to "very clean" units. The purpose of this action is to make the changes to the State's rule federally enforceable. This action is being taken under section 110 of the Clean Air Act.