Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; South Carolina and Georgia; Attainment Demonstration for the Appalachian, Catawba, Pee Dee, Waccamaw, Santee Lynches, Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester, Low Country, Lower Savannah, Central Midlands, and Upper Savannah Early Action Compact Areas

The EPA is approving revisions to the South Carolina and Georgia State Implementation Plans (SIPs), submitted by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), respectively, for the Early Action Compact (EAC) areas in South Carolina and Georgia. The proposed SIP revisions were submitted on December 29, 2004, by South Carolina and December 31, 2004, by Georgia. There are ten EAC areas in South Carolina and Georgia covered by this final action: the Appalachian, Catawba, Pee Dee, Waccamaw, Santee Lynches, Berkeley- Charleston-Dorchester, Low Country, Lower Savannah, Central Midlands, and Upper Savannah EAC Areas. Only the Lower Savannah EAC Area has counties in both South Carolina and Georgia. For the purposes of this document, however, all of the above listed EAC areas will be collectively referred to as the "South Carolina and Georgia EAC Areas." The SIP revisions meet the requirements for the South Carolina and Georgia EAC Areas to attain and maintain the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (the 8-hour ozone standard) as described in the EAC Protocol and related regulations. EPA is also now approving the photochemical modeling used by South Carolina and Georgia to support the attainment and maintenance demonstrations of the 8-hour ozone standard in the South Carolina and Georgia EAC Areas. The revisions being approved today further incorporate regulatory control measures into the South Carolina SIP, including two Statewide regulations pertaining to control of nitrogen oxide (NO<INF>X</INF>) emissions and open burning. In addition, this final action also corrects inadvertent errors in the May 26, 2005, proposal document relating to these SIP revisions (70 FR 30396). In today's final action, EPA is not finalizing its proposed rulemaking to defer the effective date of the nonattainment designations for EAC areas. In a separate action, published on June 8, 2005, EPA prop