Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Alaska

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final action to approve revisions to the Alaska State Implementation Plan (SIP). The State of Alaska (State) submitted these revisions on February 13, 2008, December 11, 2009, April 14, 2010, November 29, 2010, October 21, 2011, December 10, 2012, and January 28, 2013, to meet Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements. These revisions update the Alaska SIP to reflect changes to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), area designations, and Federal permitting requirements under section 110 of the CAA. In addition, the submitted changes revise and clarify Alaska permitting rules, and remove provisions that are duplicated in other regulations. Although the EPA is approving most of the submitted revisions, the EPA is not approving certain provisions which are inappropriate for SIP approval. The EPA is also correcting the SIP to remove specific provisions that were previously approved into the SIP in error. The corrections remove provisions that implement other requirements of the CAA, are not required by section 110 of the CAA, and were not relied on by the State to demonstrate attainment or maintenance of the NAAQS or to meet other specific requirements of section 110 of the CAA. Finally, the EPA is deferring action on certain portions of the submissions, including those that adopt by reference updates to the Federal nonattainment major new source review requirements, because those revisions will be addressed in separate actions.