Interim Final Determination To Stay or Defer Sanctions; California; San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making an interim final determination that the State of California has submitted revisions to the California State Implementation Plan (SIP) that satisfy the requirements under the Clean Air Act (CAA or "Act") for nonattainment areas classified as "Serious" for the 1997 annual fine particulate matter (PM<INF>2.5</INF>) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), and for contingency measures for the 2006 24-hour PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS and the 2012 annual PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS, in the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) nonattainment area. This determination is based on a proposed approval, published on July 14, 2023, of SIP revisions addressing the Serious area requirements for the 1997 annual PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS (except contingency measures) and on proposed approvals, published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, of SIP revisions addressing the contingency measure requirements for the 1997 annual PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS, the 2006 24-hour PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS, and the 2012 annual PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS. The effect of this interim final determination is to stay the application of the offset sanction and to defer the application of the highway sanction that were triggered by previous EPA actions that included disapproval of the certain Serious area SIP elements submitted for the San Joaquin Valley for the 1997 annual PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS (including the contingency measure element), and disapproval of the contingency measure SIP elements for the 2006 24-hour PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS and the 2012 annual PM<INF>2.5</INF> NAAQS.