Approval and Promulgation of State Implementation Plans: Idaho

The EPA is approving revisions to Idaho's State Implementation Plan (SIP) relating to open burning and crop residue disposal requirements and visible emissions. The Director of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) submitted a draft SIP revision to the EPA on April 15, 2008. The EPA proposed to approve this draft SIP revision on April 29, 2008, and stated that, if adopted by the State substantially unchanged from its current form, it would satisfy the requirements of the Clean Air Act (hereinafter the Act or CAA). 73 FR 23155. The Director of the IDEQ submitted a final SIP revision to the EPA on May 28, 2008. Based on EPA's review of this final SIP revision, EPA's analysis and review of the 2008 draft SIP revision (73 FR 23155), and comments received by the EPA during the public comment period on EPA's proposed approval of the draft SIP revision, the EPA is approving the final SIP revision submitted by the IDEQ on May 28, 2008, because it satisfies the requirements of the CAA. The Director of the IDEQ also submitted a SIP revision relating to open burning and crop residue disposal requirements on May 22, 2003, which the EPA approved on July 11, 2005 (70 FR 39658). In a ruling issued on January 30, 2007, and amended on May 29, 2007, that approval was remanded and vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in Safe Air for Everyone v. USEPA, 475 F.3d 1096, amended 488 F.3d 1088 (9th Cir 2007) (SAFE decision). In the EPA's April 29, 2008, proposal discussed above, the EPA re-proposed to approve the portion of the May 22, 2003, SIP revision that would not be changed by the draft SIP revision, if adopted, submitted on April 15, 2008. We are also finalizing our approval of this portion of the 2003 SIP revision because it satisfies the requirements of the Act and does not contravene the Court's SAFE decision.