Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; New York

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is promulgating an amendment to its rulemaking action taken on November 27, 1998, which removed Part 211.2 of Title 6 of the New York Code of Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) from the State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the State of New York. Part 211.2 is a general prohibition against air pollution. As stated in the November 27, 1998 notice, EPA intended to remove all such general duty provisions from the New York SIP, which do not reasonably relate to the attainment and maintenance of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and other air quality goals of the Clean Air Act. General duty provisions in Title 6 of the NYCRR include those pertaining to nuisance odors. In this action, EPA is amending its previous rulemaking to include a mistakenly omitted citation to Part 200.1(d) of Title 6 of the NYCRR. Part 200.1(d) provides the definition of "air contaminant or air pollutant," which includes the word "odor." It has recently been brought to EPA's attention that the word "odor" in the definition of "air contaminant or air pollutant" was erroneously retained in the SIP. By amending the previous rulemaking, EPA is removing the word "odor" from the federally-approved definition of "air contaminant or air pollutant," because the definition as currently written, in part, does not have a reasonable connection to the NAAQS and related air quality goals of the Clean Air Act. The intended effect of this amendment is to make the previous rulemaking on New York SIP submittals for national primary and secondary ambient air quality standards consistent with the requirements of the Clean Air Act.