Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; District of Columbia; Regional Haze State Implementation Plan

EPA is proposing to approve a revision to the District of Columbia State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the District of Columbia through the District Department of the Environment (DDOE) on October 27, 2011 that addresses regional haze for the first implementation period. This revision addresses the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA's rules that require states to prevent any future, and remedy any existing, anthropogenic impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas caused by emissions of air pollutants from numerous sources located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the "regional haze program"). States are required to assure reasonable progress toward the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas. EPA is proposing to determine that the Regional Haze plan submitted by the District of Columbia satisfies these requirements of the CAA. EPA is also proposing to approve this revision as meeting the infrastructure requirements relating to visibility protection for the 1997 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and the 1997 and 2006 fine particulate matter (PM<INF>2.5</INF>) NAAQS.