Final Determinations of Attainment by the Attainment Date, Extensions of the Attainment Date, and Reclassification of Several Areas Classified as Moderate for the 2008 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards

Final Determinations of Attainment by the Attainment Date, Extensions of the Attainment
Date, and Reclassification of Several Areas Classified as Moderate for the 2008 Ozone
National Ambient Air Quality Standards
FACT SHEET
ACTION
• On August 7, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized actions for 11
nonattainment areas classified as Moderate for the 2008 ozone National Ambient Air
Quality Standards (NAAQS). These areas were required to attain the standards by July 20,
2018.
• Within six months after the attainment date, by January 20, 2019, the Clean Air Act (CAA)
section 181(b)(2) requires EPA to determine whether these areas attained the standards by
the attainment date, and if not, take appropriate actions.
• Based on ozone monitoring data for the years 2015-2017, EPA's final determinations are:
o Two areas attained the 2008 ozone NAAQS by the attainment date:
1. Baltimore, MD; and
2. Mariposa County, CA.
o Two areas are granted a 1-year extension of the attainment date, as allowed under CAA
section 181(a)(5). This extension will give these areas until July 20, 2019, to attain the
standard:
1. Inland Sheboygan County, Wl; and
2. Shoreline Sheboygan County, Wl.
o Seven areas failed to attain the 2008 ozone NAAQS by the attainment date. Upon the
effective date of this final action—30 days after publication in the Federal Register—
these seven areas will be reclassified as Serious nonattainment. This final action gives
each state until July 20, 2021, to achieve the standards:
1. Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI;
2. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX;
3. Greater Connecticut, CT;
4. Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, TX;
5. Nevada County (Western part), CA;
6. New York-N. New Jersey-Long Island, CT-NY-NJ; and
7. San Diego County, CA.
With serious nonattainment areas, the Clean Air Act directs these states to plan for and
implement additional emissions controls. The affected states must submit to EPA their
Serious-area State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions, including Reasonably Available

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Control Technology (RACT) tied to attainment, and implement those RACT requirements
by August 3, 2020.
No later than 18 months after the effective date of this final notice, these states must
submit their Serious-area SIP revisions for RACT that are not tied to attainment. The
states must implement these RACT requirements by July 20, 2021.
BACKGROUND
• On March 27, 2008, EPA strengthened the NAAQS for ozone from an 8-hour average
concentration of 0.08 parts per million (ppm) to a more protective 0.075 ppm.
• Effective on July 20, 2012, EPA designated 46 areas throughout the country as
nonattainment for the 2008 ozone NAAQS, and the areas were classified as either Marginal,
Moderate, Severe or Extreme depending on the extent of each area's ozone problems.
Moderate nonattainment areas were required to attain the standard by July 20, 2018.
• As of July 20, 2018, 11 areas in 10 states were classified as Moderate nonattainment for the
2008 ozone NAAQS. Some of these areas were initially classified in 2012 as Marginal but
failed to attain by the attainment date of July 20, 2015 and were reclassified as Moderate
nonattainment prior to this notice.
• On November 14, 2018, EPA proposed actions for 11 nonattainment areas classified as
Moderate for the 2008 ozone NAAQS. That action included a proposed 1-year extension of
the attainment date for the Denver-Boulder-Greeley-Ft. Collins-Loveland, CO,
nonattainment area and the Sheboygan County, Wl, nonattainment areas:
o On March 26, 2019, Colorado Governor Jared Polis withdrew the state's request for
a 1-year attainment date extension for the Denver area. Under a separate notice,
EPA plans to propose that the Denver-Boulder-Greeley-Ft. Collins-Loveland, CO, area
failed to attain the 2008 ozone NAAQS by the July 20, 2018, attainment date based
on 2015-2017 air quality data and to reclassify the area to Serious nonattainment;
and
o On July 15, 2019, the EPA took final action to approve a request from the State of
Wisconsin to revise the boundary for the Sheboygan County, Wl, nonattainment
area for the 1997 and 2008 primary and secondary ozone NAAQS and split the
historic nonattainment area into two distinct nonattainment areas that together
cover the identical geographic area of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. The names of
the two new nonattainment areas are the Inland Sheboygan County, Wl,
nonattainment area and the Shoreline Sheboygan County, Wl, nonattainment area.
Thus, in this final action, EPA grants a 1-year attainment date extension to these two
new nonattainment areas in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION
•	To download this action from EPA's website, go to https://www.epa.gov/ozone-
pollution/2008-ozone-national-ambient-air-quality-standards-naaqs-nonattainment-
actions. The official version of this rule will be published in the Federal Register.
•	This action and other associated information are available either electronically at
http://www.regulations.gov, EPA's electronic public docket and comment system or as a
hardcopy at the EPA Docket Center's Public Reading Room. (Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2018-0226).
•	The Public Reading Room is in EPA Headquarters, Room Number 3334 in the William
Jefferson Clinton West Building, located at 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington,
D.C. Hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. eastern standard time, Monday through
Friday, excluding federal holidays.
•	Visitors are required to show photographic identification, pass through a metal detector,
and sign EPA visitor log. All visitor materials will be processed through an X-ray machine as
well. Visitors will be provided a badge that must always be visible.
• For further information about this final action, contact Ms. Virginia Raps of EPA's Office of
Air Quality Planning and Standards, at (919) 541-4383 or by email at raps.virginia@epa.gov.

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