On 5 September 2013 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) held a public meeting to provide information on the development of revisions to the state implementation plan (SIP) for the 2008 ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) in the 10-county Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) nonattainment area.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lowered the primary and secondary eight-hour ozone NAAQS to 75 parts per billion on March 27, 2008. As a result, the ten-county DFW area (Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, and Wise Counties) was designated nonattainment and classified moderate under the 2008 eight hour ozone standard. The attainment deadline for the DFW ozone nonattainment area is December 31, 2018. TCEQ released its State Implementation Plan Development presentation for the DFW region at the 5 September 2013 meeting.
TCEQ’s plans to demonstrate compliance with the 2008 eight-hour ozone NAAQS, include evaluating control strategies and control measures to reduce ozone precursor emissions (NOX and VOC), perform photochemical modeling to demonstrate attainment of the standard, and prepare a reasonable further progress (RFP) analysis to reduce NOX and VOC emissions from the base year of 2011 through attainment year.
TCEQ’s tentative timeline for developing and implementing the changes to the DFW area SIP is summarized below.
- Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) education complete by Spring 2014.
- Initial control measures stakeholder input by Summer 2014.
- Proposal agenda for RACT, RFP and attainment demonstration SIP revision and rules by December 2014
- Anticipated public comment period from December 2014 to January 2015
- Final Rule Adoption in May to June 2015
RACT measures for the DFW area must be implemented by January 17, 2017.
What this means to you
TCEQ is taking aggressive action for developing and implementing changes to DFW’s eight-hour ozone nonattainment status. Tighter emission control standards may be likely in the 10-county area.
