Texas Victoria County Ozone Maintenance Plan Summary

Purpose of Plan: to maintain acceptable ozone levels in Victoria County, Texas.

Area Covered: Victoria County, Texas.

Type of Pollutant: Ozone.

Background:
On March 3, 1978, under the 1977 Clean Air Act amendments, Victoria County, Texas, was designated a nonattainment area because it did not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone.  As required by the Clean Air Act, the state of Texas submitted a state implementation plan (SIP) to the EPA in 1979.  This SIP outlined control measures to bring ozone to NAAQS acceptable levels.  The EPA approved this SIP in 1980 and 1984.  

Texas submitted Texas Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) Catch-up and Victoria County Fix-up SIP revisions on November 12, 1992.  The RACT Catch-up requires implementation of all reasonably available technology in areas newly subject under the 1990 Act to control ozone sources.  The Victoria County Fix-up revises monitoring, record keeping, and reporting requirements so RACT regulations can be better enforced.  The EPA was satisfied that these revisions met the RACT requirement, and approved them by direct final rule on March 7, 1995, effective May 8, 1995.

On July 27, 1994, Texas submitted a request to redesignate Victoria County to attainment, along with required ozone monitoring data and a maintenance plan.  The EPA approved Texas’s request for Victoria County redesignation and maintenance plan by direct final rule on March 7, 1995, effective May 8, 1995.  The direct final approval of the redesignation and maintenance plan were dependent on the direct final approval of the RACT Catch-up and Victoria County Fix-up.  If approval of the RACT Catch-up and Victoria County Fix-up had been withdrawn (due to receipt of adverse comments), then the approval of the redesignation and maintenance plan would have also been withdrawn.

Pollution Data:
Before areas can be redesignated to ozone attainment, states are required to submit data on ozone-causing Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions.  Texas chose 1992 as the year on which to base its demonstration of attainment.  This emissions inventory showed that in 1992, average VOC emissions were 46.32 tons per day, and NOx emissions were 48.22 tons per day.

Texas also submitted ozone data for May 1991 through May 1994 demonstrating that Victoria County, with a design value of 0.100 parts per million for ozone, had not exceeded the NAAQS of 0.12 ppm during that time.  

Pollution Control Measures:
In addition to the RACT Fix-up, Victoria County will rely on federal regulations such as the Federal Motor Vehicle Control Program and the Reid Vapor Pressure Limit to maintain its attainment status.

Contingency Measures:
Texas continues to measure air quality in Victoria County.  The 1994 contingency measures required the state to implement Stage I gasoline controls in Victoria County if the air quality monitor recorded three exceedances of the ozone NAAQS within a three year time period.  However, Texas later adopted Stage I gasoline controls as a regional control measure and Stage I was no longer available as a contingency measure.  Victoria County’s current contingency measures, submitted in 2003, require formation of an ozone advisory panel after one NAAQS violation, implementation of a voluntary emission reduction program after two violations, and creation of a new maintenance plan after three violations.

Subsequent Action and Events:
Eight years after redesignation, states are required to revise their maintenance plans to insure continued attainment of the NAAQS.  On February 5, 2003, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission adopted a revised maintenance plan, and submitted it to the EPA for approval.  The EPA’s action will be published the Federal Register.

Federal Register Actions:

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This SIP Citation Was Last Modified on: 08/15/2003