49-405. Attainment area designations

A. The governor may designate the status and classification of areas of this state with respect to attainment of national ambient air quality standards.

B. The director shall adopt rules that both:

1. Describe the geographic extent of attainment, nonattainment or unclassifiable areas of this state for all pollutants for which a national ambient air quality standard exists.

2. Establish procedures and criteria for changing the designations of areas that include all of the following:

(a) Technical bases for proposed changes, including ambient air quality data, types and distributions of sources of air pollution, population density and projected population growth, transportation system characteristics, traffic congestion, projected industrial and commercial development, meteorology, pollution transport and political boundaries.

(b) Provisions for review of and public comment on proposed changes to area designations.

(c) All area designations adopted by the administrator as of May 30, 1992.

C. On promulgation by the administrator of new or revised national ambient air quality standards for pollutants, the department shall develop proposed recommendations regarding designations for geographic areas of this state as being in attainment or nonattainment or unclassifiable with respect to that standard. The proposed recommendations shall be provided to the governor to assist the governor in submitting recommendations to the administrator pursuant to 42 United States Code section 7407(d)(1)(A). The department shall develop the proposed recommendations as follows:

1. No earlier than five months before the date by which the governor must make the recommendations and no later than four months before that date, the department shall complete a draft of the proposed recommendations and a technical support document that explains the scientific and other bases for the draft proposal.

2. No earlier than five months before the date by which the governor must make the recommendations and no later than four months before that date, the department shall post the draft proposed recommendations and technical support document on the department's website. The department shall provide actual notice of the posting to counties and municipalities that would be included in a nonattainment area under the proposed recommendations and to any person who had previously requested actual notice of the draft documents. Actual notice of the posting may be provided by electronic or other means.

3. The website posting and actual notices prescribed in paragraph 2 of this subsection shall include notice that until the close of the comment period, any person may submit written comments to the department regarding the draft proposed recommendations and technical support document. The notice shall also include the date, time and location of a public hearing for the department to receive verbal comments and answer questions concerning the draft proposal. The written comment period shall close and the hearing shall be held no later than forty-six days before the date by which the governor must make the recommendations.

4. After the close of the comment period and after the public hearing and not later than one month before the date by which the governor must make the recommendations, the department shall finalize the proposed recommendations and technical support document and submit them to the governor. The department's final proposed recommendations and technical support document shall:

(a) Consider the comments received by the department pursuant to paragraph 3 of this subsection. For any area that is proposed to be designated a nonattainment area in the final proposed recommendations, the department shall with the submittal to the governor include a responsiveness summary that explains with reasonable particularity the department's consideration of and responses to comments received pursuant to paragraph 3 of this subsection.

(b) Be posted on the department's website within five days after the department's submittal to the governor. The posting shall include any responsiveness summary, and the department shall provide actual notice of the posting to counties and municipalities that would be included in a nonattainment area under the final proposed recommendations and to any person who had previously requested actual notice of the documents. Actual notice of the posting may be provided by electronic or other means.

D. The department shall post on its website a copy of the governor's recommendations within five days after the recommendations are submitted to the administrator.

E. If the administrator requires the governor's recommendations to be submitted six months after promulgation of the new or revised national ambient air quality standards or earlier, the time frames prescribed in subsections C and D shall be reduced by one-half.