(a) The State, or where appropriate local, agency shall develop and implement a plan and schedule to modify the ambient air quality monitoring network that complies with the findings of the network assessments required every 5 years by Sec. 58.10(e). The State or local agency shall consult with the EPA Regional Administrator during the development of the schedule to modify the monitoring program, and shall make the plan and schedule available to the public for 30 days prior to submission to the EPA Regional Administrator. The final plan and schedule with respect to the SLAMS network are subject to the approval of the EPA Regional Administrator. Plans containing modifications to NCore Stations or PAMS Stations shall be submitted to the Administrator. The Regional Administrator shall provide opportunity for public comment and shall approve or disapprove submitted plans and schedules within 120 days.
(b) Nothing in this section shall preclude the State, or where appropriate local, agency from making modifications to the SLAMS network for reasons other than those resulting from the periodic network assessments. These modifications must be reviewed and approved by the Regional Administrator. Each monitoring network may make or be required to make changes between the 5-year assessment periods, including for example, site relocations or the addition of PAMS networks in bumped-up ozone nonattainment areas. These modifications must address changes invoked by a new census and changes due to changing air quality levels. The State, or where appropriate local, agency shall provide written communication describing the network changes to the Regional Administrator for review and approval as these changes are identified.
(c) State, or where appropriate, local agency requests for SLAMS monitor station discontinuation, subject to the review of the Regional Administrator, will be approved if any of the following criteria are met and if the requirements of appendix D to this part, if any, continue to be met. Other requests for discontinuation may also be approved on a case-by-case basis if discontinuance does not compromise data collection needed for implementation of a NAAQS and if the requirements of appendix D to this part, if any, continue to be met.
(1) Any PM 2.5, O3, CO, PM 10, SO2, Pb, or NO2 SLAMS monitor which has shown attainment during the previous five years, that has a probability of less than 10 percent of exceeding 80 percent of the applicable NAAQS during the next three years based on the levels, trends, and variability observed in the past, and which is not specifically required by an attainment plan or maintenance plan. In a nonattainment or maintenance area, if the most recent attainment or maintenance plan adopted by the State and approved by EPA contains a contingency measure to be triggered by an air quality concentration and the monitor to be discontinued is the only SLAMS monitor operating in the nonattainment or maintenance area, the monitor may not be discontinued.
(2) Any SLAMS monitor for CO, PM 10, SO2, or NO2 which has consistently measured lower concentrations than another monitor for the same pollutant in the same county (or portion of a county within a distinct attainment area, nonattainment area, or maintenance area, as applicable) during the previous five years, and which is not specifically required by an attainment plan or maintenance plan, if control measures scheduled to be implemented or discontinued during the next five years would apply to the areas around both monitors and have similar effects on measured concentrations, such that the retained monitor would remain the higher reading of the two monitors being compared.
(3) For any pollutant, any SLAMS monitor in a county (or portion of a county within a distinct attainment, nonattainment, or maintenance area, as applicable) provided the monitor has not measured violations of the applicable NAAQS in the previous five years, and the approved SIP provides for a specific, reproducible approach to representing the air quality of the affected county in the absence of actual monitoring data.
(4) A PM 2.5 SLAMS monitor which EPA has determined cannot be compared to the relevant NAAQS because of the siting of the monitor, in accordance with Sec. 58.30.
(5) A SLAMS monitor that is designed to measure concentrations upwind of an urban area for purposes of characterizing transport into the area and that has not recorded violations of the relevant NAAQS in the previous five years, if discontinuation of the monitor is tied to start-up of another station also characterizing transport.
(6) A SLAMS monitor not eligible for removal under any of the criteria in paragraphs (c)(1) through (c)(5) of this section may be moved to a nearby location with the same scale of representation if logistical problems beyond the State's control make it impossible to continue operation at its current site.