EPA’s 2007 Exceptional Events Rule (EER) was intended to give state and local agencies an avenue to remove data about certain types of monitored air pollution from area attainment/nonattainment designations under the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). However, the EER required states to support their applications for data exclusion with analyses that were so burdensome that, according to one state agency, only three states have taken advantage of the EER. The Agency is now proposing extensive changes intended to make the EER simpler and more useful in practice.
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The EPA says it wants to issue final changes to the EER so that states and local air agencies can make use of it before October 2016. They are scheduled to provide the Agency with designations for areas under the revised (2015) ozone NAAQS.