1. General

(a) This appendix explains the data handling conventions and computations necessary for determining whether the primary and secondary national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone (O3) specified in § 50.19 are met at an ambient O3 air quality monitoring site. Data reporting, data handling, and computation procedures to be used in making comparisons between reported O3 concentrations and the levels of the O3 NAAQS are specified in the following sections.

(b) Whether to exclude or retain the data affected by exceptional events is determined by the requirements under §§ 50.1, 50.14 and 51.930.

(c) The terms used in this appendix are defined as follows:

8-hour average refers to the moving average of eight consecutive hourly O3 concentrations measured at a site, as explained in section 3 of this appendix.

Annual fourth-highest daily maximum refers to the fourth highest value measured at a site during a year.

Collocated monitors refers to the instance of two or more O3 monitors operating at the same physical location.

Daily maximum 8-hour average O3 concentration refers to the maximum calculated 8-hour average value measured at a site on a particular day, as explained in section 3 of this appendix.

Design value refers to the metric (i.e., statistic) that is used to compare ambient O3 concentration data measured at a site to the NAAQS in order to determine compliance, as explained in section 4 of this appendix.

Minimum data completeness requirements refer to the amount of data that a site is required to collect in order to make a valid determination that the site is meeting the NAAQS.

Monitor refers to a physical instrument used to measure ambient O3 concentrations.

O3 monitoring season refers to the span of time within a year when individual states are required to measure ambient O3 concentrations, as listed in Appendix D to part 58 of this chapter.

Site refers to an ambient O3 air quality monitoring site.

Site data record refers to the set of hourly O3 concentration data collected at a site for use in comparisons with the NAAQS.

Year refers to calendar year.

2. Selection of Data for use in Comparisons With the Primary and Secondary Ozone NAAQS

(a) All valid hourly O3 concentration data collected using a federal reference method specified in Appendix D to this part, or an equivalent method designated in accordance with part 53 of this chapter, meeting all applicable requirements in part 58 of this chapter, and submitted to EPA's Air Quality System (AQS) database or otherwise available to EPA, shall be used in design value calculations.

(b) All design value calculations shall be implemented on a site-level basis. If data are reported to EPA from collocated monitors, those data shall be combined into a single site data record as follows:

(i) The monitoring agency shall designate one monitor as the primary monitor for the site.

(ii) Hourly O3 concentration data from a secondary monitor shall be substituted into the site data record whenever a valid hourly O3 concentration is not obtained from the primary monitor. In the event that hourly O3 concentration data are available for more than one secondary monitor, the hourly concentration values from the secondary monitors shall be averaged and substituted into the site data record.

(c) In certain circumstances, including but not limited to site closures or relocations, data from two nearby sites may be combined into a single site data record for the purpose of calculating a valid design value. The appropriate Regional Administrator may approve such combinations after taking into consideration factors such as distance between sites, spatial and temporal patterns in air quality, local emissions and meteorology, jurisdictional boundaries, and terrain features.

3. Data Reporting and Data Handling Conventions

(a) Hourly average O3 concentrations shall be reported in parts per million (ppm) to the third decimal place, with additional digits to the right of the third decimal place truncated. Each hour shall be identified using local standard time (LST).

(b) Moving 8-hour averages shall be computed from the hourly O3 concentration data for each hour of the year and shall be stored in the first, or start, hour of the 8-hour period. An 8-hour average shall be considered valid if at least 6 of the hourly concentrations for the 8-hour period are available. In the event that only 6 or 7 hourly concentrations are available, the 8-hour average shall be computed on the basis of the hours available, using 6 or 7, respectively, as the divisor. In addition, in the event that 5 or fewer hourly concentrations are available, the 8-hour average shall be considered valid if, after substituting zero for the missing hourly concentrations, the resulting 8-hour average is greater than the level of the NAAQS, or equivalently, if the sum of the available hourly concentrations is greater than 0.567 ppm. The 8-hour averages shall be reported to three decimal places, with additional digits to the right of the third decimal place truncated. Hourly O3 concentrations that have been approved under § 50.14 as having been affected by exceptional events shall be counted as missing or unavailable in the calculation of 8-hour averages.

(c) The daily maximum 8-hour average O3 concentration for a given day is the highest of the 17 consecutive 8-hour averages beginning with the 8-hour period from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and ending with the 8-hour period from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. the following day (i.e., the 8-hour averages for 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.). Daily maximum 8-hour average O3 concentrations shall be determined for each day with ambient O3 monitoring data, including days outside the O3 monitoring season if those data are available.

(d) A daily maximum 8-hour average O3 concentration shall be considered valid if valid 8-hour averages are available for at least 13 of the 17 consecutive 8-hour periods starting from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. In addition, in the event that fewer than 13 valid 8-hour averages are available, a daily maximum 8-hour average O3 concentration shall also be considered valid if it is greater than the level of the NAAQS. Hourly O3 concentrations that have been approved under § 50.14 as having been affected by exceptional events shall be included when determining whether these criteria have been met.

(e) The primary and secondary O3 design value statistic is the annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour O3 concentration, averaged over three years, expressed in ppm. The fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour O3 concentration for each year shall be determined based only on days meeting the validity criteria in 3(d). The 3-year average shall be computed using the three most recent, consecutive years of ambient O3 monitoring data. Design values shall be reported in ppm to three decimal places, with additional digits to the right of the third decimal place truncated.

4. Comparisons With the Primary and Secondary Ozone NAAQS

(a) The primary and secondary national ambient air quality standards for O3 are met at an ambient air quality monitoring site when the 3-year average of the annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour average O3 concentration (i.e., the design value) is less than or equal to 0.070 ppm.

(b) A design value greater than the level of the NAAQS is always considered to be valid. A design value less than or equal to the level of the NAAQS must meet minimum data completeness requirements in order to be considered valid. These requirements are met for a 3-year period at a site if valid daily maximum 8-hour average O3 concentrations are available for at least 90% of the days within the O3 monitoring season, on average, for the 3-year period, with a minimum of at least 75% of the days within the O3 monitoring season in any one year.

(c) When computing whether the minimum data completeness requirements have been met, meteorological or ambient data may be sufficient to demonstrate that meteorological conditions on missing days were not conducive to concentrations above the level of the NAAQS. Missing days assumed less than the level of the NAAQS are counted for the purpose of meeting the minimum data completeness requirements, subject to the approval of the appropriate Regional Administrator.

(d) Comparisons with the primary and secondary O3 NAAQS are demonstrated by examples 1 and 2 as follows:

As shown in Example 1, this site meets the primary and secondary O3 NAAQS because the 3-year average of the annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour average O3 concentrations (i.e., 0.065666 ppm, truncated to 0.065 ppm) is less than or equal to 0.070 ppm. The minimum data completeness requirements are also met (i.e., design value is considered valid) because the average percent of days within the O3 monitoring season with valid ambient monitoring data is greater than 90%, and no single year has less than 75% data completeness.

As shown in Example 2, this site fails to meet the primary and secondary O3 NAAQS because the 3-year average of the annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour average O3 concentrations (i.e., 0.073333 ppm, truncated to 0.073 ppm) is greater than 0.070 ppm, even though the annual data completeness is less than 75% in one year and the 3-year average data completeness is less than 90% (i.e., design value would not otherwise be considered valid).

[80 FR 65458, Oct. 26, 2015]