View Rule

Promulgating these Federal regulations will address an important initial step to fill the "regulatory gap" with regard to controlling VOC emissions from oil and natural gas production operations on Indian country lands within the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation, an area within the Uinta Basin which has been experiencing wintertime ozone levels that exceed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. However, the EPA does not intend, nor does it expect, this gap-filling regulation to impose significantly different regulatory burdens than those imposed by the rules of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Air Quality (UDAQ) for operations in the surrounding areas. This rule is intended to formally "level the playing field." In other words, the EPA intends that the public within the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation receive equivalent air quality protections as the public outside the Reservation while oil and natural gas production operations within the Reservation are regulated in a similar fashion as those operations subject to the UDAQ requirements. This rule would apply to any person who currently owns or operates or plans to own or operate an existing oil and natural gas production facility within the exterior boundaries of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation. The primary stakeholders are the oil and natural gas operators on the Reservation, the Ute Indian Tribe, State of Utah, and the public.