Air Plan Approval; Illinois; Clean Data Determination for the Illinois Portion of the St. Louis Area for the 2015 Ozone Standard

What it does

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is determining under the Clean Air Act (CAA) that the Illinois portion of the St. Louis, MO- IL nonattainment area (hereafter also referred to as the "St. Louis area" or "area") has achieved clean data for the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS or standard). This determination is based upon complete, quality-assured, and certified ambient air monitoring data for the 2023-2025 design value period showing that the Illinois portion of the area achieved attainment of the 2015 ozone NAAQS. This determination also relies on the EPA's concurrence of an exceptional events request submitted by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) on December 18, 2025, and concurred on by the EPA on January 12, 2026. Therefore, the EPA is taking final agency action on Illinois' exceptional events request. In a separate action, the EPA is finalizing a similar determination for the Missouri portion of the St. Louis area. This final determination suspends the requirements for the area to submit attainment demonstrations and associated Reasonably Available Control Measures (RACM), Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) plans, contingency measures for failure to attain or make reasonable progress, and other planning State Implementation Plans (SIPs) related to attainment of the 2015 ozone NAAQS, for as long as the area continues to attain the 2015 ozone NAAQS.

The Environmental Protection Agency's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

1 part of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

40 CFR 52

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The Environmental Protection Agency has published 243 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 263 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

This final rule is effective on September 14, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket EPA-R05-OAR-2026-0695 on Regulations.gov
• Title 40 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register