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Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 28 / Tuesday, February 11, 1997 / Proposed Rules6371burden of bringing very old locomotivesinto compliance.EPA is aware of a practice in thelocomotive industry known asupgrading. During an upgrade, alocomotive remanufacturer willtypically take an older engine modeland remanufacture it in such a mannerthat it is in essentially all respects amore recent model, both in terms of itsperformance and the expectedremaining service life following theupgrade. EPA is proposing a definitionof remanufacture that includes thisprocess of upgrading. EPA proposes thatany pre-1973 locomotives which areupgraded to post-1972 specifications berequired to meet the same emissionsstandards as locomotives originallymanufactured after 1972. Also, for thepurposes of the various complianceprograms discussed later (certification,production line testing, in-use testing),upgraders will be treated asremanufacturers. 10 The Agency requestscomment on its definition of upgrade, ascontained in the proposed regulatorytext, and whether it should be writtento optionally (the remanufacturer’soption) include any remanufacturedpre-1973 locomotive that complies withthe Tier 0 emission standards.The proposed definition of ‘‘newlocomotive’’ and ‘‘new locomotiveengine’’ would be consistent with, butnot identical to, the definition of ‘‘newnonroad engine’’ and ‘‘new nonroadvehicle’’ that EPA promulgated on July20, 1994 (59 FR 36969), and revised onOctober 4, 1996 (61 FR 52102). Thedefinition of ‘‘new nonroad engine’’includes only ‘‘freshly manufactured’’engines, while the proposed definitionof ‘‘new locomotive’’ and ‘‘newlocomotive engine’’ includes bothfreshly manufactured andremanufactured locomotives andengines. EPA believes it is appropriateto regulate remanufactured locomotiveengines as new engines because of thenature of the remanufacturing processfor such engines. Remanufacturinglocomotives typically involvesinspecting the relevant components andreplacing most or all of them asnecessary with components that arefunctionally equivalent to freshlymanufactured components. The relevantcomponents include those that controlthe delivery of fuel to the combustionprocess, those that control the conditionand delivery of air to the combustionprocess, and those that are directlyinvolved in the combustion process, (at10 Unless specified otherwise, all provisionsdiscussed in this preamble applicable toremanufacturers shall also be considered to beapplicable to upgraders.a minimum, the fuel injectors,turbocharger, charge air cooler, pistonsand piston rings, cylinders, valves,valve springs, camshaft, and cylinderhead). This process is a more completeoverhaul than the typical rebuilding ofan on-highway diesel engine. Since aremanufactured locomotive engine is inall material ways like a freshlymanufactured engine, bothmechanically and in terms of how it isused, EPA proposes to define ‘‘newlocomotive engine’’ to includeremanufactured engines. As with freshlymanufactured locomotives, suchengines would be new until sold orplaced into service.This approach is further supported bythe role remanufactured engines play inthe locomotive industry. Locomotiveengines are typically remanufacturedperiodically, as many as ten timesduring their total service lifetimes, andmay be used in different locomotivesfollowing a remanufacture. Manysmaller railroad operators do notpurchase freshly manufacturedlocomotives, relying solely on thepurchase of used locomotives fromother railroad operators and thesubsequent remanufacturing of theseengines. Because of theseremanufacturing practices, a locomotiveengine will generally be used for manyyears, resulting in an extremely slowindustry-wide fleet turnover rate. As aresult, a narrow definition of newlocomotive engines, limited to freshlymanufactured engines, wouldeffectively undercut the ability of theAgency to reduce emissionscontribution from this segment of thenonroad inventory. EPA notes that thepractices related to the use ofremanufactured locomotive enginesdistinguishes this situation from otherkinds of rebuilding, such as for othernonroad engines, and motor vehicleengines, or aircraft engines. Evenaircraft engines do not typically remainin active service for 40 years moreover,there are fewer events that could beconsidered remanufacturing asdescribed here for locomotives, because,among other things, the maintenancepractices in the airline industrytypically are more continuous than inthe railroad industry. In addition,because the engines have fundamentallydifferent designs (jet engine ascompared to diesel engine), theoverhaul of our aircraft engine is notcomparable to the remanufacturing of adiesel locomotive. EPA is requestingcomments on the inclusion ofremanufactured locomotives in thedefinition of ‘‘new’’ for this rulemaking.The Agency is proposing to define‘‘remanufacture’’ of a locomotive engineas a process in which all of the powerassemblies of an engine are replaced(with freshly manufactured (containingno previously used parts) or refurbishedpower assemblies) or inspected andqualified. Inspecting and qualifyingpreviously used parts can be done inseveral ways, including such things ascleaning, measuring physicaldimensions for proper size andtolerance, and running performancetests to assure that the parts arefunctioning properly and according tospecifications. The refurbished powerassemblies would include somecombination of freshly manufacturedparts, reconditioned parts from otherpreviously used power assemblies, andreconditioned parts from the powerassemblies that were replaced. In caseswhere all of the ower assemblies are notreplaced at a single time, the enginewould be considered to be‘‘remanufactured’’ (and therefore‘‘new’’) if all of the power assembliesfrom the previously new engine hadbeen replaced within a five year period.EPA requests comment on thisdefinition in general, and specificallywhether it should include somedifferent time limit for engines notremanufactured during a single event.Commenters are requested to addressboth the legal, economic, andenvironmental implications ofconsidering an engine which does nothave all of its power assembliesreplaced in a single event to be ‘‘new’’.EPA is proposing to include in itsdefinition of ‘‘remanufacture’’ theconversion of a locomotive orlocomotive engine to operate on a fuelother than the fuel it was originallydesigned and manufactured to operateon. Such conversions typically involve,at a minimum, the replacement ormodification of the fuel delivery system,and often involve the replacement ormodification of other emissions-criticalcomponents, as well as the recalibrationof some engine operating parameters.For these reasons EPA is proposing toinclude alternative fuel conversions inits definition of remanufacture. Suchconversions would thus be considered‘‘new’’ and subject to today’s proposedregulations.EPA also requests comment onpossible alternative definitions of theseterms, including two suggestedalternatives raised by the affectedindustries. Railroad operators andlocomotive manufacturers haveindicated to EPA that it should considera definition of ‘‘new’’ that wouldinclude any locomotive or locomotiveengine manufactured or remanufacturedafter the effective date of the 1990amendments to the Clean Air Act