Environmental Protection Agency May 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is taking final action to clarify the contents of the applicable implementation plan for the State of California under the Clean Air Act. Specifically, EPA is taking final action to clarify that the statutory provisions submitted by California and approved by EPA in 1972 supporting the State's legal authority chapter of the original implementation plan were superseded by a subsequent approval by EPA in 1980 of California's revision to the legal authority chapter of the plan. EPA is taking this action to clarify the status in the California plan of the statutory provisions submitted and approved in 1972.

This notice, pursuant to section 6(f)(2) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), publishes a Notice of Intent to Suspend issued by EPA pursuant to section 3(c)(2)(B) of FIFRA. The Notice of Intent to Suspend was issued following the Agency's issuance of a Data Call-In notice (DCI), which required the registrants of the affected pesticide products containing a certain pesticide active ingredient to take appropriate steps to secure certain data, and following the registrant's failure to submit these data or to take other appropriate steps to secure the required data. The subject data were determined to be required to maintain in effect the existing registrations of the affected products. Failure to comply with the data requirements of a DCI is a basis for suspension of the affected registrations under section 3(c)(2)(B) of FIFRA.

This notice makes available for review and public comment three petitions concerning the regulatory status under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) of products containing ammonia or urea sold or distributed for use in the presence of sodium hypochlorite as a biocide or as part of a biocidal system in the production of pulp and paperboard products. The notice also makes available for review and public comment documents associated with the petitions which have also been placed in a docket created for this matter. That docket may be accessed as described in this Notice. The Agency registered as ``pesticides'' two products containing ammonia as the active ingredient based on applications for registration and supporting data submitted by Buckman Laboratories, Inc. (Buckman). The Agency has also registered an ammonium bromide product for a similar use in the pulp and paperboard industry. Another company, Nalco, Inc. (Nalco) is currently selling unregistered ammonia and urea products to the pulp and paperboard industry for use in a manner similar to those of the three registered products. Nalco informed EPA of its view that Buckman's ammonia products were not ``pesticides'' and argued therefore that EPA should not have registered them under FIFRA. Nalco petitioned the Agency to cancel Buckman's registrations for the two ammonia products. Subsequently, the Agency received two other petitions from Buckman and Ashland Hercules Water Technologies (Ashland-Hercules), which would also be affected by any Agency decision relative to the contested uses of ammonia and urea, supporting the decision to register ammonia and further requesting that the Agency find Nalco's sale and distribution of its unregistered ammonia product to be contrary to law. Ashland-Hercules also raised issues relative to the safe use and risks associated with the unregistered use of urea in chlorinated water in pulp and paper mill use scenarios and asked that the Agency find that Nalco's sale and distribution of its urea product was unlawful.

The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces two public meetings of the SAB Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) Mixtures Review Panel: A teleconference and a face-to-face meeting to review EPA's draft technical document, Development of a Relative Potency Factor (RPF) Approach for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) Mixtures, External Review Draft.

EPA is approving severable portions of two revisions to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of Texas on October 24, 2006, and August 16, 2007. These revisions amend existing sections and create a new section in Title 30 of the Texas Administrative Code (TAC), Chapter 101General Air Quality Rules, Subchapter HEmissions Banking and Trading, Division 4Discrete Emission Credit Banking and Trading, referred to elsewhere in this notice as the Discrete Emission Reduction Credit (DERC) Program. The October 24, 2006, submittal creates a new section for international emission reduction provisions and amends existing sections to prohibit the generation and use of DERCs from shutdown activities and further clarify procedures for using emission protocols. The August 16, 2007, submittal amends two sections of the DERC program to update cross- references to recently recodified 30 TAC Chapter 117 provisions. Additionally, EPA finds that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has satisfied all elements of our September 6, 2006, final conditional approval of the DERC program with the submittal of the October 24, 2006, SIP submittal; and as such, the DERC program conditional approval is converted to a full approval. EPA has determined that these SIP revisions comply with the Clean Air Act and EPA regulations, are consistent with EPA policies, and will improve air quality. This action is being taken under section 110 and parts C and D of the Federal Clean Air Act (the Act or CAA).

The Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office is requesting public nominations of experts to form an SAB panel to review EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment for inorganic arsenic (noncancer).

This notice announces the availability of a final Guidance for Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed which EPA is publishing pursuant to Section 502 of Executive Order (EO) 13508 (``Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration'', published on May 12, 2009). This guidance will allow the federal government to lead the way in protecting the Bay and its watershed with the most effective tools and practices available to reduce water pollution from a variety of nonpoint sources, including agricultural lands, urban and suburban areas, forestry, riparian areas, septic systems, and hydromodification. This guidance is the first product under the Chesapeake Bay Executive Order to provide technical tools that will be needed to restore the Bay. Section 501 of the Executive Order directs federal agencies with ten or more acres within the Chesapeake Bay watershed to implement the Section 502 guidance as expeditiously as practicable and to the extent permitted by law.

This regulation establishes a time-limited exemption from the requirement of a tolerance for residues of [alpha]-(p-nonylphenol)- [omega]-hydroxypoly(oxyethylene) mixture of dihydrogen phosphate and monohydrogen phosphate esters and the corresponding ammonium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and zinc salts of the phosphate esters and [alpha]-(p-nonylphenol)-[omega]-hydroxypoly(oxyethylene) sulfate, ammonium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and zinc salts when used as inert ingredients at levels not to exceed 7% in pesticide formulations applied to growing crops, raw agricultural commodities after harvest, and animals. The Joint Inerts Task Force, Cluster Support Team Number 9 requested an exemption for the requirement of a tolerance under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA). The exemption from the requirement of a tolerance expires on May 17, 2012. This regulation eliminates the need to establish a maximum permissible level for residues of [alpha]-(p-nonylphenol)-[omega]- hydroxypoly(oxyethylene) mixture of dihydrogen phosphate and monohydrogen phosphate esters and the corresponding ammonium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and zinc salts of the phosphate esters and [alpha]-(p-nonylphenol)-[omega]-hydroxypoly(oxyethylene) sulfate, ammonium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and zinc salts).

EPA is proposing to approve submittals from the District of Columbia (the District) pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA) sections

The Environmental Protection Agency published a document in the Federal Register of April 19, 2010, concerning announcement of the Board of Trustees for the National Environmental Education Foundation. The document contained misspelled names.

On October 6, 2009, EPA promulgated its response to the remand of the new source performance standards and emissions guidelines for hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerators by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and satisfied the Clean Air Act Section 129(a)(5) requirement to conduct a review of the standards every five years. This action proposes to amend the new source performance standards in order to correct inadvertent drafting errors in the emissions limits for nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide promulgated for large hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerators, which did not correspond to our description of our standard-setting process. This action will also correct erroneous cross-references in the reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6 is publishing a direct final Notice of Deletion of the Ruston Foundry Superfund Site (Site), located in Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, from the National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL, promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is an appendix of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). This direct final deletion is being published by EPA with the concurrence of the State of Louisiana, through the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), because EPA has determined that all appropriate response actions under CERCLA have been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making available to the public draft default emission factors for semiconductor manufacturing refined process categories. On April 12, 2010 EPA published a proposed rule, Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases: Additional Sources of Fluorinated GHGs (75 FR 18652) which included proposed methods for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gases (GHGs) from electronics manufacturing. More specifically, as one option for monitoring and reporting, EPA proposed semiconductor manufacturers estimate emissions using default emission factors for nine distinct process categories. For each default emission factor, EPA proposed a range of values differentiated by production technology generation (i.e., wafer size). Based on additional information received since the publication of the proposed rule, EPA has developed draft emission factors for the proposed process categories. EPA is making those draft emission factors as well as the underlying data that was used to develop the draft emission factors available to the public for review and comment in the report, Draft Emission Factors for Refined Semiconductor Manufacturing Process Categories.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that an Information Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. This is a request to renew an existing approved collection. The ICR which is abstracted below describes the nature of the collection and the estimated burden and cost.

EPA is announcing a 60-day public comment period and a public listening session for the external review draft document titled ``Toxicological Review of Hexachloroethane: In Support of Summary Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)'' (EPA/ 635/R-09/007). The draft document was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) within the EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD). The public comment period and the external peer- review workshop, which will be scheduled at a later date and announced in the Federal Register, are separate processes that provide opportunities for all interested parties to comment on the document. EPA intends to forward the public comments that are submitted in accordance with this notice to the external peer-review panel prior to the meeting for their consideration. When finalizing the draft document, EPA intends to consider any public comments that EPA receives in accordance with this notice.

On March 1, 2010, EPA published a notice in the Federal Register to notify the public of an adequacy determination that the Agency made with regards to the motor vehicle emissions budget (MVEB) for nitrogen oxides (NOX) and for an insignificance determination related to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for mobile sources' overall contribution to the PM2.5 pollution in the Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir area (hereafter referred to as the Hickory Area). In that notice, EPA identified the units of measure for the NOX MVEB as kilograms per day (kgd). EPA is publishing this amendment to correctly identify the units of measure for the NOX MVEB as kilograms per year (kgy). Additionally, the March 1, 2010, Federal Register notice included an inadvertent error to the docket ID number which is being corrected in this action.

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of clethodim in or on the raw agricultural commodity artichoke, globe; bushberry subgroup 13-07B; caneberry subgroup 13-07A; and peach. This regulation additionally removes the existing tolerances on lettuce leaf and spinach, as they are covered by the leafy greens subgroup 4A and removes the tolerance for flax seed at 0.50 ppm because there is one for flax seed at 0.6 ppm. The Interregional Research Project Number 4 (IR-4) requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of flutriafol, [()-[alpha]-(2-fluorophenyl)-[alpha]-(4- fluorophenyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazole-1-ethanol], including its metabolites and degradates in or on apple at 0.20 ppm; soybean, seed at 0.35 ppm; and grain, aspirated fractions at 2.2 ppm; and cattle, goat, hog, horse and sheep liver at 0.02 ppm. Cheminova A/S, c/o Cheminova, Inc. requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that EPA is planning to submit a request for a new Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Before submitting the ICR to OMB for review and approval, EPA is soliciting comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below.

This final rule approves state implementation plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of California on June 15, 2004 and February 3, 2009, relating to reformulated gasoline (RFG) and diesel fuel sold or supplied as motor vehicle fuels in California. The revisions relating to RFG include California Phase 3 RFG (CaRFG3) regulations, correction of errors and streamlined requirements for compliance with and enforcement of the CaRFG3 standards, and an update to the State's predictive model to mitigate permeation emissions associated with the use of ethanol as a fuel additive. The revisions relating to diesel fuel include test methods for determining the aromatic hydrocarbon content in diesel fuel and reductions in the maximum allowable sulfur content for motor vehicle diesel fuel. The effect of today's action is to make these revisions federally enforceable as part of the California SIP.

This notice announces EPA's order for the cancellations, voluntarily requested by the registrants and accepted by the Agency, of the products listed in Table 1, pursuant to section 6(f)(1) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), as amended. This cancellation order follows a February 3, 2010 Federal Register Notice of Receipt of Requests from the registrants listed in Table 2 to voluntarily cancel these product registrations. In the February 3, 2010 Notice, EPA indicated that it would issue an order implementing the cancellations unless the Agency received substantive comments within the 30-day comment period that would merit its further review of these requests or unless the registrants withdrew their requests. The Agency received comments on the notice but none merited its further review of the requests. The registrants did not withdraw their requests. Accordingly, EPA hereby issues in this notice a cancellation order granting the requested cancellations. Any distribution, sale, or use of the products subject to this cancellation order is permitted only in accordance with the terms of this order, including any existing stocks provisions.

EPA is approving the requests of Ohio and Indiana to redesignate the Ohio and Indiana portions of the Cincinnati-Hamilton, OH-KY-IN 8-hour ozone nonattainment area, ``the Cincinnati-Hamilton area,'' to attainment for that standard, because these requests meet the statutory requirements for redesignation under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) submitted these requests on December 14, 2009, and January 21, 2010, respectively. (EPA

EPA is taking final action on revisions to the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District portion of the California State Implementation Plan. Specifically, EPA is taking final action on three amended District rules, one of which was submitted on March 7, 2008 and the other two of which were submitted on March 17, 2009. Two of the submitted rules reflect revisions to approved District rules that provide for review of new and modified stationary sources (``new source review'' or NSR) within the District, and the third reflects revisions to an approved District rule that provides a mechanism by which existing stationary sources may voluntarily limit their operations to avoid the requirement to secure a Federally-mandated operating permit. The NSR rule revisions relate to exemptions from permitting and offsets requirements for certain agricultural operations, to the establishment of NSR applicability and offset thresholds consistent with a classification of ``extreme'' nonattainment for the ozone standard, and to the implementation of EPA's NSR Reform Rules. With respect to the revised District NSR rules, EPA is finalizing a limited approval and limited disapproval because, although the changes would strengthen the SIP, there are deficiencies in enforceability that prevent full approval. With respect to the rule pertaining to operating permit requirements, EPA is finalizing a full approval. EPA is also taking final action to remove certain obsolete conditions placed on previous approvals of various California nonattainment plans. Lastly, EPA is deferring further action on the Agency's proposal to correct the May 2004 approval of the previous version of the District's NSR rules pending receipt from California of an interpretation of the District's legal authority with respect to agricultural sources under state law.

EPA is issuing a proposed rule to amend the diesel sulfur regulations to allow refiners, importers, distributors, and retailers of highway diesel fuel the option to use an alternative affirmative defense if the Agency finds highway diesel fuel samples above the specified sulfur standard at retail facilities. This rule also proposes to amend the gasoline benzene regulations to allow disqualified small refiners the same opportunity to generate gasoline benzene credits as that afforded to non-small refiners.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 is issuing a Notice of Intent to Delete the Asbestos Dump Superfund Site (Site) located in Meyersville, New Jersey, from the National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comments on this proposed action. The NPL, promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is found at Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300 which is the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). The EPA and the State of New Jersey, through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), have determined that all appropriate response actions under CERCLA, other than operation, maintenance, and five-year reviews, have been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund.