Environmental Protection Agency November 10, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On September 24, 2010, the EPA Region III Regional Administrator signed a Recommended Determination, under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act, recommending withdrawal of the specification embodied in DA Permit No. 199800436-3 (Section 10: Coal River) of Pigeonroost Branch and Oldhouse Branch as disposal sites for discharges of dredged and/or fill material associated with construction of the Spruce No. 1 Surface Mine in Logan County, West Virginia. The transmission of the Recommended Determination to EPA Headquarters initiated a 60-day period for the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water to review the recommendation of the Regional Administrator. As part of this review period, EPA has also notified the Department of the Army, the State of West Virginia, Arch Coal, Inc. (the permittee), and the landowners of record as to the Recommended Determination, and has notified these groups that they have 15 days in which to notify the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water of their intent to take corrective action to prevent the unacceptable adverse impacts to wildlife detailed in the recommendation. In response, attorneys for the permittee have requested a 30-day extension of this consultation period, to November 29, 2010, in order to review the Recommended Determination and associated technical appendices. Provided in 40 CFR 231.8, EPA may, upon showing of good cause, extend the time requirements in the 404(c) regulations. In this case, EPA believes it is appropriate to grant the permittee's request for a 30-day extension to the consultation process. This extension will provide additional time to evaluate any corrective actions proposed by the permittee, or other participants in the consultation process described in 40 CFR 231.6, that would prevent the likely unacceptable adverse effects described in the Recommended Determination. The consultation process will therefore expire on November 29, 2010. As described above, EPA's 404(c) regulations provide that the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water shall issue a Final Determination within 60 days of receiving the Regional Administrator's Recommended Determination. This 60-day period is scheduled to expire on November 23, 2010. EPA may extend this deadline upon a showing of good cause. EPA believes that good cause exists to extend this deadline in order to complete the Final Determination by February 22, 2011. This extension will permit the Office of Water to more closely evaluate Region III's Recommended Determination and the administrative record, which includes more than 50,000 public comments. It will also enable more careful consideration of any new information that arises during the consultation process undertaken pursuant to 40 CFR 231.6, as described above. Finally, this date is consistent with an order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on November 2, granting a continued stay in litigation over the Spruce 1 permit until February 22, 2011.

EPA is announcing that Versar, Inc., an EPA contractor for external scientific peer review, will convene an independent panel of experts and organize and conduct an external peer review meeting to review the draft human health assessment titled, ``Toxicological Review of Urea: In Support of Summary Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)'' (EPA/635/R-10/005). The draft assessment was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) within the EPA Office of Research and Development. On September 28 EPA released this draft assessment [75 FR 59716] solely for the purpose of pre-dissemination peer review under applicable information quality guidelines. This draft assessment has not been formally disseminated by EPA. It does not represent and should not be construed to represent any Agency policy or determination. Versar, Inc. invites the public to register to attend this workshop as observers. In addition, Versar, Inc. invites the public to give brief oral comments and/or provide written comments at the workshop regarding the draft assessment under review. Time is limited, and reservations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. In preparing a final report, EPA will consider Versar, Inc.'s report of the comments and recommendations from the external peer review workshop and any written public comments that EPA receives in accordance with this notice.

The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public meeting of the SAB Lead Review Panel to peer review two draft EPA documents entitled Approach for Developing Lead Dust Hazard Standards for Residences and Approach for Developing Lead Dust Hazard Standards for Public and Commercial Buildings.

The EPA is providing notice that it is supplementing the record to the Proposed RuleAmbient Ozone Monitoring Regulations: Revisions to Network Design Requirements, published July 16, 2009. The EPA has placed in the docket for the Proposed RuleAmbient Ozone Monitoring Regulations: Revisions to Network Design Requirements (Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0338) additional ambient ozone monitoring data for the period January 1, 2007, through April 30, 2010, for the states of Colorado, Kansas, and Utah that cover time periods outside of the current required ozone monitoring seasons. The data for these states consist of daily maximum 8-hour ozone concentrations. These data have become available since original analyses were completed for the proposal, which relied on ambient data covering the period 2004-2006. EPA is specifically considering how these more recent data could impact changes to the current and proposed required ozone monitoring seasons for Colorado, Kansas, and Utah.

In accordance with section 6(f)(1) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), as amended, EPA is issuing a notice of receipt of requests by registrants to voluntarily cancel certain pesticide registrations. EPA intends to grant these requests at the close of the comment period for this announcement unless the Agency receives substantive comments within the comment period that would merit its further review of the requests, or unless the registrants withdraw their requests. If these requests are granted, any sale, distribution, or use of products listed in this notice will be permitted after the registrations have been canceled only if such sale, distribution, or use is consistent with the terms as described in the final order.

The EPA is finalizing its proposal to partially approve and partially disapprove a revision to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in a letter dated January 23, 2006 (the January 23, 2006 SIP submittal). Today's action finalizes our May 13, 2010 proposal that concerned revisions to 30 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 101, General Air Quality Rules, Subchapter A General Rules; and Subchapter F Emissions Events and Scheduled Maintenance, Startup, and Shutdown Activities. We are finalizing our proposed approval of those portions of the rule that are consistent with the federal Clean Air Act (the Act or CAA), and finalizing our proposed disapproval of those portions of the rule that are inconsistent with the Act. More specifically, we are finalizing our proposed disapproval of provisions that provide for an affirmative defense against civil penalties for excess emissions during planned maintenance, startup, or shutdown activities and related provisions that contain nonseverable cross-references to the affirmative defense provision. A disapproval of these provisions means that an affirmative defense is not available in an enforcement action in Federal court to enforce the SIP for violations due to excess emissions during planned maintenance, startup, or shutdown activities. We are taking this action under section 110 of the Act.