April 4, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is taking direct final action approving State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the District of Columbia, the State of Maryland, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that provide revised carbon monoxide (CO) maintenance plans and transportation conformity budgets for the Washington Metropolitan area, the Baltimore area, and the Philadelphia area. These plans provide for continued maintenance of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for CO. For the Washington Metropolitan area, the District of Columbia formally submitted its maintenance plan revision on March 9, 2004; the Maryland Department of the Environment formally submitted its revision on March 3, 2004, and the Commonwealth of Virginia submitted its revision on March 22, 2004. The Maryland Department of the Environment formally submitted its revision for the Baltimore area on July 15, 2004, previously having submitted a parallel processing request of the same name on December 18, 2003. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection formally submitted its revision for the Philadelphia area on September 3, 2004. In this action, EPA is approving the revised maintenance plans and revised transportation conformity budgets for each respective CO maintenance area. This action is being taken under section 110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's State Implementation Plan (SIP). The revisions were submitted by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) to establish and require reasonably available control technology (RACT) for three major sources of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOX). These sources are located in Pennsylvania. EPA is approving these revisions to establish RACT requirements in the SIP in accordance with the Clean Air Act (CAA).

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reopening until June 3, 2005, the comment period for a proposed rule published in the Federal Register of March 20, 2002. In that document, FDA proposed to amend its voluntary nutrition labeling regulations by updating the names and nutrition labeling values for the 20 most frequently consumed raw fruits, vegetables, and fish in the United States. Since publication of the proposed rule, the agency has received new data in comments that it intends to use to further update the nutrition labeling values. The agency also intends to use additional data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for certain nutrients in raw produce. Those data became available after the close of the comment period. FDA is reopening the comment period to allow all interested parties the opportunity to review its tentative nutrition labeling values based upon data FDA received within and after the comment period, and to comment on the additional nutrient data for some of the 20 most frequently consumed raw fruits, vegetables, and fish. FDA will evaluate any new data submissions during this reopened comment period and will consider use of those data in a final rule.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is issuing a final rule for the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program to improve the effectiveness of its response to natural disasters. This final rule establishes the process by which NRCS will administer the EWP Program, responds to comments on the proposed rule received from the public during the 60-day comment period, and incorporates modifications and clarifications to improve implementation of the program.