Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Comment Request; BEACH Act Grant Program (Renewal), EPA ICR Number 2048.02, OMB Control Number 2040-0244, 36935-36937 [05-12655]

Agencies

• ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 122 (Monday, June 27, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36935-36937]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-12655]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[OW-2003-0039; FRL-7928-3]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to OMB for 
Review and Approval; Comment Request; BEACH Act Grant Program 
(Renewal), EPA ICR Number 2048.02, OMB Control Number 2040-0244

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: 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. This ICR is scheduled to expire on July 31, 2005. 
Under OMB regulations, the Agency may continue to conduct or sponsor 
the collection of information while this submission is pending at OMB. 
This ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its 
estimated burden and cost.

DATES: Additional comments may be submitted on or before July 27, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number OW-2003-
0039, to (1) EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by e-mail 
to OW-Docket@epa.gov, or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental 
Protection Agency, Water Docket, (4101T), 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20460, and (2) OMB at: Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Attention: 
Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lars Wilcut, Standards and Health 
Protection Division, Office of Science and Technology (4305T), 
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 566-0447; fax number: 
(202) 566-0409; e-mail address: wilcut.lars@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA has submitted the following ICR to OMB 
for review and approval according to the procedures prescribed in 5 CFR 
1320.12. On February 22, 2005 (70 FR 8581), EPA sought comments on this 
ICR pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.8(d). EPA received no comments.
    EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID 
No. OW-2003-0039, which is available for public viewing at the Water 
Docket in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West, Room B102, 1301 
Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center Public 
Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Reading 
Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Water Docket 
is (202) 566-2426. An electronic version of the public docket is 
available through EPA Dockets (EDOCKET) at https://www.epa.gov/edocket. 
Use EDOCKET to submit or view public comments, access the index listing 
of the contents of the public docket, and to access those documents in 
the public docket that are available electronically. Once in the 
system, select ``search,'' then key in the docket ID number identified 
above.
    Any comments related to this ICR should be submitted to EPA and OMB 
within 30 days of this notice. EPA's policy is that public comments, 
whether submitted electronically or in paper, will be made available 
for public viewing in EDOCKET as EPA receives them and without change, 
unless the comment contains copyrighted material, CBI, or other 
information whose public disclosure is restricted by statute. When EPA 
identifies a comment containing copyrighted material, EPA will provide 
a reference to that material in the version of the comment that is 
placed in EDOCKET. The entire printed comment, including the 
copyrighted material, will be available in the public docket. Although 
identified as an item in the official docket, information claimed as 
CBI, or whose disclosure is otherwise restricted by statute, is not 
included in the official public docket, and will not be available for 
public viewing in EDOCKET. For further information about the electronic 
docket, see EPA's Federal Register notice describing the electronic 
docket at 67 FR 38102 (May 31, 2002), or go to www.epa.gov/edocket.
    Title: BEACH Act Grant Program (Renewal).
    Abstract: Congress passed the Beaches Environmental Assessment and 
Coastal Health (BEACH) Act in October 2000 to amend the Clean Water 
Act, in part by adding section 406, ``Coastal Recreation Water 
Monitoring and Notification.'' Section 406(b) authorizes EPA to make 
grants to States and local governments to develop and implement 
programs for monitoring and public notification for coastal recreation 
waters adjacent to beaches or similar points of access that are used by 
the public, if the State or local government satisfies the requirements 
of the BEACH Act.
    Several of these requirements require a grant recipient to collect 
and submit information to EPA as a condition for receiving the grant. 
Section 406(b) requires a grant recipient to provide the factors that 
the state or local government uses to prioritize funds and a list of 
waters for which the grant funds will be used. Section 406(b) also 
requires that a grant recipient's program be consistent with the 
performance requirements set by EPA under section 406(a); EPA needs 
information from the grant recipients to determine if the monitoring 
and notification programs are consistent with these criteria. On July 
19, 2002, EPA published the National Beach Guidance and Required 
Performance Criteria for Grants (67 FR 47540). Section 406(b) also 
requires that a grant recipient submit a report to EPA that describes 
the data collected as part of a monitoring and notification program and 
the actions taken to notify the public when water quality standards are 
exceeded. Section 406(c) requires a

[[Page 36936]]

grant recipient to identify lists of coastal recreation waters, 
processes for States to delegate to local governments the 
responsibility for implementing a monitoring and notification program, 
and the content of the monitoring and notification program.
    The information covered by this ICR is required of States and local 
governments that seek to obtain BEACH Act funding. It allows EPA to 
properly review State and local governments' monitoring and 
notification programs to determine if they are eligible for BEACH Act 
grant funding. This information also enables EPA to fulfill its 
obligations to make this information available to the public as 
required by sections 406(e) and (g).
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for EPA's 
regulations in 40 CFR are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and are identified on 
the form and/or instrument, if applicable.
    Burden Statement: The annual public reporting and recordkeeping 
burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 2,374 
hours per response. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This 
includes the time needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, 
install, and utilize technology and systems for the purposes of 
collecting, validating, and verifying information, processing and 
maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; 
adjust the existing ways to comply with any previously applicable 
instructions and requirements; train personnel to be able to respond to 
a collection of information; search data sources; complete and review 
the collection of information; and transmit or otherwise disclose the 
information.
    Respondents/Affected Entities: Information collected by EPA will be 
submitted by environmental and public health agencies in coastal and 
Great Lakes states, territories and authorized tribes.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 40.
    Frequency of Response: Annually.
    Estimated Total Annual Hour Burden: 94,947.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost: $11,389,000, includes $3,750,000 
annualized capital or O&M costs and $7,639,000 annual labor costs.
    Changes in the Estimates: There is an increase of 25,192 hours in 
the total estimated burden currently identified in the OMB Inventory of 
Approved ICR Burdens. This increase is due to an adjustment to the 
estimates. The respondent average annual burden increased from 5,979 to 
7,121 hours which represents a 19.1% increase and the total average 
annual number of respondents increased from 35 to 40 respondents. EPA 
used the higher number of respondents because the Agency expects 
several tribes to apply for BEACH Act Grants that had not done so 
during the original ICR period. The annual operation and maintenance 
costs for all respondents also increased from $473,040 to $3,749,760 
for all states. This is because the estimated number of beaches 
monitored by grant recipients increased from 1,314 (estimated from the 
2000 National Beaches Survey) to 3,472 (estimated from EPA's 2003 
National List of Beaches), a 164.2% percent increase. In addition, EPA 
changed its estimate of the number of samples collected at each beach 
from one sample per week sample to two and changed the length of the 
beach season from 12 weeks to 18 weeks based on information that 
several state Beach Program contacts provided to EPA as the Agency was 
developing its initial assessment of burden.
    EPA also revised the labor rates, which increased from $40.26 to 
$42.96 for a Managerial employee and from $26 to $30.03 for a Technical 
employee based on the average Bureau of Labor Statistics salaries for 
managerial and technical employees in state and local governments as 
shown in their September 2004 publication.
    Several burden estimates for specific tasks under the performance 
criteria were also changed based on consultations with several of the 
respondents consulted in updating this ICR. The original estimates for 
these tasks were significantly lower than the actual burden reported by 
these respondents. These changes are summarized in Table 1.

                Table 1.--Changes in State and Territory Burden Estimates from Original 2002 ICR
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                    Total annual burden (hours)   Change between
         Performance criteria                State activity      --------------------------------   current and
                                                                    Current ICR    Previous ICR    previous ICR
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Risk-based Beach Evaluation and     Collect and submit beach              200              20             180
 Classification.                        lat/long coordinates
                                        (georeference beaches
                                        using maps, gps, etc.).
                                       Identify bathing beaches              100               6              94
                                        and submit beach miles.
                                       Rank beaches.............             103              13              90
2. Sampling Design and Monitoring      Ensure data quality......             112              10             102
 Implementation Plan.                  Train monitoring staff...             216              24             192
                                       Create database and data              400             200             102
                                        submission process.
                                       Manage data for beach                 200             108             102
                                        season.
                                       Program implementation                240              48             200
                                        and oversight.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



[[Page 36937]]

    Dated: June 20, 2005.
Oscar Morales,
Director, Collection Strategies Division.
[FR Doc. 05-12655 Filed 6-24-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P