February 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) will conduct a public meeting to discuss the proposed rule, Procurement of Commodities for Foreign Donation, published in the Federal Register on December 16, 2005 (70 FR 74717).

EPA is taking direct final action to determine that the Ajo moderate PM10 nonattainment area in Arizona has attained the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to a nominal 10 micrometers (PM10). This determination is based upon monitored air quality data for the PM10 NAAQS during the years 2002-2004. EPA also finds that the Ajo area has continued to attain the PM10 NAAQS since 2004. Based on this determination, EPA is also determining that certain Clean Air Act requirements are not applicable for so long as the Ajo area continues to attain the PM10 NAAQS.

EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from solvent degreasers. We are proposing to approve local rules to regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990 (CAA or the Act).

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of boscalid, 3-pyridinecarboxamide, 2-chloro-N-(4'-chloro [1,1'-biphenyl]- 2-yl) in or on banana (imported), celery, and spinach. In addition, existing tolerances are being increased on almond hulls. Finally, the existing lettuce exception listed for the indirect or inadvertent residues in vegetables, leafy, group 4, is being revised to include celery and spinach, as well as lettuce. BASF requested the tolerances on almonds and bananas, and Interregional Research Project 4 (IR-4) has proposed group tolerances on vegetable, leafy, except brassica, Group 4 (to include celery and spinach), under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA).

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) has adopted final amendments to its Regulation A to reflect the Board's approval of an increase in the primary credit rate at each Federal Reserve Bank. The secondary credit rate at each Reserve Bank automatically increased by formula as a result of the Board's primary credit rate action.

The Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) is amending its regulations that implement the Equal Access to Justice Act to bring them up to date with amendments to the statute that have been enacted since 1983.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (Institute) has amended its Privacy Act regulations to reflect administrative changes at the agency and to conform to the President's Memorandum of June 1, 1998Plain Language in Government Writing. These regulations establish procedures by which an individual may determine whether a system of records maintained by the Institute contains a record pertaining to him or her; gain access to such records; and request correction or amendment of such records. These regulations also establish exemptions from certain Privacy Act requirements for all or part of certain systems of records maintained by the Institute.

This amendment establishes, amends, suspends, or revokes Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAPs) and/or Weather Takeoff Minimums for operations at certain airports. These regulatory actions are needed because of the adoption of new or revised criteria, or because of changes occurring in the National Airspace System, such as the commissioning of new navigational facilities, addition of new obstacles, or changes in air traffic requirements. These changes are designed to provide safe and efficient use of the navigable airspace and to promote safe flight operations under instrument flight rules at the affected airports.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce our intention to conduct rulemaking to establish a distinct population segment (DPS) of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) in the Northern Rocky Mountains of the United States (NRM). The NRM DPS of gray wolf encompasses the eastern one-third of Washington and Oregon, a small part of north-central Utah, and all of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. The threats to the wolf population in the NRM DPS have been reduced or eliminated as evidenced by the population exceeding the numerical, distributional, and temporal recovery goals each year since 2002. The States of Montana and Idaho have adopted State laws and State wolf management plans that would conserve a recovered NRM wolf population within their boundaries into the foreseeable future. However, we have determined that Wyoming State law and its wolf management plan do not provide the necessary regulatory mechanism to assure that Wyoming's share of a recovered NRM wolf population will be conserved if the ESA's protections were removed. Therefore, we intend to conduct a future rulemaking to propose that the gray wolf in the NRM wolf DPS be removed from the List of Threatened and Endangered Wildlife under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), as amended, if Wyoming adopts a State law and a State wolf management plan that is approved by the Service. Concerns regarding the Wyoming plan would have to be resolved before a NRM DPS delisting could be finalized. This ANPRM is being issued in advance of completion of the 12 month status review of NRM wolves. This status review remains in progress.

The Commission amends its regulations relating to the procedures to be followed when parties appealing Commission actions file in different courts of appeals. If within ten days after issuance of an order, the Commission receives two or more petitions for review filed with different courts of appeals, it is required to notify the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation, which then randomly selects one of those courts of appeals to consider the petitions for review. The Commission's regulations implement this provision by specifying that a party wishing to avail itself of these procedures must, within ten days after issuance of an order, file with the Commission's Office of General Counsel a copy of its petition for review as filed and date- stamped by the court of appeals. This amendment conforms the Commission's regulations to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure by providing that weekends and holidays will not be included when counting this ten-day period.

This document sets forth a proposal to amend the FM Table of Allotments, Section 73.202(b) of the Commission's rules, 47 CFR 73.202(b). The Commission requests comment on a petition filed by Jeraldine Anderson. Petitioner proposes the allotment of Channel 250A at Crowell, Texas, as a potential second local service. Channel 250A can be allotted at Crowell in compliance with the Commission's minimum distance separation requirements with a site restriction of 4.7 km (2.9 miles) west of Crowell. The proposed coordinates for Channel 250A at Crowell are 34-00-00 North Latitude and 99-46-18 West Longitude. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION infra.

The staff grants a settlement request filed by Scott Communications, Inc., Alexander Broadcasting Co., and SSR Communications, deletes the allotment of Channel 300A at Shorter, AL, and upgrades, reallots, and changes the community of license for Station WJAM-FM from Channel 300A at Orrville, AL, to Channel 300C3 at Shorter, AL. To prevent the removal of the sole local service at Orrville, the document reallots and changes the community of license for Station WALX(FM) from Channel 265C2 at Selma, AL, to Channel 265C2 at Orrville. The staff also dismisses as moot a petition for reconsideration filed jointly by Scott Communications and Alexander Broadcasting directed at the Report and Order in this proceeding. See 70 FR 28461 (May 18, 2005). With this action, the proceeding is terminated. See also Supplemental Information.

The Audio Division, at the request of Dana J. Puopolo, allots Channel 271A at Randsburg, California, as the community's first commercial FM transmission service in MB Docket No. 04-276; RM-11033. See 69 FR 46474, published August 3, 2004. Channel 271A can be allotted to Randsburg in compliance with the Commission's minimum distance separation requirements at the city reference coordinates of 35-22-06 North Latitude and 117-39-25 West Longitude. Mexican concurrence has been requested. The Audio Division, at the request of Charles Crawford, allots Channel 254A at Mooreland, Oklahoma, as the community's third local FM transmission service in MB Docket No. 04-279; RM-11036. See 69 FR 46474, published August 3, 2004. Channel 254A can be allotted to Mooreland in compliance with the Commission's minimum distance separation requirements, provided there is a site restriction of 13.9 kilometers (8.6 miles) northwest of the community. The reference coordinates for Channel 254A at Mooreland are 36-30-30 North Latitude and 99-20-00 West Longitude. Filing windows for Channel 271A at Randsburg, California and Channel 254A at Mooreland, Oklahoma, will not be opened at this time. Instead, the issue of opening a filing window for these channels will be addressed by the Commission in a subsequent order.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 90-day finding on a petition to list the Gunnison's prairie dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). We find that the petition does not present substantial scientific and commercial data indicating that listing the Gunnison's prairie dog may be warranted. Therefore, we will not be initiating a formal status review to determine if listing this species is warranted. We will work with the States where information is currently unavailable to develop information that will assist in determining and monitoring the status of Gunnison's prairie dog. Once those results are available we will reevaluate the status of Gunnison's prairie dog.

The FAA is superseding an existing airworthiness directive (AD), which applies to all Short Brothers Model SD3-60 and SD3-SHERPA airplanes. That AD currently requires an inspection of the fork end of the rear pintle pin on each main landing gear (MLG) to verify that sealant is properly applied and is undamaged, and related investigative/corrective actions if necessary. This new AD requires an additional inspection for correctly applied sealant on the MLG rear pintle pin assemblies, and related investigative/corrective actions if necessary. This AD also expands the applicability of the existing AD. This AD results from a new report of a cracked pintle pin fork end. We are issuing this AD to prevent stress-corrosion cracking and subsequent failure of the MLG.

This document adopts several modifications to the Federal Communications Commission's competitive bidding rules. Some of the changes are necessitated by the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act and others are designed to enhance the Commission's competitive bidding program.

The Commander, Fifth Coast Guard District, has approved a temporary deviation from the regulations governing the operation of the New Jersey Transit Railroad Drawbridge, at mile 0.9, across the South Channel of the Shark River at Belmar, New Jersey, south of Avon. To facilitate electrical repairs, this deviation allows the drawbridge to remain closed-to-navigation from 11 p.m. on February 10, 2006, until 12 p.m. (noon) on February 11, 2006, and from 11 p.m. on February 24, 2006, until 12 p.m. (noon) on February 25, 2006. If required, a rain date has been set from 11 p.m. on March 10, 2006, until 12 p.m. (noon) on March 11, 2006.

We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), published a final rule to add two marine taxa to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in accordance with the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, on November 16, 2005. For one of the two taxa, the white abalone (Haliotis sorenseni), we incorrectly published in the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife at Sec. 17.11(h) that the species was Threatened, when it is actually listed as Endangered. We now correct that error.

EPA is proposing to revise the waste treatment standard for 1,3-phenylenediamine (1,3-PDA) for a biosludge generated at DuPont's Chambers Works facility in Deepwater, New Jersey. This variance is necessary because the facility is unable to measure compliance with the previously promulgated 1,3-PDA treatment standard in its multisource leachate biosludge matrix. As a practical matter, therefore, the facility cannot fully document compliance with the requirements of the treatment standard. For the same reason, EPA cannot ascertain compliance for this constituent. Furthermore, faced with the inability to demonstrate treatment residual content through analytical testing for this constituent, this facility faces potential curtailment of 1,3- PDA production operations. This site-specific variance will provide alternative technology treatment standards for 1,3-PDA in multisource leachate that do not require analysis of the biosludge matrix to determine whether the numerical treatment standard is being met, thus ensuring that treatment reflecting performance of the Best Demonstrated Available Technology occurs and that threats to human health and the environment from land disposal of the waste are minimized. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of the Federal Register, we are revising the 1,3-PDA multisource leachate (F039) treatment standard for the DuPont Chambers Works facility in Deepwater, New Jersey without prior proposal because we view the revision as noncontroversial and anticipate no adverse comment. We have explained our reasons for this approach in the preamble to the direct final rule. If we receive adverse comment on this revision, however, we will withdraw the direct final action for that portion of the variance and it will not take effect. We will address all public comments in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. We will not institute a second comment period on this action. Any parties interested in commenting on any amendment must do so at this time.

This document contains final regulations relating to the taxation and reporting of income earned on qualified settlement funds and certain other escrow accounts, trusts, and funds, and other related rules. The final regulations affect qualified settlement funds, escrow accounts established in connection with sales of property, disputed ownership funds, and the parties to these escrow accounts, trusts, and funds.

This document announces the Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) review of the Egg Research and Promotion Program (conducted under the Egg Research and Promotion Order), under the criteria contained in Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA).

We are proposing to amend the regulations governing the importation of fruits and vegetables in order to allow pink and red tomatoes grown in approved registered production sites in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama to be imported into the United States without treatment. The conditions to which the proposed importation of tomatoes would be subject, including trapping, pre-harvest inspection, and shipping procedures, are designed to prevent the introduction of quarantine pests into the United States. This action would allow for the importation of pink and red tomatoes from those countries in Central America while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests into the United States.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A330-200 and -300 series airplanes, A340-200 and - 300 series airplanes, and A340-541 and -642 airplanes. This AD requires repetitive borescope inspections of the left and right fuel tanks of the trimmable horizontal stabilizers (trim tanks) for detached or damaged float valves; related investigative/corrective actions if necessary; and the eventual replacement of all float valves in the left and right trim tanks with new, improved float valves, which terminates the need for the repetitive inspections. This AD also requires repetitive replacement of certain new, improved float valves. This AD results from reports of detached and damaged float valves in the trim tanks. We are issuing this AD to prevent, in the event of a lightning strike to the horizontal stabilizer, sparking of metal parts and debris from detached and damaged float valves, or a buildup of static electricity, which could result in ignition of fuel vapors and consequent fire or explosion.