August 21, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is issuing this proposed rule to revise the existing fees for EPA's Lead-Based Paint Activities regulations and establish fees for the Renovation, Repair, and Painting rule. As specified in section 402 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA must establish and implement a fee schedule to recover for the U.S. Treasury the Agency's costs of administering and enforcing the standards and requirements applicable to lead-based paint training programs and contractors. Specifically, this proposed rule establishes the fees that will be charged, in those States and Indian Tribes without authorized programs, for training programs seeking accreditation under 40 CFR 745.225, for firms engaged in renovations seeking certification under 40 CFR 745.89, and for individuals or firms engaged in lead-based paint activities seeking certification under 40 CFR 745.226.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6 announces the deletion of the Double Eagle Refinery Co. Superfund Site (Site) located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 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 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 Oklahoma, through the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, 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.

EPA is withdrawing the July 8, 2008 (73 FR 38925), direct final rule revisions to Indiana's State Plan to control air pollutants from large Municipal Waste Combustors (MWC). The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) submitted the State Plan on August 24, 2007. In the direct final rule, EPA stated that if adverse comments were submitted by August 7, 2008, the rule would be withdrawn and not take effect. On July 29, 2008, IDEM submitted a comment to EPA. EPA believes this comment is adverse and, therefore, EPA is withdrawing the direct final rule. Specifically, IDEM commented that, in the table for particulate matter, there was a typographical error in identifying the appropriate footnotes for the emission limitations. In addition, IDEM stated that it had recently submitted an agency correction for publication in the Indiana Register to correct the footnotes for mercury and sulfur dioxide in the emission limitations table, and requested that these corrections be part of the final federal approval. EPA will address the comment in a subsequent final action based upon the proposed action also published on July 8, 2008 (73 FR 38954). EPA will not institute a second comment period on this action.

This rule amends the general regulations for federal fruit, vegetable and nut marketing agreements and marketing orders by establishing supplemental rules of practice for amendatory formal rulemaking proceedings in accordance with section 1504 of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill). The supplemental rules of practice add procedures to the rulemaking process relating to amendments to fruit, vegetable and nut marketing agreements and marketing orders; authorize the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to impose assessments on affected industries to supplement funds necessary to improve or expedite an amendatory hearing process; and authorize the use of informal rulemaking (5 U.S.C. 553) to amend such agreements and orders. Section 1504 of the 2008 Farm Bill also applies to amendments of federal milk marketing agreements and orders. The supplemental rules of practice for federal milk marketing agreements and orders are addressed in a separate rulemaking document.

The FAA proposes to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to certain Cessna Model 560 airplanes. The existing AD currently requires installing new minimum airspeed placards to notify the flightcrew of the proper airspeeds for operating in both normal and icing conditions. The existing AD also requires revising the airplane flight manual to provide limitations and procedures for operating in icing conditions, for operating with anti-ice systems selected ``on'' independent of icing conditions, and for recognizing and recovering from inadvertent stall. The existing AD also provides an optional terminating action for the placard installation. This proposed AD would require the previously optional terminating action. This proposed AD results from an evaluation of in-service airplanes following an accident. The evaluation indicated that some airplanes might have an improperly adjusted stall warning system. We are proposing this AD to prevent an inadvertent stall due to the inadequate stall warning margin provided by an improperly adjusted stall warning system, which could result in loss of controllability of the airplane.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the products listed above. This proposed AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information (MCAI) originated by an aviation authority of another country to identify and correct an unsafe condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as:

The FAA proposes to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to all Honeywell FMSs served by Honeywell NZ-2000 navigation computers and IC-800 integrated avionics computers. The existing AD currently requires identifying affected computers by part number and software modification level and revising the Limitations section of applicable airplane flight manuals to provide procedures for retaining optimum position determination and intended navigation. This proposed AD would require uploading new software, which would terminate the existing requirements. This proposed AD results from reports of in-flight unannunciated shifts of computed position in airplanes with the subject FMS computers. We are proposing this AD to prevent a shift in the FMS computed position, which could result in uncommanded deviations from the intended flight path of the airplane and, if those deviations are undetected by the flight crew, compromised terrain/traffic avoidance.

On April 30, 2008, we published in the Federal Register (Volume 73, Number 84, pages 23393-23403) proposed mailing standards to require the use of Intelligent Mail[supreg] barcodes on all letters and flats mailed at automation prices as of May 2010. We described two options for using Intelligent Mail barcodes as of May 2009: The basic option and the full-service option. In this final rule, we summarize comments received in response to our proposed rule and provide our new mailing standards for the use of Intelligent Mail barcodes.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region V is publishing a direct final Notice of Deletion of the Waste Inc. Landfill Superfund Site (Site), located in Michigan City, Indiana, 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 Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300, which is 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 Indiana, through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), because EPA has 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.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region V is issuing a Notice of Intent to Delete the Waste Inc. Landfill Superfund Site (Site) located in Michigan City, Indiana 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 Indiana, through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), 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.

In an effort to financially assist Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) and other certified small and disadvantaged business (SDBs) in their execution of transportation related contracts at the local, state and federal levels, the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) has developed the Short-Term Lending Program (STLP), under which DOT guarantees short-term lines of credit for said businesses. The program is administered through cooperative agreements between DOT's OSDBU and Participating Lenders and under the STLP's governing policies and procedures. This NPRM proposes new rules to govern the STLP.

This proposed rule would make two sets of amendments to improve evaluation and oversight of public housing agencies (PHAs). First, this proposed rule would amend HUD's Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS) regulations for the purposes of: Consolidating the regulations governing assessment of a PHA's program in one part of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR); revising certain PHAS regulations based on the Department's experience with PHAS since it was established as the new system for evaluating a PHA in 1998; and updating certain PHAS procedures to reflect recent changes in public housing operations from conversion by PHAs to asset management, including updating and revising the PHAS scoring. PHAS is designed to improve the delivery of services in public housing and to enhance trust in the public housing system among PHAs, public housing residents, and the general public, by providing a management tool for effectively and fairly measuring the performance of a PHA in essential housing operations of its projects, based on standards that are uniform and verifiable. The changes proposed by this rule are intended to enhance the efficiency and utility of PHAS. Second, the proposed rule would establish, in a separate part of the CFR, the regulations that would specify the actions or inactions by which a PHA would be determined to be in substantial default, the procedures for a PHA to respond to such a determination or finding, and the sanctions available to HUD to address and remedy substantial default by a PHA. To date, such regulations have been included in the PHAS regulations, but the actions or inactions that constitute substantial default are not limited to failure to comply with PHAS regulations. Accordingly, the proposed regulations applicable to substantial default are more appropriately codified in a separate CFR part. This proposed rule is also publishing the scoring processes for each of the PHAS scoring categories as appendices to part 902. Although these scoring processes are proposed as appendices, it is also possible that, at the final rule stage, they will be published as separate notices as has been HUD's practice to this point.