October 15, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Secretary of the Interior proposes to withdraw 550 acres of public land from surface entry and mining for reclamation purposes on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation. This notice segregates the lands for up to 2 years from surface entry and mining while various studies and analyses are made to support a final decision on the withdrawal application. The lands will remain open to mineral and geothermal leasing and mineral material sales.

The Commission grants a petition for rulemaking filed by Davis Television Wausau, LLC, licensee of station WFXS(TV), to substitute DTV channel 31 for DTV channel 50 at Wittenberg, Wisconsin.

EPA is approving the actions of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) to address the provisions of Clean Air Act section 110(a)(2)(D)(i) for the 8-hour ozone and PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). These provisions require each state to submit a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision that prohibits emissions that adversely affect another state's air quality through interstate transport. ADEC has adequately addressed the four distinct elements related to the impact of interstate transport of air pollutants for the state of Alaska. These include prohibiting emissions that contribute significantly to nonattainment of the NAAQS in another state, interfere with maintenance of the NAAQS by another state, interfere with plans in another state to prevent significant deterioration of air quality, or interfere with efforts of another state to protect visibility.

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 from Loveland Products, Inc., Value Garden Supply, and Helena Chemical Company to voluntarily amend their registrations to terminate uses of certain carbaryl products, or to eliminate certain application methods for carbaryl products. The requests would terminate carbaryl use in or on wheat, millet, and fresh/succulent beans and peas (crop subgroup 6B). These requests would also terminate the use of drench or dip treatments of seedlings or seed pieces, dust formulations in agricultural crops, granular applications to leafy vegetables (except brassica), direct applications (except for flea collars) to domestic animals (including dogs, cats, and other pets), and all indoor applications. The requests would not terminate the last carbaryl products registered for use in the United States. 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 within this period. Upon acceptance of these requests, any sale, distribution, or use of products listed in this notice will be permitted only if such sale, distribution, or use is consistent with the terms as described in the final order.

The State of Ohio has submitted a request for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve a revision to the Ohio National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program to allow the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) to administer the parts of the program pertaining to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and storm water associated with construction activity at animal feeding operations (AFOs) in Ohio. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) currently administers the Ohio NPDES program in its entirety. Under the proposed revision, Ohio EPA would continue to implement all other aspects of the State's approved NPDES program. EPA Region 5 received Ohio's request in January 2007. In April and November 2007, EPA identified 31 technical and legal issues that ODA needs to resolve before EPA would be able to approve the ODA program. In a letter dated September 4, 2008, ODA committed to pursue specified statutory and administrative rule changes to address the issues identified by EPA. The ODA letter also included proposed statutory and rule changes beyond the scope of the changes needed to resolve the issues raised by EPA. ODA subsequently provided correct versions of certain proposed statutory and rule provisions that were not included with the September 4 letter. On October 3, 2008, EPA responded to ODA, stating its belief that enactment and adoption of the former changes would resolve EPA's issues, and that the latter changes proposed by ODA will not adversely affect ODA's authority to administer the NPDES program. The letter stated that EPA expects the adopted statutory and rule changes to be identical to those submitted with ODA's September 2008 letters. As a result, EPA proposes to approve Ohio's application contingent on the enactment and adoption of the former changes, as documented in ODA's September 4 letter. Today, EPA is requesting comment on the State's application to have ODA administer the NPDES program for CAFOs and for storm water associated with construction activity at AFOs, and is providing notice of a public hearing and comment period on the Agency's proposal to approve Ohio's application. EPA will either approve or disapprove the State's request after considering all comments it receives. A final decision to approve the program would be contingent on Ohio's enactment and adoption of the statutory and rule changes needed to resolve EPA's issues, as documented in ODA's September 4 letter.

This action amends Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) part 71 relating to airspace designations to reflect the approval by the Director of the Federal Register of the incorporation by reference of FAA Order 7400.9S, Airspace Designations and Reporting Points. This action also explains the procedures the FAA will use to amend the listings of Class A, B, C, D, and E airspace areas; air traffic service routes; and reporting points incorporated by reference.

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of the herbicide safener cyprosulfamide in or on corn, field, forage; corn, field, grain; corn, field, stover; corn, pop, grain; corn, pop, stover; corn, sweet, forage; corn, sweet, kernel plus cob with husks removed; and corn, sweet, stover; and for combined residues of cyprosulfamide and its metabolite 4-(aminosulfonyl)-N-cyclopropylbenzamide, calculated as cyprosulfamide, in or on cattle, meat byproducts; goat, meat byproducts; horse, meat byproducts and sheep, meat byproducts. Bayer CropScience requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

EPA has received a specific exemption request from the Michigan Department of Agriculture to use the pesticide kasugamycin (CAS No. 6980-18-3) to treat up to 10,000 acres of apples to control fire blight. The applicant proposes the use of a new chemical which has not been registered by the EPA. EPA is soliciting public comment before making the decision whether or not to grant the exemption.

The Department of the Interior (Department) is amending its regulations by adding a new part to codify its procedures for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which are currently located in chapters 1-6 of Part 516 of the Departmental Manual (DM). This rule contains Departmental policies and procedures for compliance with NEPA, Executive Order (E.O.) 11514, E.O. 13352 and the Council on Environmental Quality's (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508). Department officials will use this rule in conjunction with and supplementary to these authorities. The Department believes that codifying the procedures in regulations that are consistent with NEPA and the CEQ regulations will provide greater visibility to that which was previously contained in the DM and enhance cooperative conservation by highlighting opportunities for public engagement and input in the NEPA process. The Department will continue to maintain Department's information and explanatory guidance pertaining to NEPA in the DM and Environmental Statement Memoranda (ESM) to assist bureaus in complying with NEPA. Bureau-specific NEPA procedures remain in 516 DM Chapters 8-15 and bureau guidance in explanatory and informational directives. Maintaining explanatory information in the Department's DM chapters and ESM, and bureau-specific explanatory and informational directives will facilitate timely responses to new ideas, new information, procedural interpretations, training needs, and editorial changes to assist field offices when implementing the NEPA process.

Rural Development, a mission area within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proposing a unified grant platform for enhanced delivery of eight existing Rural Development grant programsCommunity Facility; Distance Learning and Telemedicine; Economic Impact Initiatives; Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvement Projects; Rural Cooperative Development; Tribal College; Value-Added Producer; and Water and Waste Disposal Facilities. This proposed rule would eliminate or revise the grant regulations for the eight existing programs and consolidate them under a new, single regulation.