Notice of a Regional Project Waiver of Section 1605 (Buy American) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, Gwinnett County, GA, 3464-3465 [2010-1119]
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 13 / Thursday, January 21, 2010 / Notices
for revision of its EPA-authorized
program under title 40 CFR. EPA
reviewed NCDENR’s request to revise its
EPA-authorized program and, based on
this review, EPA determined that the
application met the standards for
approval of authorized program
revisions set out in 40 CFR part 3,
subpart D. In accordance with 40 CFR
3.1000(d), this notice of EPA’s decision
to approve North Carolina’s request for
revision to its authorized program is
being published in the Federal Register.
Specifically, EPA has approved the
State of North Carolina’s request to
revise its Part 52—Approval and
Promulgation of Implementation Plans
authorized program for electronic
reporting of air emissions information
under 40 CFR part 51, for electronic
submissions that do not include an
electronic signature, but instead provide
for a handwritten signature on a
separate paper submission report.
NCDENR was notified of EPA’s
determination to approve its application
with respect to the authorized program
listed above.
Dated: January 7, 2010.
Lisa Schlosser,
Director, Office of Information Collection.
[FR Doc. 2010–1103 Filed 1–20–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560–50–P
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
[FRL–9104–8]
Notice of a Regional Project Waiver of
Section 1605 (Buy American) of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009 (ARRA) to Gwinnett County
Department of Water Resources,
Gwinnett County, GA
jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES
AGENCY: Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
SUMMARY: The EPA is hereby granting a
waiver of the Buy American
requirements of ARRA Section 1605
under the authority of Section
1605(b)(1) [inconsistent with the public
interest] to Gwinnett County
Department of Water Resources,
Gwinnett County, Georgia (‘‘County’’) for
the purchase of a foreign manufactured
submersible pump. This is a project
specific waiver and only applies to the
use of the specified product for the
ARRA project being proposed. Any
other ARRA recipient that wishes to use
the same product must apply for a
separate waiver based on project
specific circumstances. The County’s
tunnel and tunnel lift station project
VerDate Nov<24>2008
16:17 Jan 20, 2010
Jkt 220001
will include installation of two
submersible pumps as well as the
purchase of one spare pump. The
project was originally designed between
2003 and 2006, and bids were taken on
March 1, 2007. The County
standardized ITT Flygt Corporation as
the sole manufacturer of submersible
pumps in 2003, when design of the
project started. At the time of design,
the County already had in operation 88
Flygt pumps out of the 106 pumps in
the system. The County has submitted a
detailed memorandum dated October
17, 2003, explaining the rationale for
standardization. According to the
memorandum, the County desired to,
‘‘standardize on a single brand of
submersible pumps for wastewater
pump stations in order to provide
greater reliability in the operation of
pump stations and avoid the increased
costs of inventory, service, maintenance,
and engineering associated with using
several different brands.’’ This is a
project whose earlier phases began prior
the enactment of ARRA and was
undertaken for the principal purpose of
Clean Water Act compliance. The
procurement for those prior phases
standardized on a particular
manufactured good that is subject to
ARRA section 1605 requirements for its
ARRA-funded phase but the
performance from and operation and
maintenance of such good in the
performance of the facility would be
detrimentally affected by a requirement
to use a non-standardized good(s).
Based on the review of the information
provided, EPA has concluded that a
waiver of the Buy American provisions
is justified. The Assistant Administrator
of the Office of Administration and
Resources Management has concurred
on this decision to make an exception
to Section 1605 of ARRA. This action
permits the County to purchase Flygt
submersible pumps, manufactured by
ITT Flygt Corporation, as specified in its
September 1, 2009, request.
DATES: Effective Date: December 18,
2009.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Cynthia Y. Edwards, Project Officer,
Grants and SRF Section, Water
Protection Division (WPD), (404) 562–
9340, USEPA Region 4, 61 Forsyth St.
SW., Atlanta, GA 30303.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In
accordance with ARRA Section 1605(c),
the EPA hereby provides notice that it
is granting a project waiver of the
requirements of Sections 1605(a) of
Public Law 111–5, Buy American
requirements, to Gwinnett County
Department of Water Resources,
Gwinnett County, Georgia, for the
PO 00000
Frm 00023
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
purchase of Flygt submersible pumps,
manufactured by ITT Flygt Corporation
of Sweden. EPA has evaluated the
County’s basis for standardizing to the
Flygt submersible pumps. Based on the
information provided by the applicant,
EPA has determined that it is
inconsistent with the public interest for
the County to pursue the purchase of a
domestically manufactured submersible
pump.
Section 1605 of the ARRA requires
that none of the appropriated funds may
be used for the construction, alteration,
maintenance, or repair of a public
building or public work unless all of the
iron, steel, and manufactured goods
used in the project is produced in the
United States, or unless a waiver is
provided to the recipient by the head of
the appropriate agency, here the EPA. A
waiver may be provided if EPA
determines that (1) applying these
requirements would be inconsistent
with public the interest; (2) iron, steel,
and the relevant manufactured goods
are not produced in the United States in
sufficient and reasonably available
quantities and of a satisfactory quality;
or (3) inclusion of iron, steel, and the
relevant manufactured goods produced
in the United States will increase the
cost of the overall project by more than
25 percent.
The County has requested a waiver
from the Buy American Provision for
the purchase of the foreign made
submersible pumps as part of its tunnel
and tunnel lift station project. The
purchase of the submersible pumps is
part of a project that, according to the
County, ‘‘consists of a wastewater
conveyance and linear storage tunnel
from the existing Jack’s Creek
wastewater treatment facility to the
existing No Business Creek pump
station to convey wastewater flows from
the tunnel to the pump station and a lift
station to lift the flow from the tunnel
invert to the pump station. The tunnel
is an approximate 16,000 linear feet, 12foot diameter hard rock bore. The lift
station is constructed inside an
approximate 180 feet deep shaft
constructed through hard rock and lined
with concrete and shotcrete. The
completed project will have a design
flow capacity of 7.5 million gallons per
day (mgd) and overflow storage capacity
in excess of 13 million gallons of raw
sewage.’’
The project requires the installation of
two submersible pumps, plus an
additional spare submersible pump. The
pumps are specified at a maximum 335
hp and 5.5 mgd pumping capacity at a
total head of 207 feet. The project
specification provided prospective
bidders with one acceptable
E:\FR\FM\21JAN1.SGM
21JAN1
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 13 / Thursday, January 21, 2010 / Notices
3465
Having established both a proper
basis to specify the particular good
required for this project and that
application of the Buy American
requirements would be inconsistent
with the public interest, the County is
hereby granted a waiver from the Buy
American requirements of Section
1605(a) of Public Law 111–5. This
waiver permits use of ARRA funds for
the purchase of the specified ITT Flygt
Corporation submersible pumps
documented in the County’s waiver
request submittal dated September 1,
2009. This supplementary information
constitutes the detailed written
justification required by Section 1605(c)
for waivers based on a finding under
subsection (b)(1).
manufacturer of submersible pumps:
ITT Flygt Corporation. ITT Flygt was
specified as the sole acceptable
manufacturer of submersible pumps
because the County had standardized on
such pumps in 2003, when the project
started. At the time, 88 out of 106 pump
systems in the County were equipped
with Flygt submersible pumps. The
County standardized to these pumps,
according to the standardization
agreement with ITT Flygt Corporation,
to provide greater reliability in the
operation of pump stations and avoid
the increased costs of inventory, service,
maintenance, and engineering
associated with using several different
brands of pumps. Additionally,
according to the County,
standardization would allow the County
to further its efforts to avoid sanitary
sewer overflows by allowing maximum
flexibility to interchange pumps during
emergencies. Due to the difference in
the design of pumps, guide rail systems,
and electrical control systems, pumps
from one manufacturer cannot be
installed in a pump station outfitted for
a different manufacturer’s pumps. If
there is a catastrophic failure or
concurrent failure of pumps at a given
station, interchangeability allows the
immediate replacement of the failed
pumps in one station with little-used
pumps removed from other comparably
sized stations. This ability is, according
to the County, critically important in the
event of a catastrophic failure or
concurrent pump failures. This
minimizes the downtime of the failed
pump station and mitigates the risks of
a major wastewater overflow. It also
eliminates the necessity of maintaining
spare pumps as a contingency measure
against such situations. EPA has
determined that the County has
provided ample cause for
standardization. Furthermore,
standardization took place well before
ARRA funding was available, so such a
decision by the County was clearly not
an attempt to avoid application of the
Buy American provisions of ARRA.
The purpose of the ARRA is to
stimulate economic recovery by funding
current infrastructure construction, not
to delay projects that are already ‘‘shovel
ready’’ by requiring SRF eligible
recipients such as the County to revise
their design standards and
specifications. The imposition of ARRA
Buy American requirements in this case
would result in unreasonable delay for
this project, and an unnecessary burden
to the County, in the form of increased
maintenance costs in the future, as well
as decreased performance of its system
due to incompatible pumps. To delay
this construction would directly conflict
with a fundamental economic purpose
of ARRA, which is to create or retain
jobs.
The information provided is sufficient
to meet the following criteria listed
under Section 1605(b) of the ARRA,
OMB’s regulations at 2 CFR 176.60–
176.170, and in the April 28, 2009, EPA
Memorandum: Applying the Buy
American requirements of ARRA would
be inconsistent with the public interest.
The March 31, 2009, Delegation of
Authority Memorandum provided
Regional Administrators with the
authority to issue exceptions to Section
1605 of ARRA within the geographic
boundaries of their respective regions
and with respect to requests by
individual grant recipients.
ITEM NO.
BUREAU
SUBJECT
WIRELESS TELE– COMMUNICATIONS ........
TITLE: Amendment of Parts 15, 74 and 90 of
the Commission’s Rules Regarding Low
Power Auxiliary Stations, Including Wireless
Microphones (WT Docket No. 08–166)
SUMMARY: The Commission will consider
an Order and Further Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking to complete an important component of the DTV transition by prohibiting
the further distribution and sale of devices
that operate in the 700 MHz frequency and
setting a date by which existing devices
must clear the band to enable the rollout of
public safety services and accelerate the
deployment of next generation wireless networks.
jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES
2
VerDate Nov<24>2008
16:17 Jan 20, 2010
Jkt 220001
PO 00000
Frm 00024
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
Authority: Public Law 111–5, section 1605.
Dated: December 18, 2009.
A. Stanley Meiburg,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. 2010–1119 Filed 1–20–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560–50–P
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS
COMMISSION
Sunshine Act Meeting; Deletion of
Agenda Item from January 20, 2010,
Open Meeting
Date: January 15, 2010.
The following item has been deleted
from the list of Agenda items scheduled
for consideration at the January 20,
2010, Open Meeting and previously
listed in the Commission’s Notice of
January 13, 2010. This item has been
adopted by the Commission.
E:\FR\FM\21JAN1.SGM
21JAN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 13 (Thursday, January 21, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3464-3465]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-1119]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9104-8]
Notice of a Regional Project Waiver of Section 1605 (Buy
American) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)
to Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, Gwinnett County, GA
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The EPA is hereby granting a waiver of the Buy American
requirements of ARRA Section 1605 under the authority of Section
1605(b)(1) [inconsistent with the public interest] to Gwinnett County
Department of Water Resources, Gwinnett County, Georgia (``County'')
for the purchase of a foreign manufactured submersible pump. This is a
project specific waiver and only applies to the use of the specified
product for the ARRA project being proposed. Any other ARRA recipient
that wishes to use the same product must apply for a separate waiver
based on project specific circumstances. The County's tunnel and tunnel
lift station project will include installation of two submersible pumps
as well as the purchase of one spare pump. The project was originally
designed between 2003 and 2006, and bids were taken on March 1, 2007.
The County standardized ITT Flygt Corporation as the sole manufacturer
of submersible pumps in 2003, when design of the project started. At
the time of design, the County already had in operation 88 Flygt pumps
out of the 106 pumps in the system. The County has submitted a detailed
memorandum dated October 17, 2003, explaining the rationale for
standardization. According to the memorandum, the County desired to,
``standardize on a single brand of submersible pumps for wastewater
pump stations in order to provide greater reliability in the operation
of pump stations and avoid the increased costs of inventory, service,
maintenance, and engineering associated with using several different
brands.'' This is a project whose earlier phases began prior the
enactment of ARRA and was undertaken for the principal purpose of Clean
Water Act compliance. The procurement for those prior phases
standardized on a particular manufactured good that is subject to ARRA
section 1605 requirements for its ARRA-funded phase but the performance
from and operation and maintenance of such good in the performance of
the facility would be detrimentally affected by a requirement to use a
non-standardized good(s). Based on the review of the information
provided, EPA has concluded that a waiver of the Buy American
provisions is justified. The Assistant Administrator of the Office of
Administration and Resources Management has concurred on this decision
to make an exception to Section 1605 of ARRA. This action permits the
County to purchase Flygt submersible pumps, manufactured by ITT Flygt
Corporation, as specified in its September 1, 2009, request.
DATES: Effective Date: December 18, 2009.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cynthia Y. Edwards, Project Officer,
Grants and SRF Section, Water Protection Division (WPD), (404) 562-
9340, USEPA Region 4, 61 Forsyth St. SW., Atlanta, GA 30303.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with ARRA Section 1605(c), the
EPA hereby provides notice that it is granting a project waiver of the
requirements of Sections 1605(a) of Public Law 111-5, Buy American
requirements, to Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources,
Gwinnett County, Georgia, for the purchase of Flygt submersible pumps,
manufactured by ITT Flygt Corporation of Sweden. EPA has evaluated the
County's basis for standardizing to the Flygt submersible pumps. Based
on the information provided by the applicant, EPA has determined that
it is inconsistent with the public interest for the County to pursue
the purchase of a domestically manufactured submersible pump.
Section 1605 of the ARRA requires that none of the appropriated
funds may be used for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or
repair of a public building or public work unless all of the iron,
steel, and manufactured goods used in the project is produced in the
United States, or unless a waiver is provided to the recipient by the
head of the appropriate agency, here the EPA. A waiver may be provided
if EPA determines that (1) applying these requirements would be
inconsistent with public the interest; (2) iron, steel, and the
relevant manufactured goods are not produced in the United States in
sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory
quality; or (3) inclusion of iron, steel, and the relevant manufactured
goods produced in the United States will increase the cost of the
overall project by more than 25 percent.
The County has requested a waiver from the Buy American Provision
for the purchase of the foreign made submersible pumps as part of its
tunnel and tunnel lift station project. The purchase of the submersible
pumps is part of a project that, according to the County, ``consists of
a wastewater conveyance and linear storage tunnel from the existing
Jack's Creek wastewater treatment facility to the existing No Business
Creek pump station to convey wastewater flows from the tunnel to the
pump station and a lift station to lift the flow from the tunnel invert
to the pump station. The tunnel is an approximate 16,000 linear feet,
12-foot diameter hard rock bore. The lift station is constructed inside
an approximate 180 feet deep shaft constructed through hard rock and
lined with concrete and shotcrete. The completed project will have a
design flow capacity of 7.5 million gallons per day (mgd) and overflow
storage capacity in excess of 13 million gallons of raw sewage.''
The project requires the installation of two submersible pumps,
plus an additional spare submersible pump. The pumps are specified at a
maximum 335 hp and 5.5 mgd pumping capacity at a total head of 207
feet. The project specification provided prospective bidders with one
acceptable
[[Page 3465]]
manufacturer of submersible pumps: ITT Flygt Corporation. ITT Flygt was
specified as the sole acceptable manufacturer of submersible pumps
because the County had standardized on such pumps in 2003, when the
project started. At the time, 88 out of 106 pump systems in the County
were equipped with Flygt submersible pumps. The County standardized to
these pumps, according to the standardization agreement with ITT Flygt
Corporation, to provide greater reliability in the operation of pump
stations and avoid the increased costs of inventory, service,
maintenance, and engineering associated with using several different
brands of pumps. Additionally, according to the County, standardization
would allow the County to further its efforts to avoid sanitary sewer
overflows by allowing maximum flexibility to interchange pumps during
emergencies. Due to the difference in the design of pumps, guide rail
systems, and electrical control systems, pumps from one manufacturer
cannot be installed in a pump station outfitted for a different
manufacturer's pumps. If there is a catastrophic failure or concurrent
failure of pumps at a given station, interchangeability allows the
immediate replacement of the failed pumps in one station with little-
used pumps removed from other comparably sized stations. This ability
is, according to the County, critically important in the event of a
catastrophic failure or concurrent pump failures. This minimizes the
downtime of the failed pump station and mitigates the risks of a major
wastewater overflow. It also eliminates the necessity of maintaining
spare pumps as a contingency measure against such situations. EPA has
determined that the County has provided ample cause for
standardization. Furthermore, standardization took place well before
ARRA funding was available, so such a decision by the County was
clearly not an attempt to avoid application of the Buy American
provisions of ARRA.
The purpose of the ARRA is to stimulate economic recovery by
funding current infrastructure construction, not to delay projects that
are already ``shovel ready'' by requiring SRF eligible recipients such
as the County to revise their design standards and specifications. The
imposition of ARRA Buy American requirements in this case would result
in unreasonable delay for this project, and an unnecessary burden to
the County, in the form of increased maintenance costs in the future,
as well as decreased performance of its system due to incompatible
pumps. To delay this construction would directly conflict with a
fundamental economic purpose of ARRA, which is to create or retain
jobs.
The information provided is sufficient to meet the following
criteria listed under Section 1605(b) of the ARRA, OMB's regulations at
2 CFR 176.60-176.170, and in the April 28, 2009, EPA Memorandum:
Applying the Buy American requirements of ARRA would be inconsistent
with the public interest.
The March 31, 2009, Delegation of Authority Memorandum provided
Regional Administrators with the authority to issue exceptions to
Section 1605 of ARRA within the geographic boundaries of their
respective regions and with respect to requests by individual grant
recipients.
Having established both a proper basis to specify the particular
good required for this project and that application of the Buy American
requirements would be inconsistent with the public interest, the County
is hereby granted a waiver from the Buy American requirements of
Section 1605(a) of Public Law 111-5. This waiver permits use of ARRA
funds for the purchase of the specified ITT Flygt Corporation
submersible pumps documented in the County's waiver request submittal
dated September 1, 2009. This supplementary information constitutes the
detailed written justification required by Section 1605(c) for waivers
based on a finding under subsection (b)(1).
Authority: Public Law 111-5, section 1605.
Dated: December 18, 2009.
A. Stanley Meiburg,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. 2010-1119 Filed 1-20-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
