October 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) submission, provided by the State of Tennessee, through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), through a letter dated September 13, 2018, for inclusion into the Tennessee SIP. This proposal pertains to the infrastructure requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) for the 2015 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS). Whenever EPA promulgates a new or revised NAAQS, the CAA requires that each state adopt and submit a SIP for the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of each NAAQS promulgated by EPA. TDEC certified that the Tennessee SIP contains provisions that ensure the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS is implemented, enforced, and maintained in Tennessee. EPA is proposing to determine that portions of Tennessee's SIP submission satisfy certain required infrastructure elements for the 2015 8-hour ozone NAAQS.

These special conditions are issued for the Bombardier Model No. DHC-8-100, DHC-8-200, DHC-8-300, and DHC-8-400 series airplanes. These airplanes, as modified by Voyageur Aerotech Inc. (Voyageur), will have novel or unusual design features when compared to the state of technology envisioned in the airworthiness standards for transport category airplanes. This design feature is a rechargeable lithium battery pack inside the Emergency Backup Power Supply. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this design feature. These special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards.

The Coast Guard will enforce the special local regulations in the navigable waters of the San Francisco Bay for the San Francisco Bay Navy Fleet Week Parade of Ships and Blue Angels Demonstration from October 10 through October 13, 2019. This action is necessary to ensure the safety of event participants and spectators. During the enforcement period, unauthorized persons or vessels are prohibited from entering into, transiting through, or anchoring in the regulated area, unless authorized by the Patrol Commander (PATCOM).

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is correcting a final rule regarding its claims adjudication, appeals and Rules of Practice of the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) regulation. This correction addresses a minor technical error in the published final rule.

This rule proposes regulations to implement Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. The New England Fishery Management Council developed Amendment 8 to specify a long-term acceptable biological catch control rule for Atlantic herring and address localized depletion and user group conflict. This amendment would establish an acceptable biological catch control rule that accounts for herring's role in the ecosystem and prohibit midwater trawling in inshore Federal waters from the U.S./Canada border to the Rhode Island/Connecticut border. Amendment 8 is intended to support sustainable management of the herring resource and help ensure that herring is available to minimize possible detrimental biological impacts on predators of herring and associated socioeconomic impacts on other user groups.

The Federal Maritime Commission (Commission) is revising its delegations to the Bureau of Enforcement and its procedures for initiating enforcement action in order to facilitate Commission oversight.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is proposing a rule to determine that certain unfinished manufactured fibers would not contain the ASTM F963 elements or specified phthalates that exceed the limits set forth under the CPSC's statutes and regulations for children's toys and child care articles. Based on these proposed determinations, the specified unfinished manufactured fibers would not be required to have third party testing for compliance with the requirements of the ASTM F963 elements or phthalates for children's toys and child care articles.

On September 4, 2019, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking with request for comments on proposed revisions to its regulations relating to interest rate restrictions that apply to less than well capitalized insured depository institutions. The FDIC is supplementing that notice of proposed rulemaking with an updated regulatory flexibility analysis to reflect changes to the Small Business Administration's monetary- based size standards which were adjusted for inflation as of August 19, 2019.

This action presents the proposed results of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) residual risk and technology review (RTR) required under the Clean Air Act (CAA) for the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for major source Iron and Steel Foundries, initially promulgated in 2004 and amended in 2008. Pursuant to the CAA, this action also presents the proposed results of the technology review for the NESHAP for area source Iron and Steel Foundries, initially promulgated in 2008. In this proposed action, the EPA is also proposing to remove exemptions for periods of startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM) and specify that the emissions standards apply at all times; require electronic reporting of performance test results and compliance reports; and make minor corrections and clarifications for a few other rule provisions for major sources and area sources. Implementation of these proposed rules is not expected to result in significant changes to the emissions from iron and steel foundries, human health, or environmental impacts associated with those emissions. However, this action, if finalized, would result in improved monitoring, compliance, and implementation of the existing standards.

NMFS is reallocating the projected unused amount of the 2019 Atka mackerel incidental catch allowance (ICA) for the Bering Sea subarea and Eastern Aleutian district (BS/EAI) to the Amendment 80 cooperative allocation in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is necessary to allow the 2019 total allowable catch of Atka mackerel in the BSAI to be fully harvested.

On August 16, 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule titled ``National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Integrated Iron and Steel Manufacturing Facilities Residual Risk and Technology Review.'' The EPA is reopening the comment period on the proposed rule that originally closed on September 30, 2019. The comment period will remain open to allow additional time for stakeholders to review and comment on the proposal.

EPA is proposing significant new use rules (SNURs) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for seven chemical substances which are the subject of premanufacture notices (PMNs). This action would require persons to notify EPA at least 90 days before commencing manufacture (defined by statute to include import) or processing of any of these seven chemical substances for an activity that is designated as a significant new use by this proposed rule. This action would further require that persons not commence manufacture or processing for the significant new use until they have submitted a Significant New Use Notice, and EPA has conducted a review of the notice, made an appropriate determination on the notice under TSCA and has taken any risk management actions as are required as a result of that determination.

The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is correcting a final rule that was published in the Federal Register on September 3, 2019, which revised the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) Programs. That document inadvertently failed to include the relevant counties in Nebraska that have been established as having a history of double-cropping covered commodities or peanuts with fruits, vegetables, or wild rice and incorrectly listed the previous Regulation Identifier Number (RIN).

The OCC, Board, and FDIC (collectively, the agencies) are adopting a final rule to amend the agencies' regulations requiring appraisals of real estate for certain transactions. The final rule increases the threshold level at or below which appraisals are not required for residential real estate transactions from $250,000 to $400,000. The final rule defines a residential real estate transaction as a real estate-related financial transaction that is secured by a single 1-to-4 family residential property. For residential real estate transactions exempted from the appraisal requirement as a result of the revised threshold, regulated institutions must obtain an evaluation of the real property collateral that is consistent with safe and sound banking practices. The final rule makes a conforming change to add to the list of exempt transactions those transactions secured by residential property in rural areas that have been exempted from the agencies' appraisal requirement pursuant to the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. The final rule requires evaluations for these exempt transactions. The final rule also amends the agencies' appraisal regulations to require regulated institutions to subject appraisals for federally related transactions to appropriate review for compliance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.

OSHA is proposing to revise the standards for occupational exposure to beryllium and beryllium compounds in the construction and shipyards industries. These proposed changes are designed to accomplish three goals: To more appropriately tailor the requirements of the construction and shipyards standards to the particular exposures in these industries in light of partial overlap between the beryllium standards' requirements and other OSHA standards; to aid compliance and enforcement across the beryllium standards by avoiding inconsistency, where appropriate, between the shipyards and construction standards and proposed revisions to the general industry standard; and to clarify certain requirements with respect to materials containing only trace amounts of beryllium. This proposal would lead to total annualized cost savings of $2.5 million at a 3 percent discount rate over 10 years; at a discount rate of 7 percent over 10 years, the annualized cost savings would be $2.5 million. OSHA has preliminarily determined that these proposed changes would maintain safety and health protections for workers, while facilitating compliance with the standards and yielding some cost savings. This proposal does not affect the general industry beryllium standard.

The Commission is initiating a proposed rulemaking docket in order to propose amendments that reorganize the order of appearance of its regulations and revise multiple sections therein. This notice informs the public of the docket's initiation, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific cod by catcher vessels less than 50 feet length overall (LOA) using hook-and- line gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2019 Pacific cod total allowable catch apportioned to catcher vessels less than 50 feet LOA using hook-and-line gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the GOA.

This action proposes to amend the Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Charles Cole Memorial Hospital Heliport, Coudersport, PA, and revoke the Class E airspace extending upward from 700 feet above the surface at Cherry Springs Airport, Galeton, PA. The FAA is proposing this action as the result of the closure of the Cherry Spring Airport. The geographic coordinates of Charles Cole Memorial Hospital Heliport would also be updated to coincide with the FAA's aeronautical database. Airspace redesign is necessary for the safety and management of instrument flight rules (IFR) operations at Charles Cole Memorial Hospital Heliport.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to remove the plant Howellia aquatilis (water howellia) from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Plants. The best available scientific and commercial data indicate that threats to water howellia identified at the time of listing in 1994 are not as significant as originally anticipated and are being adequately managed. Therefore, the species no longer meets the definition of an endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). This determination is based on a thorough review of all available information, which indicates that this species' population and distribution are much greater than was known at the time of listing in 1994 and that threats to this species have been sufficiently minimized. We are seeking information and comments from the public regarding this proposed rule and the draft post-delisting monitoring (PDM) plan for water howellia.

The Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board) grants in part a petition filed by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) to amend the Board's railroad performance data reporting regulations. Specifically, the Board proposes to modify its regulations to include chemical and plastics traffic as a distinct reporting category for the ``cars-held'' metric.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce findings that 12 species are not warranted for listing as endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). After a thorough review of the best available scientific and commercial information, we find that it is not warranted at this time to list the Berry Cave salamander, cobblestone tiger beetle, Florida clamshell orchid, longhead darter, Ocala vetch, Panamint alligator lizard, Peaks of Otter salamander, redlips darter, Scott riffle beetle, southern hognose snake, yellow anise tree, and yellow-cedar. However, we ask the public to submit to us at any time any new information relevant to the status of any of the species mentioned above or their habitats.

NMFS is exchanging unused yellowfin sole Community Development Quota (CDQ) for rock sole CDQ acceptable biological catch (ABC) reserves in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area. This action is necessary to allow the 2019 total allowable catch of flathead sole and yellowfin sole in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area to be harvested.

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of chlorantraniliprole in or on palm, oil. FMC Corporation requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

This regulation establishes time-limited tolerances for residues of thiamethoxam in or on rice. This action is in response to EPA's granting of an emergency exemption under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) authorizing use of the pesticide on rice. This regulation establishes a maximum permissible level for residues of thiamethoxam in or on these commodities. The time-limited tolerances expire on December 31, 2024. This action is also associated with the utilization of a crisis exemption under the FIFRA authorizing use of the pesticide on rice.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or we) is amending the animal drug regulations to reflect application-related actions for new animal drug applications (NADAs) and abbreviated new animal drug applications (ANADAs) during April, May, and June 2019. FDA is informing the public of the availability of summaries of the basis of approval and of environmental review documents, where applicable. The animal drug regulations are also being amended to make technical amendments to improve the accuracy of the regulations.