Environmental Protection Agency February 14, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with section 113(g) of the Clean Air Act, as amended (``Act''), 42 U.S.C. 7413(g), notice is hereby given of a settlement agreement to address a claim raised by Alcoa, Inc. (``Alcoa'') in a petition for review filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Alcoa, Inc. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, No. 04-1189 (D.C. Cir.) This lawsuit, which was filed pursuant to section 307(b) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. 7607(b), challenged EPA's designation of the Evansville, Indiana area as nonattainment for the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (``NAAQS'') pursuant to section 107(d)(1) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. 7407(d)(1). The proposed settlement agreement provides that if the State of Indiana submits a request to redesignate the Evansville area to attainment for the 8-hour ozone NAAQS, EPA shall determine whether the submission is complete and, if so, propose and take final action on the request within specified periods of time.

The EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) Post-1999 Rate of Progress (ROP) Plan, the 1990 Base Year Inventory, and the Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets (MVEB) established by the ROP Plan, for the Houston Galveston (HGA) ozone nonattainment Area submitted November 16, 2004. The intended effect of this action is to approve revisions submitted by the State of Texas to satisfy the reasonable further progress requirements for 1- hour ozone nonattainment areas classified as severe and demonstrate further progress in reducing ozone precursors. We are proposing to approve these revisions in accordance with the requirements of the Federal Clean Air Act (the Act).

Section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires any person who intends to manufacture (defined by statute to include import) a new chemical (i.e., a chemical not on the TSCA Inventory) to notify EPA and comply with the statutory provisions pertaining to the manufacture of new chemicals. Under sections 5(d)(2) and 5(d)(3) of TSCA, EPA is required to publish a notice of receipt of a premanufacture notice (PMN) or an application for a test marketing exemption (TME), and to publish periodic status reports on the chemicals under review and the receipt of notices of commencement to manufacture those chemicals. This status report, which covers the period from January 1, 2005 to January 19, 2005, consists of the PMNs pending or expired, and the notices of commencement to manufacture a new chemical that the Agency has received under TSCA section 5 during this time period.