Environmental Protection Agency May 24, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, this document announces that an Information Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. This is a request to renew an existing approved collection. This ICR is scheduled to expire on May 31, 2005. Under OMB regulations, the Agency may continue to conduct or sponsor the collection of information while this submission is pending at OMB. This ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its estimated burden and cost.

This document provides notice of the availability of a Class Deviation from EPA's allotment formula for the awarding of Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 106 grants and also sets forth an alternative formula that will apply for the $9.92 million FY 2005 increase in EPA's appropriation for these grants. Currently, monies awarded under Section 106 of the Clean Water Act are allocated through allotment formulae for States, interstate agencies, and tribes. These formulae implement Section 106(b) of the CWA, which directs the EPA Administrator to make allotments for grants from sums appropriated by Congress in each fiscal year ``in accordance with regulations promulgated by him on the basis of the extent of the pollution problem in the respective states.'' Because the President's FY 2005 budget request specifically requested an increase in Section 106 funding for FY 2005 enhanced monitoring activities, EPA determined through a Class Deviation that if it applied the current State allotment formula to that increase only a small number of States would actually receive an increase while the majority of States would not receive a sufficient increase to strengthen their water quality monitoring activities. The Class Deviation and the new allotment formula apply only to the $9.92 million FY 2005 Section 106 increase and not to the remainder of the monies appropriated by Congress for these grants, which will be allocated in accordance with the allocation formulae EPA currently uses.

EPA is promulgating today the rulemaking extension proposed and published in the Federal Register on January 25, 2005 for the Project XL Final Rule for New York State Public Utilities; Hazardous Waste Management Systems (XL Rule) (70 FR 3501). The XL Rule was published as a final rule in the Federal Register on Monday, July 12, 1999 and, by its terms, expired, on January 10, 2005. The details of the XL Rule can be found in 64 FR 37636 (July 12, 1999). No further changes are being made to the XL Rule other than the change in expiration date. Because the requirements outlined in the XL Rule do not become effective until New York State adopts equivalent requirements through a State rulemaking and receives EPA authorization for these equivalent State requirements, EPA is extending the XL Rule for a period of 72 months from the effective date of today's rule. To date, the State has not adopted an equivalent rule and thus the XL Project for New York Public State Utilities has not been implemented. The XL Rule must be extended to facilitate completion of the New York State Public Utilities XL Project.