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

The 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments established a Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program and authorized $9.6 billion to be appropriated for the program through fiscal year 2003. Congress directed that allotments for fiscal year 1998 and subsequent years would be distributed among States based on the results of the most recent Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment. In this notice, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing revised DWSRF program State allotment percentages in accordance with the results from the most recent 2003 Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment (Needs Assessment), which was released on June 14, 2005. The revised State allotment percentages affect DWSRF program appropriations for fiscal years 2006 through 2009. Beginning in fiscal year 1998, EPA established a formula that allocates funds to the States based directly on each State's proportional share of the total need for States, provided that each State receives a minimum share of one percent of the funds available to the States, as required by the SDWA. EPA has made the determination that it will continue to use this method for allocating DWSRF program funds. The findings from the 2003 Needs Assessment will change the percentage of the DWSRF program funding received by some States in prior years. This change reflects an increase or decrease in these States' share of the total needs for States and will allow appropriations disbursements to more accurately reflect the needs of the States to reach the public health objectives of the SDWA. The Agency believes that the 2003 Needs Survey and Assessment more accurately captures needs for necessary long-term rehabilitation and replacement of deteriorating infrastructure that were under-reported in the earlier surveys.

EPA is taking direct final action to approve a revision to the Allegheny County portion of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania State Implementation Plan (SIP). This revision, submitted by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) on behalf of the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD), establishes standards and requirements to control volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions from aerospace, mobile equipment, and wood furniture surface coating applications, and modifies existing regulations for general and specific coating processes. This revision updates the ACHD's regulations to make them consistent with the Commonwealth's SIP- approved regulations regarding the affected surface coating processes. EPA is approving this revision to the Allegheny portion of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania SIP in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act.

The states of Iowa and Kansas have submitted updated regulations for delegation of EPA authority for implementation and enforcement of NSPS, NESHAP, and MACT. The submissions cover new EPA standards and, in some instances, revisions to standards previously delegated. EPA's review of the pertinent regulations shows that they contain adequate and effective procedures for the implementation and enforcement of these Federal standards. This action informs the public of delegations to the above-mentioned agencies.

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 TSC, 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 May 11, 2005 to June 8, 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.

This notice announces the availability of EPA's environmental fate and effects risk assessment for the pesticide carbofuran, and opens a public comment period on this document. EPA is developing an Interim Reregistration Eligibility Decision (IRED), for carbofuran through the full, 6-Phase public participation process that the Agency uses to involve the public in developing pesticide reregistration and tolerance reassessment decisions. Through these programs, EPA is ensuring that all pesticides meet current health and safety standards.