Environmental Protection Agency August 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Texas. This revision approves the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Voluntary Mobile Emission Reduction Program (VMEP) which is relied upon to achieve the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone in the DFW nonattainment area.

This document announces that on March 22, 2005, the Environmental Appeals Board (``EAB'') of EPA denied review of a petition for review of a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (``PSD'') permit (``Permit'') that the State of Washington's Department of Ecology (``Ecology'') issued to Cardinal FG Company (``Cardinal'') for construction and operation of a flat glass production plant (``Facility'') near Chehalis, Washington. The Permit was issued pursuant to 40 CFR 52.21. Ecology has the authority to issue PSD permits pursuant to the ``Agreement for Partial Delegation of the Federal Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Program by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 to the State of Washington Department of Ecology,'' dated March 28, 2003 (``PSD Delegation Agreement''). The PSD Delegation Agreement was entered into pursuant to 40 CFR 52.21(u).

This action finalizes limited approval of revisions to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) concerning excess emissions which we proposed, through the parallel processing mechanism, on May 9, 2005. Specifically, we are finalizing limited approval of revisions to 30 TAC Chapter 101, General Air Quality Rules concerning excess emissions during startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM) activities. The action will have the effect of extending the expiration date of certain provisions from June 30, 2005 to no later than June 30, 2006. Texas has made this change to allow for additional time before these provisions expire from the SIP to submit a revised excess emissions rule for our approval into the SIP.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) is taking final action to approve a PM10 State Implementation Plan (SIP) maintenance plan revision for the Wallula, Washington nonattainment area and to redesignate the area from nonattainment to attainment. PM10 air pollution is suspended particulate matter with a nominal diameter less than or equal to a nominal ten micromenters. We are approving the maintenance plan revision and redesignation request because the State has adequately demonstrated that the control measures being implemented in the Wallula area will result in maintenance of the PM10 National Ambient Air Quality Standards and that all other requirements of the Clean Air Act for redesignation to attainment have been met.

The EPA is approving revisions to the Tennessee and Georgia State Implementation Plans (SIPs) submitted by the State of Tennessee, through the Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) on December 29, 2004, and by the State of Georgia, through the Environmental Protection Division (GAEPD) on December 31, 2004, for the three Early Action Compact (EAC) areas in Tennessee and Georgia: the Chattanooga, Nashville, and Tri-Cities Areas (the Tennessee and Georgia EAC Areas). The Chattanooga EAC Area is the only one of the three with counties in both Tennessee and Georgia; the other two EAC Areas are located entirely within the State of Tennessee. The SIP revisions meet the requirements for the Tennessee and Georgia EAC Areas to attain and maintain the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (8-hour ozone standard) as described in the EAC Protocol and related regulations. EPA is also now approving the photochemical modeling used by Tennessee and Georgia to support the attainment and maintenance demonstrations of the 8-hour ozone standard in the Tennessee and Georgia EAC Areas. In this action, EPA is not finalizing its proposed rulemaking to defer the effective date of the nonattainment designations for EAC areas. In a separate action, published on June 8, 2005, EPA proposed to defer the effective date of the nonattainment deferred designation for EAC areas until December 31, 2006 (69 FR 23858). EPA final action on the deferral is expected to be published before September 30, 2005.

The Environmental Protection Agency published a notice in the Federal Register of July 16, 2005, concerning a request for comments on an information collection request regarding the assessment of indoor air quality outreach products and services. The document contained an incorrect date.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is holding a public meeting to discuss designated uses and use attainability analyses. The meeting is co-sponsored with the Water Environment Federation (WEF). The primary goals of the meeting are to help educate the public on current water quality standards regulations, guidance and practices related to designated uses and use attainability analyses, and to provide a forum for the public to join in discussions, ask questions, and provide feedback.

On April 12, 2003, the EPA issued national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for reinforced plastics composites production, which were issued under section 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). This action will amend the final rule to revise compliance options for open molding, correct errors, and add clarifications to sections of the rule that were not clear. In the Rules and Regulations section of this Federal Register, we are taking direct final action on the proposed amendments because we view the amendments as noncontroversial and anticipate no adverse comments. We have explained our reasons for the amendments in the direct final rule. If we receive no adverse comments, we will take no further action on the proposed amendments. If we receive adverse comments, we will withdraw only those provisions on which we received adverse comments. We will publish a timely withdrawal in the Federal Register indicating which provisions will become effective and which provisions are being withdrawn. If part or all of the direct final rule in the Rules and Regulations section of today's Federal Register is withdrawn, all comments pertaining to those provisions will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on the proposed amendments. We will not institute a second comment period on the subsequent final action. Any parties interested in commenting must do so at this time.

On April 17, 2003, we published the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for hydrochloric acid (HCl) production facilities, including HCl production at fume silica facilities (HCl Production NESHAP) (68 FR 19076). We are proposing to amend the existing rule by clarifying certain applicability provisions, emission standards, and testing, maintenance, and reporting requirements. The proposed amendments would also correct several omissions and typographical errors in the final rule. We are proposing the amendments to facilitate compliance and improve understanding of the final rule requirements.

EPA is reopening the comment period for a proposed rule published June 27, 2005 (70 FR 36901). On June 27, 2005, EPA proposed to disapprove revisions to Ohio rules that provide for use of continuous opacity monitoring data but allow more exceedances of the general opacity limit in cases where the owner of an eligible large coal fired boiler opts to use these data for determining compliance. EPA also proposed to approve other elements of Ohio's rule submittal that clarified Ohio's rules. In response to requests from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and from the law firm of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, EPA is reopening the comment period through August 24, 2005. All comments received on or before August 24, 2005 will be entered into the public record and considered by EPA before taking final action on the proposed rule.

With this action, EPA is allocating essential use allowances for import and production of class I stratospheric ozone depleting substances (ODSs) for calendar year 2005. Essential use allowances enable a person to obtain controlled class I ODSs as an exemption to the regulatory ban of production and import of these chemicals, which became effective on January 1, 1996. EPA allocates essential use allowances for exempted production or import of a specific quantity of class I ODS solely for the designated essential purpose. The allocations total 1,820.48 metric tons of chlorofluorocarbons for use in metered dose inhalers.

This notice announces the initial filing of a pesticide petition proposing the establishment of regulations for residues of a certain pesticide chemical in or on various food commodities.

This regulation establishes a time-limited tolerance for residues of myclobutanil in or on soybeans. This action is in response to EPA's granting of an emergency exemption under section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) authorizing use of the pesticide on soybeans. This regulation establishes a maximum permissible level for residues of myclobutanil in this food commodity. The tolerance will expire and is revoked on December 31, 2009.

The EPA is proposing to approve a revision to the State Implementation Plan (SIP) of the Commonwealth of Kentucky which incorporates Kentucky rule 401 KAR 52:080 into the Kentucky SIP. The Commonwealth submitted the revision on October 31, 2003. This rule affects sources whose actual emissions are less than 50 percent of the major source threshold whereas the sources' potential to emit (PTE) exceeds the major source threshold. The EPA is also notifying the public that the Agency's conditional approval of Kentucky rule 401 KAR 52:080, as submitted on March 15, 2001, and published on August 15, 2002, is disapproved as of October 15, 2003. In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, the EPA is approving the Commonwealth's SIP revision as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no significant, material, and adverse comments are received in response to this rule, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this rule. The EPA will not institute a second comment period on this document. Any parties interested in commenting on this document should do so at this time.

Today, EPA is proposing actions to address the interstate transport of emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) that contribute significantly to nonattainment and maintenance problems with respect to the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and 8-hour ozone. As one part of today's action, EPA is proposing its response to a petition submitted to EPA by the State of North Carolina under section 126 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). The petition requests that EPA find that SO2 and/or NOX emissions from electric generating units (EGUs) in 13 States are significantly contributing to PM2.5 and/or 8-hour ozone nonattainment and maintenance problems in North Carolina, and requests that EPA establish control requirements to prohibit such significant contribution. The EPA's proposed response is based on extensive analyses conducted for the recently issued Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). The EPA is proposing to deny the petition for sources in States not shown to be linked to nonattainment and maintenance problems in North Carolina under the CAIR. For sources in States that are linked to North Carolina under the CAIR, EPA is proposing in the alternative to deny the petition if EPA promulgates Federal implementation plans (FIPs) to address the interstate transport no later than the final section 126 response or to grant the petition if EPA does not promulgate the FIPs prior to or concurrently with the section 126 response. The EPA's preferred option is to promulgate the FIP concurrently with the final section 126 response. In today's action, EPA is also proposing FIPs for all jurisdictions that are covered by the CAIR. The FIPs would regulate EGUs in the affected States and achieve the emissions reductions requirements established by the CAIR until States have approved State implementation plans (SIPs) to achieve the reductions. The EPA intends the FIP to satisfy the concerns cited in the section 126 petition and provide a Federal backstop for the CAIR. In no way should the FIP for CAIR be viewed as a sign of any concern about States meeting the SIP responsibilities under CAIR. As the control requirements for both the section 126 action and the FIP, EPA is proposing Federal NOX and SO2 trading programs that provide emissions reductions equal to those required under the CAIR in affected States. The Section 126 and FIP actions would not constrain States in their selection of control strategies to meet the CAIR. The EPA intends to withdraw section 126 or FIP requirements in a State if that State submits and EPA approves a SIP meeting the requirements of CAIR. Today's action also proposes revisions to the CAIR in order to address the interaction between the EPA-administered Federal CAIR trading programs proposed today and the EPA-administered State CAIR trading programs that will be created by any State that elects to submit a SIP establishing such a trading program to meet the requirements of the CAIR. In addition, EPA is proposing revisions to the CAIR to correct certain minor errors. Today's action also proposes revisions to the Acid Rain Program in order to make the administrative appeals procedures, which currently apply to final determinations by the Administrator under the EPA- administered State CAIR trading programs, also apply to the EPA- administered trading programs under the section 126 and FIP actions. In addition, we are proposing certain minor revisions to the Acid Rain Program that would apply to all affected units.

In accordance with section 122(i)(1) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, as amended (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. 9622(i)(1), and section 7003(d) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 42 U.S.C. 9673(d), notice is hereby given of a proposed agreement concerning the Garvey Elevator Site (Site) located in Hastings, Nebraska, with AGP Grain Marketing, LLC (AGP) and Garvey Elevators, Inc. (Garvey). The agreement was executed by the United States Environmental Protections Agency on July 11, 2005, and concurred upon by the United States Department of Justice on August 8, 2005. The agreement would resolve certain potential CERCLA and RCRA claims against AGP Grain Marketing, LLC, and is subject to final approval after the comment period. The Site is an active grain elevator facility. The proposed agreement requires AGP Grain Marketing, LLC to pay $2,050,000.00 into an escrow account following the sale of the Site property to AGP to be used by Garvey to implement response actions at the Site. In addition, AGP will be required to provide access to the Site, refrain from any activity that would interfere with the response actions or exacerbate the existing contamination at the Site, and comply with certain use restrictions. Appendix A to the Agreement is the Escrow Agreement that details the process for EPA to approve disbursements from the Escrow Fund. The Escrow Agreement also provides for a Security Agreement to be executed by Garvey and EPA. The proposed agreement grants AGP a covenant not to sue pursuant to sections 106 and 107(a) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. 9606 and 9607(a), subject to certain EPA reservations of rights. This notice is also given in accordance with section 7003(d) of RCRA. The proposed agreement also includes an EPA covenant not to sue AGP pursuant to section 7003 of RCRA, 42 U.S.C. 9673. Commenters may request an opportunity for a public meeting in the affected area in accordance with section 7003(d) of RCRA, 42 U.S.C. 9673(d). For thirty (30) days following the date of publication of this notice, EPA will receive written comments relating to the proposed agreement. EPA will consider all comments received, and may withdraw or withhold its consent to the proposed agreement if such comments disclose facts or considerations which indicate the proposed settlement is inappropriate, improper or inadequate. EPA's response to any written comments received will be available for public inspection at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region VII, 901 N. 5th Street, Kansas City, KS 66101, and at a local information repository near the Site.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92- 463, the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development (ORD), gives notice of an Executive Committee meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC).

We announce the Eighth Conference on Air Quality Modeling. Such a conference is required by section three hundred twenty of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to be held every three years. The purposes of the Eighth Conference are to provide an overview of the latest features of the new air quality models and to provide a forum for public review and comment on potential revisions to the way the Agency determines and applies the appropriate air quality models in the future.

The EPA is approving revisions to the State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of North Carolina, through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on December 21, 2004, for the four Early Action Compact (EAC) areas in North Carolina: the Mountain, Unifour, Triad and Fayetteville areas (the North Carolina EAC Areas). The SIP revisions meet the requirements for the North Carolina EAC Areas to attain and maintain the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (the 8-hour ozone standard) as described in the EAC Protocol and related regulations. EPA is also now approving the photochemical modeling used by North Carolina to support the attainment and maintenance demonstration of the 8-hour ozone standard in the North Carolina EAC Areas. In this action, EPA is not finalizing its proposed rulemaking to defer the effective date of the nonattainment designations for EAC areas. In a separate action, published on June 8, 2005, EPA proposed to defer the effective date of the nonattainment deferred designation for EAC areas until December 31, 2006 (69 FR 23858). EPA final action on the deferral is expected to be published before September 30, 2005.

The EPA is approving revisions to the State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) on December 28, 2004. The revisions will incorporate the Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) Early Action Compact (EAC) Air Quality Improvement Plan (AQIP) into the Louisiana SIP. EPA is approving the photochemical modeling in support of the attainment and maintenance demonstration for the 8-hour ozone standard within the Shreveport-Bossier City EAC area and is approving the associated control measures. These actions strengthen the SIP in accordance with the requirements of sections 110 and 116 of the Federal Clean Air Act (the Act) and will result in emission reductions needed to ensure continued attainment and maintenance of the 8-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone.

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), as amended in 1996, requires the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish criteria for a program to monitor unregulated contaminants and to publish a list of contaminants to be monitored every five years. EPA published such a list for the first Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation cycle (i.e., UCMR 1) and a revised approach for UCMR implementation in the Federal Register dated September 17, 1999. UCMR 1 established a three-tiered approach for monitoring contaminants based on the availability of analytical methods and laboratory capacity considerations. Today's proposed regulation meets the SDWA requirement to publish a listing of unregulated contaminants every five years. Today's action proposes the design for the second UCMR cycle. EPA is proposing to require monitoring of 26 chemicals using nine different analytical methods. UCMR 2 monitoring is proposed to occur during 2007- 2011.This proposed action builds on the established structure of UCMR 1 and proposes some changes to the rule design. The primary changes to UCMR 1 include: Redesign of the Screening Survey for List 2 contaminants to increase the statistical strength of the sampling results by incorporating additional PWSs; updates to the lists of contaminants to be monitored and the analytical methods approved to conduct that monitoring; revisions to the ``data elements'' required to be reported; and some revisions to the implementation of the monitoring program to reflect ``lessons learned'' during UCMR 1. A systematic procedure for the determination of a Minimum Reporting Level (MRL) is also being proposed. Implementation of today's proposed action would benefit the environment by providing EPA and other interested parties with scientifically valid data on the occurrence of these contaminants in drinking water, permitting the assessment of the population potentially being exposed and the levels of that exposure. These data are the primary source of occurrence and exposure data for the Agency to determine whether to regulate these contaminants.

The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public teleconference of an SAB Quality Review Committee (QRC) to review and discuss the SAB Draft Advisory Report on EPA's Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) Program.

EPA is approving revisions to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted on July 18, 2002 and December 6, 2004. Approval will incorporate the following changes into the SIP: the Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP), a demonstration of attainment and maintenance for the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) in the Northeast Texas Early Action Compact (EAC) area, and the associated control measures. EPA is approving the photochemical modeling in support of the attainment demonstration for the 8-hour ozone standard within the Northeast Texas EAC area. These actions strengthen the SIP in accordance with sections 110 and 116 of the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA) and will result in emission reductions needed to help ensure attainment and maintenance of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS in Northeast Texas.

The EPA is approving a revision to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) to incorporate the Texas Emission Reduction Plan (TERP) into the Texas SIP. The TERP is utilized in each of the nonattainment areas and near nonattainment areas in the State to achieve reductions in the emissions of oxides of nitrogen from on-road and non-road mobile sources. This action will allow the State to capture credit from those reductions and use them in attainment demonstrations for these areas.

On May 17, 2005, EPA published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) to propose approval of Colorado's Early Action Compact (EAC) ozone plan for the Denver metropolitan area (hereafter, Denver area) for the 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). In that NPR, EPA proposed to approve the Denver area's EAC ozone plan, an attainment demonstration for the 8-hour ozone NAAQS, revisions to Colorado's Common Provisions Regulation, revisions to Colorado's Regulation No. 7 ``Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds'' (hereafter, Regulation No. 7), and revisions to Colorado's Regulation No. 11 ``Motor Vehicle Emissions Inspection Program'' (hereafter Regulation No. 11). In this action, EPA is approving the Denver EAC ozone plan, the associated attainment demonstration, and the revisions to the Common Provisions Regulation, Regulation No. 7, and Regulation No. 11. This action is being taken under section 110 of the Clean Air Act.