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

Notice is hereby given that the State of Michigan is revising its approved Public Water System Supervision Program. Michigan has: revised its administrative penalty authority for public water systems; adopted the Consumer Confidence Report Rule, which requires annual drinking water quality reports from all community water systems; adopted the Interim Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule, which will help improve control of microbial pathogens in drinking water; adopted the Stage 1 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule, which will set new requirements to limit the formation of chemical disinfection byproducts in drinking water; and adopted the Public Notification Rule, which revises the general public notification regulations (sets requirements for public water systems to follow regarding the form, manner, frequency, and content of a public notice). EPA has determined that these revisions are no less stringent than the corresponding federal regulations. Therefore, EPA intends to approve these program revisions. This approval action does not extend to public water systems (PWSs) in Indian Country, as that term is defined in 18 U.S.C. 1151. By approving these rules, EPA does not intend to affect the rights of federally recognized Indian tribes in Michigan, nor does it intend to limit existing rights of the State of Michigan. Any interested party may request a public hearing. A request for a public hearing must be submitted by December 14, 2005, to the Regional Administrator at the EPA Region 5 address shown below. The Regional Administrator may deny frivolous or insubstantial requests for a hearing. However, if a substantial request for a public hearing is made by December 14, 2005, EPA Region 5 will hold a public hearing. If EPA Region 5 does not receive a timely and appropriate request for a hearing and the Regional Administrator does not elect to hold a hearing on his own motion, this determination shall become final and effective on December 14, 2005. Any request for a public hearing shall include the following information: the name, address, and telephone number of the individual, organization, or other entity requesting a hearing; a brief statement of the requesting person's interest in the Regional Administrator's determination and a brief statement of the information that the requesting person intends to submit at such hearing; and the signature of the individual making the request, or, if the request is made on behalf of an organization or other entity, the signature of a responsible official of the organization or other entity.

EPA is proposing to make determinations that the Greene County and Jackson County ozone nonattainment areas have attained the 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). These proposed determinations are based on three years of complete, quality-assured ambient air quality monitoring data for the 2002-2004 seasons that demonstrate that the 8-hour ozone NAAQS has been attained in the areas. EPA is proposing to approve requests from the State of Indiana to redesignate the Greene County and Jackson County areas to attainment of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS. These requests were submitted by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) on July 15, 2005 and supplemented on September 6, 2005, September 7, 2005, October 6, 2005, and October 20, 2005. In proposing to approve these requests, EPA is also proposing to approve the State's plans for maintaining the 8-hour ozone NAAQS through 2015 in these areas as a revision to the Indiana State Implementation Plan (SIP). EPA is also proposing to find adequate and approve the State's 2015 Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets (MVEBs) for these areas. In the final rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the SIP revisions as a direct final rule without prior proposal, because EPA views these actions as noncontroversial and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approvals is set forth in the direct final rule. If we do not receive any adverse comments in response to these direct final and proposed rules, we do not contemplate taking any further action in relation to these proposed rule. If EPA receives adverse comments with respect to an area addressed by these rules, we will publish a timely withdrawal of the action affecting that area, informing the public that the rule will not take effect with respect to that area. EPA will respond to the public comments in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period on this action. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.

On November 5, 2001, we published a direct final rule and concurrent notice of proposed rulemaking to revise the requirements on variability in the composition of additives certified EPA's Gasoline Deposit Control Program. We received adverse comments on two of the amendments contained in the direct final rule and proposed rule. Consequently, we issued a partial withdrawal notice on January 24, 2002, to withdraw the amendments that received adverse comments. This action addresses the public comments received on the withdrawn amendments. We found the adverse comments on the withdrawn amendments unpersuasive. However, we agreed with one commenter's suggestion that additional clarifying language would be useful in one of the subject amendments to prevent any potential for misinterpretation. Consequently, today's action implements the previously withdrawn amendments with the addition of clarifying language. The changes to the regulatory requirements made by this action address additive manufacturer concerns that compliance with the previous requirements would be burdensome and difficult, while maintaining the emissions control benefits of the gasoline deposit control program.