Environmental Protection Agency December 7, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces the initial filing of a pesticide petition proposing the establishment of regulations for residues of the herbicide diquat dibromide in or on peas and beans, dried shelled (except soybeans).

This notice announces the initial filing of a pesticide petition proposing the establishment of an exemption from the requirement of a tolerance for the residues of the microbial pesticide Beauveria bassiana HF 23 in or on all food and feed commodities.

This notice announces the availability of EPA's environmental fate and effects risk assessment, grower impact assessments, and related documents for the organophosphate pesticide azinphos-methyl, and opens a 60-day public comment period on these documents. EPA is in the process of reevaluating the remaining uses for azinphos-methyl, consistent with the Interim Reregistration Eligibility Decision (IRED) issued in 2001 and the May 2002 Memorandum of Agreement between EPA and the technical registrants for azinphos-methyl.

The EPA is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) which the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) submitted to EPA on February 5, 2004. The adopted amendments revise minimum distance limitation permit requirements for operation of new and modified sources to allow storage of an inoperative concrete crusher within 440 yards of a residence, school, or place of worship; define how distance measurements should be taken and when they would be applicable to concrete crushers and other facilities; and allow concrete crushers to recycle broken concrete at temporary demolition sites within 440 yards of nearby buildings, unless the facility is located in a county with a population of 2.4 million or more, or in a county adjacent to such a county. The TCEQ also revised the existing distance limitation for hazardous waste management facilities to cross-reference duplicative language elsewhere in its regulations. This action is being taken under section 110 of the Federal Clean Air Act (the Act, or CAA).

EPA is proposing to approve those revisions adopted by Colorado on April 16, 2004 to Regulation No. 3 (Stationary Source Permitting and Air Pollutant Emission Notice Requirements) that incorporate EPA's December 31, 2002 NSR Reforms. Colorado submitted the request for approval of these rule revisions into the State Implementation Plan (SIP) on July 11, 2005 and supplemented its request on October 25, 2005. At this time, EPA is proposing to approve only the portions of Colorado's revisions to Regulation Number 3 that relate to the prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) and non-attainment new source review (NSR) construction permit programs of the State of Colorado. Other revisions, renumberings, additions, or deletions to Regulation No. 3 made by Colorado as part of the April 16, 2004 final rulemaking will be acted on by EPA in a separate action. Colorado has a Federally approved New Source Review (NSR) program for new and modified sources impacting attainment and non-attainment areas in the State. On December 31, 2002, EPA published revisions to the federal Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and non-attainment NSR regulations. These revisions are commonly referred to as ``NSR Reform'' regulations and became effective nationally in areas not covered by a SIP on March 3, 2003. These regulatory revisions include provisions for baseline emissions determinations, actual-to-future actual methodology, plantwide applicability limits (PALs), clean units, and pollution control projects (PCPs). On November 7, 2003, EPA published a reconsideration of the NSR Reform regulations that clarified two provisions in the regulations. On June 24, 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its ruling on challenges to the December 2002 NSR Reform revisions. Although the Court upheld most of EPA's rules, it vacated both the Clean Unit and the Pollution Control Project provisions and remanded back to EPA the ``reasonable possibility'' standard for when a source must keep certain project related records. Colorado is seeking approval, at this time, for its regulations to implement the NSR Reform provisions that have not been vacated or remanded by the June 24, 2005, court decision.