Environmental Protection Agency January 17, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice publishes EPA's national guidelines for the award of base grants and EPA's Request for Proposals (RFP) for the award of supplemental funding in the form of competitive grants under the Clean Water Act (CWA) section 319(h) nonpoint source (NPS) grants program to Indian Tribes in FY 2006. Section 319 of the CWA authorizes EPA to award grants to eligible Tribes for the purpose of assisting them in implementing approved NPS management programs developed pursuant to section 319(b). The primary goal of the NPS management program is to control NPS pollution through implementation of management measures and practices to reduce pollutant loadings resulting from each category or subcategory of NPSs identified in the Tribe's NPS assessment report developed pursuant to section 319(a). EPA intends to award a total of $7,000,000 to eligible Tribes which have approved NPS assessments and management programs and ``treatment-as-a-state'' (TAS) status as of October 14, 2005. EPA expects the allocation of funds will be similar to the amount distributed in FY 2005, which included approximately $2.8 million in base grants awarded to 84 Tribes and $4.2 million awarded to 31 Tribes through a competitive process. Section A includes EPA's national guidelines which govern the process for awarding base grants to all eligible Tribes, and section B is the national RFP for awarding the remaining funds on a competitive basis.

EPA has authorized grantee organizations under the Senior Environmental Employment (SEE) Program, and their enrollees; access to information which has been submitted to EPA under the environmental statutes administered by the Agency. Some of this information may be claimed or determined to be confidential business information (CBI).

On April 2, 2004 (69 FR 17531), EPA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to propose procedures to be used by manufacturers of light-duty vehicles, light-duty trucks and heavy-duty vehicles to demonstrate, for purposes of emission certification, that new motor vehicles will comply with EPA emissions standards throughout their useful lives. The NPRM proposed emissions certification durability procedures to be used by manufacturers to demonstrate the expected rate of deterioration of the emission levels of their vehicles. The Agency received several comments concerning the component durability portion of the durability process. Options for addressing component durability were not discussed in the April 2004 proposal, and EPA believes it is appropriate to address component durability in a supplemental proposal. Therefore, EPA is issuing this action to request comments on three options for addressing component durability during the vehicle emissions certification process.

EPA is proposing to approve updates for delegation of certain federal standards to state and local agencies in Region IX for delegation of New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs). This document is addressing general authorities mentioned in the regulations for NSPS and NESHAPs, proposing to update the delegations tables and clarifying those authorities that are retained by EPA.

Based on its review of the air quality criteria and national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM), EPA proposes to make revisions to the primary and secondary NAAQS for PM to provide requisite protection of public health and welfare, respectively, and to make corresponding revisions in monitoring reference methods and data handling conventions for PM. With regard to primary standards for fine particles (particles generally less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers ([mu]m) in diameter, PM2.5), EPA proposes to revise the level of the 24-hour PM2.5 standard to 35 micrograms per cubic meter ([mu]g/ m3), providing increased protection against health effects associated with short-term exposure (including premature mortality and increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits) and to retain the level of the annual PM2.5 standard at 15 [mu]g/ m3, continuing protection against health effects associated with long-term exposure (including premature mortality and development of chronic respiratory disease). The EPA solicits comment on alternative levels of the 24-hour PM2.5 standard (down to 25 [mu]g/m3 and up to 65 [mu]g/m3) and the annual PM2.5 standard (down to 12 [mu]g/m3), and on alternative approaches for selecting the standard levels. With regard to primary standards for particles generally less than or equal to 10 [mu]m in diameter (PM10), EPA proposes to revise the 24-hour PM10 standard in part by establishing a new indicator for thoracic coarse particles (particles generally between 2.5 and 10 [mu]m in diameter, PM10-2.5), qualified so as to include any ambient mix of PM10-2.5 that is dominated by resuspended dust from high-density traffic on paved roads and PM generated by industrial sources and construction sources, and excludes any ambient mix of PM10-2.5 that is dominated by rural windblown dust and soils and PM generated by agricultural and mining sources. The EPA proposes to set the new PM10-2.5 standard at a level of 70 [mu]g/m3, continuing to provide a generally equivalent level of protection against health effects associated with short-term exposure (including hospital admissions for cardiopulmonary diseases, increased respiratory symptoms and possibly premature mortality). Also, EPA proposes to revoke, upon finalization of a primary 24-hour standard for PM10-2.5, the current 24- hour PM10 standard in all areas of the country except in areas where there is at least one monitor located in an urbanized area (as defined by the U.S. Bureau of the Census) with a minimum population of 100,000 that violates the current 24-hour PM10 standard based on the most recent three years of data. In addition, EPA proposes to revoke the current annual PM10 standard upon promulgation of this rule. The EPA solicits comment on alternative approaches for selecting the level of a 24-hour PM10-2.5 standard, on alternative approaches based on retaining the current 24-hour PM10 standard, and on revoking and not replacing the 24-hour PM10 standard. With regard to secondary PM standards, EPA proposes to revise the current standards by making them identical to the suite of proposed primary standards for fine and coarse particles, providing protection against PM-related public welfare effects including visibility impairment, effects on vegetation and ecosystems, and materials damage and soiling. Also, EPA solicits comment on adding a new sub-daily PM2.5 standard to address visibility impairment.