Environmental Protection Agency June 16, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document announces the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) response to Agency Clearance requests, in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for EPA's regulations are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and 48 CFR chapter 15.

EPA is proposing to remove the limited status of its approval of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision that requires all major sources of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) to implement reasonably available control technology (RACT). EPA is proposing to convert its limited approval of Pennsylvania's VOC and NOX RACT regulations to full approval because EPA has approved or is currently conducting rulemaking to approve all of the case-by-case RACT determinations submitted by Pennsylvania for the affected sources. In prior final rules, EPA has previously fully approved Pennsylvania's VOC and NOX RACT regulations for the Philadelphia-Wilmington- Trenton, and Pittsburgh-Beaver Valley areas. EPA is now proposing to convert its limited approval of Pennsylvania's VOC and NOX RACT regulations as they apply in the remainder of the Commonwealth to full approval because EPA has approved or is currently conducting rulemaking to approve all of the case-by-case RACT determinations submitted by Pennsylvania for the affected sources in the remainder of the Commonwealth. Final action converting the limited approval to full approval shall occur once EPA has completed rulemaking to approve either (1) the case-by-case RACT proposals for all sources subject to the RACT requirements currently known in the remainder of the State, outside of the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas; or (2) for a sufficient number of sources such that the emissions from any remaining subject sources represent a de minimis level of emissions. This action is being taken under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act).

EPA expressed environmental concerns about impacts to riparian resources and air quality, and recommended additional protections for these resources be included in the Final EIS. Rating EC2.

On November 1, 2004, EPA published a proposal that contained several options for the control of cooling water intake structures at existing Phase III facilities and at new offshore oil and gas extraction facilities. This rule establishes categorical section 316(b) requirements for intake structures at new offshore oil and gas extraction facilities that have a design intake flow threshold of greater than 2 million gallons per day and that withdraw at least 25 percent of the water exclusively for cooling purposes. For existing Phase III facilities, EPA determined that uniform national standards are not the most effective way at this time to address cooling water intake structures at these facilities. Instead, EPA believes that it is better to continue to rely upon the existing National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program, which implements section 316(b) for existing facilities not covered under the Phase II rule on a case-by-case, best professional judgment basis. This final action constitutes Phase III of EPA's section 316(b) regulation development. This rule does not alter the regulatory requirements for facilities subject to the Phase I or Phase II regulations.