Environmental Protection Agency February 23, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency), Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public meeting of the EPA's Advisory Council on Clean Air Compliance Analysis to review two draft documents associated with EPA's study on ``Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act, 1990-2020.''

EPA is proposing to revise the EPA Acquisition Regulation (EPAAR) Subparts 1523 and 1552 to establish policy and procedures for acquiring environmentally preferable meeting and conference services. This proposed EPAAR revision will add a prescription and solicitation provision that Agency employees will be required to use when soliciting quotes or offers for meeting and conference space and services. The solicitation provision will require meeting and conference venues to provide EPA with information about environmentally preferable features and practices in use at their facilities. As stated in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), environmentally preferable products and services are those ``that have a lesser or reduced effect on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services that serve the same purpose.'' The intent of this rule is to ensure that environmental preferability is considered in each purchase of commercial meeting and conference services, which furthers the EPA mission to protect human health and the environment. This action revises the EPAAR, but does not impose any new requirements on Agency contractors. The procedure will require Agency employees to request information from prospective meeting venues about their environmentally preferable (green) practices for consideration in the award decision, thus encouraging the industry to adopt more of these practices so that we will be more likely to do business with them. This rule imposes no requirement or standard that a facility must meet in order to do business with us.

Notice is hereby given that a petition has been received from the state of Connecticut requesting a determination by the Regional Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that adequate facilities for the safe and sanitary removal and treatment of sewage from all vessels are reasonably available for the state waters of Branford, East Haven, New Haven, West Haven, Orange, Milford, Stratford, Bridgeport, Fairfield, Westport, Norwalk, Darien, Stamford, and Greenwich. The proposed area also includes the Housatonic River from the Derby Dam and the Quinnipiac River from the southern border of North Haven.