Environmental Protection Agency May 14, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is approving a redesignation request and a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of West Virginia. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) is requesting that the Brooke and Hancock County, West Virginia (Weirton) portion of the Steubenville-Weirton, OH-WV area (herein referred to as the ``Area'') be redesignated as attainment for the 8- hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS). In conjunction with its redesignation request, the State submitted a SIP revision consisting of a maintenance plan for Weirton that provides for continued attainment of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS for the next 12 years, until 2018. EPA is also approving the adequacy determination for the motor vehicle emission budgets (MVEBs) that are identified in the Weirton 8-hour ozone maintenance plan for purposes of transportation conformity, and is approving those MVEBs. EPA is approving the redesignation request and the maintenance plan revision to the West Virginia SIP in accordance with the requirements of the CAA.

The Environmental Protection Agency (``EPA'' or ``the Agency'') requests comment on whether and to what extent the Agency should consider offering tailored incentives to encourage new owners of regulated entities to discover, disclose, correct, and prevent the recurrence of environmental violations. The Agency is considering whether actively encouraging such disclosures has the potential to yield significant environmental benefit, since new owners may be particularly well-situated and highly motivated to focus on, and invest in, making a clean start for their new facilities by addressing environmental noncompliance. Any tailored incentives for new owners would be beyond those offered as EPA is currently implementing EPA's April 11, 2000 policy on ``Incentives for Self-Policing: Discovery, Disclosure, Correction and Prevention of Violations,'' commonly referred to as the ``Audit Policy'' (65 FR 19618). These incentives would be designed to enhance implementation of the Audit Policy and encourage its use in the new owner context, but would not constitute a change to the Policy overall. After the comment period closes, the Agency plans to review all comments and decide whether to develop a pilot program to test the policy of offering tailored incentives to encourage new owners to self- audit and disclose under the Audit Policy. Should the Agency decide to proceed, EPA would then publish a second Federal Register notice to seek comment on a proposed pilot program. After a second round of public comment, the Agency would publish in the Federal Register: The final description of the pilot program; an announcement of its start date; and a description of how its success in achieving increased self- auditing and disclosure and significant improvement to the environment will be evaluated.

EPA is proposing amendments to the current Standards of Performance for Petroleum Refineries. This action also proposes separate standards of performance for new, modified, or reconstructed process units at petroleum refineries. Unless otherwise noted, the term new includes modified or reconstructed units. The proposed standards for new process units include emissions limitations and work practice standards for fluid catalytic cracking units, fluid coking units, delayed coking units, process heaters and other fuel gas combustion devices, fuel gas producing units, and sulfur recovery plants. These proposed standards reflect demonstrated improvements in emissions control technologies and work practices that have occurred since promulgation of the current standards.