Environmental Protection Agency September 7, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA's Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee (PPDC), Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) Process Improvement Workgroup will hold its ninth public meeting on September 27, 2007. An agenda for this meeting is being developed, and will be posted on EPA's website. The workgroup is developing advice and recommendations on topics related to EPA's registration process.

EPA expressed environmental concern about construction dust and emission impacts on nearby schools and a hospital. EPA requested that mitigation measures be developed. Rating EC2.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that EPA is planning to submit a request to renew an existing approved Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This ICR is scheduled to expire on January 31, 2008. Before submitting the ICR to OMB for review and approval, EPA is soliciting comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below.

EPA is proposing ``Update of Continuous Instrumental Test Methods: Technical Amendments'' to correct errors in a recent final rule that amended five instrumental test methods and was published on May 15, 2006. As published, the amendments contained inadvertent errors and provisions that need to be clarified. We are correcting errors and clarifying portions of the amendments to reflect the intent of the rule and to make them more understandable by affected parties. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of this Federal Register, we are correcting errors and making clarifications as a direct final rule without a prior proposed rule. If we receive no adverse comment, we will not take further action on this proposed rule.

EPA is taking direct final action on two optional methods for relative accuracy audits of mercury monitoring systems installed on combustion flue gas streams and several amendments to related mercury monitoring provisions. This action approves two optional mercury (Hg) emissions test methods for potential use in conjunction with an existing regulatory requirement for Hg emissions monitoring, as well as several revisions to the mercury monitoring provisions themselves. This action is in regard to the testing and monitoring requirements for mercury specified in the Federal Register on May 18, 2005. Since that publication, EPA has received numerous comments concerning the desirability of EPA evaluating and allowing use of the measurement techniques addressed in the two optional methods in lieu of the methods identified in the cited Federal Register publication, as they can produce equally acceptable measures of the relative accuracy achieved by Hg monitoring systems. This action allows use of these two optional methods entirely at the discretion of the owner or operator of an affected emission source in place of the two currently specified methods. This direct final rule also amends Performance Specification 12A by adding Methods 30A and 30B to the list of reference methods acceptable for measuring Hg concentration and the Hg monitoring provisions of May 18, 2005, to reflect technical insights since gained by EPA which will help to facilitate implementation including clarification and increased regulatory flexibility for affected sources.