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

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency), National Center for Environmental Innovation (NCEI) is giving preliminary notice of its intention to solicit pre-proposals for a 2008 grant program to support innovation by state environmental agencies the ``State Innovation Grant Program.'' The Agency is also seeking input from state environmental regulatory agencies on the topic areas for the solicitation. In addition, EPA is asking each state environmental regulatory agency to designate a point of contact (in addition to the Commissioner or Cabinet Secretary level) who will be the point of contact for further communication about the upcoming solicitation. If your point of contact from previous State Innovation Grant solicitations is to be your contact for this year's competition, there is no need to send that information again, as all previously designated points of contact will remain on our notification list for this year's competition. EPA anticipates publication of a Solicitation Announcement of Federal Funding Opportunity on the Federal government's grants opportunities Web site (https://www.grants.gov) to announce the availability of the next solicitation within 45 days.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is amending the Comprehensive Procurement Guideline (CPG) for recovered content products. Specifically, EPA is revising the list of items designated in the category of landscaping products. First, EPA is changing the description of ``compost'' by consolidating all compost designations under one item designation: ``compost made from recovered organic materials.'' At the same time, the Agency is amending the definition of compost. The effect of the two changes will be to include compost from biosolids and manure, and not limit the designation to specific types of organic materials. Second, EPA has added ``fertilizer made from recovered materials'' as a designated landscaping item and added a definition for ``fertilizer made from recovered organic materials.'' (In the notices section of this Federal Register, EPA also is making available the final Recovered Materials Advisory Notice (RMAN) that contains recommendations for purchasing these designated items.) The CPG implements section 6002 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) which requires EPA to designate items that are or can be made with recovered materials and to recommend practices that procuring agencies can use to procure designated items. Once EPA designates an item, any procuring agency that uses appropriated federal funds to procure that item must purchase the item containing the highest percentage of recovered materials practicable. This action harnesses government purchasing power to stimulate the use of recovered materials in the manufacture of products, thereby fostering markets for materials recovered from solid waste.

EPA is taking final action to approve revisions to the Tennessee State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of Tennessee on February 23, 2006, and amended on April 16, 2007; and revisions to the Nashville/Davidson County portion of the Tennessee SIP submitted by the State of Tennessee on May 31, 2006. The SIP revisions modify the Tennessee and Nashville/Davidson County Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Nonattainment New Source Review (NNSR) regulations in the Tennessee SIP to address changes to the federal new source review (NSR) regulations, which were promulgated by EPA on December 31, 2002, and reconsidered with minor changes on November 7, 2003 (commonly referred to as the ``2002 NSR Reform Rules''). EPA proposed approval of these revisions on July 23, 2007; no comments were received on that proposal. The revisions include provisions for baseline emissions calculations, an actual-to-projected- actual methodology for calculating emissions changes, options for plant-wide applicability limits, and recordkeeping and reporting requirements.