Environmental Protection Agency October 6, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice informs the public that EPA has updated the National List of Beaches pursuant to Section 406(g) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) as amended by the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act. EPA is publishing this list under the title National List of Beaches. Section 406(g) requires EPA to publish a list of discrete coastal recreation waters adjacent to beaches or similar points of access that are used by the public and to update the list periodically as new information becomes available. The list specifies whether the waters are subject to a monitoring and notification program consistent with the performance criteria (National Beach Guidance and Required Performance Criteria for Grants June 2002) EPA published under CWA section 406(a). The list contains information that coastal and Great Lakes States made available to EPA as of January 31, 2008, and it replaces the previous list that EPA published on May 4, 2004. The National List of Beaches provides a national baseline of the extent of monitoring of waters adjacent to beaches or similar points of access, which will allow EPA to measure State program performance in implementing the monitoring and notification provisions of the BEACH Act.

EPA is extending the comment period for a proposed rule published September 9, 2008 (73 FR 52226). On September 9, 2008, EPA proposed to approve revisions to the North Carolina State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of North Carolina in three submittals dated November 30, 2005, March 16, 2007, and June 20, 2008. The proposed revisions modify North Carolina's Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Nonattainment New Source Review permitting regulations in the 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 (collectively, these two final actions are referred to as the ``2002 NSR Reform Rules''). In addition, the proposed revisions address an update to the NSR regulations promulgated by EPA on November 29, 2005 (``Ozone Implementation NSR update'') relating to the implementation of the 1997 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). At the request of several commentors, EPA is extending the comment period through November 10, 2008.

EPA is proposing to amend the Exceptional Events Rule to provide a revised exceptional event data flagging and documentation schedule for ozone data that may be used for designations under the 2008 ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). The Exceptional Events Rule states that when EPA sets a NAAQS for a new pollutant or revises the NAAQS for an existing pollutant, EPA may revise or set a new schedule for flagging data for those NAAQS. EPA recently revised the primary and secondary ozone NAAQS to protect public health and welfare; the revised standards became effective May 27, 2008. Consistent with the process envisioned in the Exceptional Events Rule, this proposal revises the dates for flagging data and submitting documentation regarding exceptional events under the revised ozone NAAQS. This revised schedule allows EPA to fully consider state requests for exceptional event concurrence prior to EPA making final designations. In the ``Rules'' section of this Federal Register, we are issuing this action 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.

This rule proposes to amend certain existing regulations promulgated under the hazardous waste provisions of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regarding the export and import of hazardous wastes from and into the United States. Specifically, we are proposing to modify: The requirements to implement the OECD framework concerning the transboundary movement of hazardous waste among countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), including reducing the number of control levels, exempting qualifying shipments sent for laboratory analyses from certain paperwork requirements, requiring recovery facilities to submit a certificate of recovery, adding provisions for the return or re- export of wastes subject to the Amber control procedures, and clarifying certain existing provisions that were identified as potentially ambiguous to the regulated community; the regulations regarding the management of spent lead-acid batteries being reclaimed to require appropriate notice and consent for those batteries intended for reclamation in a foreign country; the exception reporting requirements for hazardous waste exports to specify that all exception reports submitted to EPA be sent to the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance's Office of Federal Activities in Washington, DC rather than to the Administrator; and the hazardous waste import requirements such that U.S. importers would give the initial transporter a copy of the EPA-provided documentation confirming EPA's consent to the import when they provide the RCRA hazardous waste manifest, and that the documentation would be submitted by the U.S. receiving facility to EPA along with the RCRA hazardous waste manifest within thirty days of import shipment delivery. Finally, separate from this proposed rule, EPA is publishing in https://www.epa.gov/epawaste/ hazard/international/oecd-slab-rule.htm a draft guidance document on how U.S. receiving facilities may request EPA to identify them as pre- approved facilities to receive hazardous waste from OECD Member countries.