Environmental Protection Agency May 20, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (``EPA''), in response to many requests from the public, is extending the public comment period on the waiver application to increase the allowable ethanol content of gasoline to 15 percent (``E15'') which was submitted by Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers on March 6, 2009. EPA published notice of receipt and request for comment in the Federal Register for Growth Energy's application on April 21, 2009 (74 FR 18228). The public comment period was to end on May 21, 2009. The purpose of this document is to extend the comment period an additional 60 days until July 20, 2009. This extension of the comment period is provided to allow the public additional time to respond to the legal and technical issues raised in the application. This action does not extend the 270-day statutory deadline for the Administrator to grant or deny the E15 waiver request, which ends on December 1, 2009.

Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, EPA gives notice of a meeting of the Good Neighbor Environmental Board (Board). The Board meets three times each calendar year, twice at different locations along the U.S. border with Mexico, and once in Washington, DC. It was created in 1992 by the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative Act, Public Law 102-532, 7 U.S.C. 5404. Implementing authority was delegated to the Administrator of EPA under Executive Order 12916. The Board is responsible for providing advice to the President and the Congress on environmental and infrastructure issues and needs within the States contiguous to Mexico in order to improve the quality of life of persons residing on the United States side of the border. The statute calls for the Board to have representatives from U.S. Government agencies; the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas; and tribal and private organizations to provide advice on environmental and infrastructure issues along the US/Mexico Border.

Section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires any person who intends to manufacture (defined by statute to include import) a new chemical (i.e., a chemical not on the TSCA Inventory) to notify EPA and comply with the statutory provisions pertaining to the manufacture of new chemicals. Under sections 5(d)(2) and 5(d)(3) of TSCA, EPA is required to publish a notice of receipt of a premanufacture notice (PMN) or an application for a test marketing exemption (TME), and to publish periodic status reports on the chemicals under review and the receipt of notices of commencement to manufacture those chemicals. This status report, which covers the period from March 23, 2009 through April 10, 2009, consists of the PMNs and TME, both pending or expired, and the notices of commencement to manufacture a new chemical that the Agency has received under TSCA section 5 during this time period. Premanufacturer Notices P09-87 thru P09-129 which covered the time period of December 2, 2008 through December 18, 2008 were inadvertaly left out of the Federal Register and are included in this notice.

The State of Louisiana has applied to EPA for Final authorization of the changes to its hazardous waste program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). EPA proposes to grant Final authorization to the State of Louisiana. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of this Federal Register, EPA is authorizing the changes by an immediate final rule. EPA did not make a proposal prior to the immediate final rule because we believe this action is not controversial and do not expect comments that oppose it. We have explained the reasons for this authorization in the preamble to the immediate final rule. Unless we get written comments which oppose this authorization during the comment period, the immediate final rule will become effective on the date it establishes, and we will not take further action on this proposal. If we receive comments that oppose this action, we will withdraw the immediate final rule and it will not take effect. We will then respond to public comments in a later final rule based on this proposal. You may not have another opportunity for comment. If you want to comment on this action, you must do so at this time.

EPA is announcing that Eastern Research Group, Inc., an EPA contractor for external scientific peer review, will convene an independent panel of experts and organize and conduct an external peer- review workshop to review the external review draft document titled, ``An Approach to Using Toxicogenomic Data in U.S. EPA Human Health Risk Assessments: A Dibutyl Phthalate Case Study'' (EPA/600/R-09/028A). The EPA also is announcing a 30-day public comment period for the draft document. The draft document was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) within EPA's Office of Research and Development. EPA is interested in developing methods to use genomic data most effectively in risk assessments performed at the Agency. NCEA developed this draft report for the purpose of describing an approach to using toxicogenomic data in risk assessment and illustrating the approach with a case study.

EPA is soliciting applications for the critical use exemption from the phaseout of methyl bromide for 2012 and beyond. This exemption is an annual exemption and all entities interested in obtaining a critical use exemption must provide EPA with technical and economic information to support a ``critical use'' claim and must do so by the deadline specified in this notice even if they have previously applied for an exemption. Today's notice also invites interested parties to provide EPA with new data on the technical and economic feasibility of methyl bromide alternatives.

The EPA is announcing a public hearing to be held for the proposed rule ``Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: Changes to Renewable Fuel Standard Program'' (the proposed rule is hereinafter referred to as ``RFS2''), which will be published separately in the Federal Register. The hearing will be held in Washington, DC on June 9, 2009.

EPA is approving a request submitted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) on October 9, 2008, to revise the Minnesota State Implementation Plan (SIP) for particulate matter less than 10 microns (PM10). The approval revises the Minnesota SIP by updating information regarding the steel mini-mill facility located at 1678 Red Rock Road, St. Paul, Minnesota. The approval acknowledges the change of ownership and operation of the source from North Star Steel Company to Gerdau Ameristeel US Inc. The revision also amends the SIP by removing the Administrative Order issued to North Star Steel Company, and replacing the SIP conditions from the Administrative Order and placing those SIP requirements in a joint Title I/Title V document for Gerdau Ameristeel US, Inc. These revisions will not result in an increase in PM10 emissions because no emission limits were increased.

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium in or on wheat, forage; wheat, grain; wheat, hay; and wheat, straw. Bayer Cropscience requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

This notice announces EPA's order for the amendments to terminate certain uses, voluntarily requested by the registrants and accepted by the Agency, of certain pesticide products, pursuant to section 6(f)(1) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), as amended. This cancellation order follows an October 8, 2008, Federal Register Notice of Receipt of Requests from registrants to voluntarily amend their registrations of certain pesticide products (73 FR 58958; FRL-8385-2). In the October 8, 2008, Notice, EPA indicated that it would issue an order implementing the cancellation and amendments to terminate certain uses, unless the Agency received substantive comments within the 30 day comment period that would merit its further review of these requests, or unless the registrants withdrew their requests within this period. The Agency did not receive any comments on the notice except for comments pertaining to aldicarb. Accordingly, EPA hereby issues in this notice a cancellation order granting the requested amendments to terminate certain pesticide product uses except for the uses of aldicarb on coffee, pecans, and tobacco. The product cancellation order for the chloroneb product, Demosan 65W (EPA Reg. No. 073782-00002), which was included in the October 8, 2008 notice will be included in a separate Federal Register notice. Any distribution, sale, or use of the products subject to this cancellation order is permitted only in accordance with the terms of this order, including any existing stocks provisions.