Environmental Protection Agency January 21, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The EPA is hereby granting a waiver of the Buy American requirements of ARRA Section 1605 under the authority of Section 1605(b)(1) [inconsistent with the public interest] to Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, Gwinnett County, Georgia (``County'') for the purchase of a foreign manufactured submersible pump. This is a project specific waiver and only applies to the use of the specified product for the ARRA project being proposed. Any other ARRA recipient that wishes to use the same product must apply for a separate waiver based on project specific circumstances. The County's tunnel and tunnel lift station project will include installation of two submersible pumps as well as the purchase of one spare pump. The project was originally designed between 2003 and 2006, and bids were taken on March 1, 2007. The County standardized ITT Flygt Corporation as the sole manufacturer of submersible pumps in 2003, when design of the project started. At the time of design, the County already had in operation 88 Flygt pumps out of the 106 pumps in the system. The County has submitted a detailed memorandum dated October 17, 2003, explaining the rationale for standardization. According to the memorandum, the County desired to, ``standardize on a single brand of submersible pumps for wastewater pump stations in order to provide greater reliability in the operation of pump stations and avoid the increased costs of inventory, service, maintenance, and engineering associated with using several different brands.'' This is a project whose earlier phases began prior the enactment of ARRA and was undertaken for the principal purpose of Clean Water Act compliance. The procurement for those prior phases standardized on a particular manufactured good that is subject to ARRA section 1605 requirements for its ARRA-funded phase but the performance from and operation and maintenance of such good in the performance of the facility would be detrimentally affected by a requirement to use a non-standardized good(s). Based on the review of the information provided, EPA has concluded that a waiver of the Buy American provisions is justified. The Assistant Administrator of the Office of Administration and Resources Management has concurred on this decision to make an exception to Section 1605 of ARRA. This action permits the County to purchase Flygt submersible pumps, manufactured by ITT Flygt Corporation, as specified in its September 1, 2009, request.

EPA is proposing to include in the regulations the revised applicability dates in the emissions user fees provision in 18 AAC 50.410. Requirements applying to Outer Continental Shelf (``OCS'') sources located within 25 miles of States' seaward boundaries must be updated periodically to remain consistent with the requirements of the corresponding onshore area (``COA''), as mandated by section 328(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act (``the Act''). The portion of the OCS air regulations that is being updated pertains to the emission user fee requirements for OCS sources operating off of the State of Alaska. The intended effect of approving the OCS requirements for the State of Alaska is to regulate emissions from OCS sources in a manner consistent with the requirements onshore. The change to the existing requirements discussed below is incorporated by reference into the regulations and is listed in the appendix to the OCS air regulations.

This notice announces EPA's approval, under regulations for Cross-Media Electronic Reporting, of the State of North Carolina's request to revise its EPA-authorized program to allow electronic reporting.