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

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public meeting of the SAB Ecological Processes and Effects Committee (EPEC). The SAB EPEC, augmented with other experts, will discuss their draft report about the effectiveness of shipboard ballast water treatment processes and ways to improve future assessments of ballast water treatment systems to minimize the impacts of invasive species in vessel ballast water discharge.

The Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announce that we have considered the comments, materials, and evidence received in response to the joint emergency temporary interim rule issued on June 30, 2010, and do not intend to take further regulatory action regarding the rule. As such, the rule will expire as scheduled on December 31, 2010. The Coast Guard and EPA also provide notice of the alternative arrangements under the National Environmental Policy Act used for the joint emergency temporary interim rule.

EPA is finalizing amendments to certain of the Renewable Fuel Standard program regulations that were published on March 26, 2010, and that took effect on July 1, 2010 (``the RFS2 regulations''). Following publication of the RFS2 regulations, promulgated in response to the requirements of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, EPA discovered some technical errors and areas within the final RFS2 regulations that could benefit from clarification or modification. In a direct final rule and parallel notice of proposed rulemaking published on May 10, 2010, EPA included language to amend the regulations to make the appropriate corrections, clarifications, and modifications. However, EPA received adverse comment on a few provisions in the direct final rule and, on June 30, 2010, withdrew those provisions prior to their effective date of July 1, 2010. In today's action, EPA is addressing the comments received on the portions of the direct final rule that were withdrawn and is taking final action regarding the withdrawn provisions based on consideration of the comments received.

This action promulgates amendments to Methods 201A and 202. The final amendments to Method 201A add a particle-sizing device to allow for sampling of particulate matter with mean aerodynamic diameters less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5 or fine particulate matter). The final amendments to Method 202 revise the sample collection and recovery procedures of the method to reduce the formation of reaction artifacts that could lead to inaccurate measurements of condensable particulate matter. Additionally, the final amendments to Method 202 eliminate most of the hardware and analytical options in the existing method, thereby increasing the precision of the method and improving the consistency in the measurements obtained between source tests performed under different regulatory authorities. This action also announces that EPA is taking no action to affect the already established January 1, 2011 sunset date for the New Source Review (NSR) transition period, during which EPA is not requiring that State NSR programs address condensable particulate matter emissions.