Environmental Protection Agency February 14, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that EPA is planning to submit a request to renew an existing approved Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This ICR is scheduled to expire on July 31, 2011. Before submitting the ICR to OMB for review and approval, EPA is soliciting comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below.

The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office is requesting public nominations of experts to serve on the SAB Environmental Justice Technical (EJT) Panel.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that an Information Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. This is a request to renew an existing approved collection. The ICR, which is abstracted below, describes the nature of the information collection and its estimated burden and cost.

EPA proposes to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Virginia consisting of the amended wording of the definition of ``Volatile organic compound'' (VOC). In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving Virginia's SIP submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.

EPA is taking final action to find that Arizona failed to make a state implementation plan (SIP) submittal required under the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) for the Maricopa County (Phoenix) nonattainment area (Maricopa area) for particulate matter of 10 microns or less (PM- 10). The Maricopa area is a serious PM-10 nonattainment area which, having failed to attain the PM-10 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) by its required statutory attainment deadline, is subject to section 189(d) of the CAA. For such areas, section 189(d) requires that states submit within 12 months after the applicable attainment date, plan revisions which provide for attainment of the PM- 10 NAAQS, and from the date of such submission until attainment, for an annual reduction of PM-10 or PM-10 precursor emissions within the area of not less than 5 percent of the amount of such emissions as reported in the most recent inventory prepared for the area. Arizona submitted a section 189(d) plan for the Maricopa area on December 21, 2007, and EPA proposed action on this plan on September 9, 2010. On January 25, 2011, prior to final action on the plan by EPA, Arizona withdrew the submitted plan from the Agency's consideration. As a result of the withdrawal, EPA is today finding that Arizona failed to make the submittal required for the Maricopa area under section 189(d) of the Act. This action triggers the 18-month clock for mandatory application of sanctions and 2-year clock for a federal implementation plan (FIP) under the Act. This action is consistent with the CAA mechanism for assuring SIP submissions.