Environmental Protection Agency August 1, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Interagency Testing Committee (ITC) transmitted its Sixty-Eighth Report to the Administrator of EPA on June 14, 2011. In the 68th ITC Report, which is included with this notice, the ITC is adding cadmium and 103 cadmium compounds to TSCA section 4(e) Priority Testing List. During this reporting period (December 2010 to May 2011), the ITC is also removing 29 High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program orphan chemicals and lead and 11 lead compounds from the Priority Testing List.

Notice is hereby given that the State of Louisiana is revising its approved Public Water System Supervision Program, by adopting new regulations for the Public Notification Rule, Filter Backwash Recycling Rule, Long Term 1 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule, Radionuclides Rule, and the Revised Drinking Water Standard for Arsenic Rule, promulgated and published in the Federal Register at 72 FR 57782 on October 10, 2007. Louisiana has adopted the Public Notification Rule, Filter Backwash Recycling Rule, Long Term 1 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule, Radionuclides Rule, and the Revised Drinking Water Standard for Arsenic Rule, to strengthen the protection of public health. EPA has determined that the proposed program revisions submitted by Louisiana for these revisions are no less stringent than the corresponding federal regulations. Therefore, EPA proposes to approve these program revisions.

EPA proposes to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the purpose of incorporating the Commonwealth's Diesel-Powered Motor Vehicle Idling Act (Act 124 of 2008, or simply Act 124) into the Pennsylvania SIP. Act 124, passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and signed into state law by Governor Rendell in October 2008 (and effective at the state level in February 2009), reduces the allowable time that heavy-duty, commercial highway diesel vehicles of over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight can idle their main propulsion engines. The law restricts idling of these commercial diesel vehicles (mostly heavy trucks and buses) to a period of 5 minutes per continuous 60 minute period (with certain allowable exemptions and exclusions). Act 124 applies statewide in the Commonwealth, and is estimated by Pennsylvania to significantly reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and fine particulate matter (PM). While idle time emissions limits are not mandatory under the Clean Air Act (CAA), incorporation of Act 124 into the SIP does strengthen the SIP, makes the state law federally enforceable by EPA, and allows the Commonwealth to take credit for emissions benefits from the rule as part of future Pennsylvania SIP revisions to demonstrate compliance with CAA National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). This action is being taken under the CAA. In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the Commonwealth's SIP submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because EPA 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.

This proposed rule is being issued as required by a consent decree governing the schedule for completion of this review of the air quality criteria and the secondary national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for oxides of nitrogen and oxides of sulfur. Based on its review, EPA proposes to retain the current nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) secondary standards to provide requisite protection for the direct effects on vegetation resulting from exposure to gaseous oxides of nitrogen and sulfur in the ambient air. Additionally, with regard to protection from the deposition of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur to sensitive aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, including acidification and nutrient enrichment effects, EPA is proposing to add secondary standards identical to the NO2 and SO2 primary 1-hour standards and not set a new multi-pollutant secondary standard in this review. The proposed 1-hour secondary NO2 standard would be set at a level of 100 ppb and the proposed 1-hour secondary SO2 standard would be set at 75 ppb. In addition, EPA has decided to undertake a field pilot program to gather and analyze additional relevant data so as to enhance the Agency's understanding of the degree of protectiveness that a new multi-pollutant approach, defined in terms of an aquatic acidification index (AAI), would afford and to support development of an appropriate monitoring network for such a standard. The EPA solicits comment on the framework of such a standard and on the design of the field pilot program. The EPA will sign a notice of final rulemaking for this review no later than March 20, 2012.