Environmental Protection Agency October 19, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with section 122(i) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, as amended (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. 9622(i), notice is hereby given of a proposed administrative settlement for recovery of past and projected future response costs concerning the ACM Smelter and Refinery NPL Site (Site), Operable Unit 1, located near Great Falls, in Cascade County, Montana, with the following settling parties: Atlantic Richfield Company and ARCO Environmental Remediation, L.L.C. The settlement requires the settling parties to perform a remedial investigation and feasibility study in portions of Operable Unit 1 of the Site, and to pay $1,050,000.00 to the Hazardous Substance Superfund for past response costs, as well as future response costs under the settlement. The settlement includes a covenant not to sue the settling parties pursuant to sections 106 and 107(a) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. 9606 and 9607(a). For thirty (30) days following the date of publication of this document, the Agency will receive written comments relating to the settlement. The Agency will consider all comments received and may modify or withdraw its consent to the settlement if comments received disclose facts or considerations which indicate that the settlement is inappropriate, improper, or inadequate. The Agency's response to any comments received will be available for public inspection at the Black Eagle Community Center, in the Black Eagle community, Cascade County, Montana, and at the EPA Region 8 Records Center located on the second floor at 1595 Wynkoop Street, Denver, Colorado 80202 during normal business hours.

EPA proposes to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The SIP revision amends existing regulation 9VAC5 Chapter 151 in order to incorporate federal revisions to transportation conformity requirements. In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the State'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 If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule.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 approving, under the Clean Air Act (CAA), Ohio's and Indiana's requests to redesignate their respective portions of the Cincinnati-Hamilton nonattainment area (for Ohio: Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren Counties, Ohio; for IN: a portion of Dearborn County) to attainment for the 1997 annual National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS or standard) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) submitted its request on December 9, 2010, and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) submitted its request on January 25, 2011. Kentucky's request to redesignate its portion of the Cincinnati-Hamilton area, submitted to EPA on January 27, 2011, will be addressed in a separate rulemaking action. EPA's approvals here involve several additional related actions. EPA has determined that the entire Cincinnati-Hamilton area has attained the 1997 annual PM2.5 standard. EPA is approving, as revisions to the Ohio and Indiana State Implementation Plans (SIPs), the states' plans for maintaining the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS through 2021 in the area. EPA is approving the 2005 emissions inventories for the Ohio and Indiana portions of the Cincinnati-Hamilton area as meeting the comprehensive emissions inventory requirement of the CAA. Finally, EPA finds adequate and is approving Ohio and Indiana's Nitrogen Oxides (NOX) and PM2.5 Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets (MVEBs) for 2015 and 2021 for the Cincinnati-Hamilton area.