Environmental Protection Agency 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is proposing uses that qualify for the 2012 critical use exemption and the amount of methyl bromide that may be produced, imported, or supplied from existing pre-phaseout inventory for those uses in 2012. EPA is taking action under the authority of the Clean Air Act to reflect a recent consensus decision taken by the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer at the Twenty-Second Meeting of the Parties. EPA is seeking comment on the list of critical uses and on EPA's determination of the amounts of methyl bromide needed to satisfy those uses.

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.

EPA is proposing to amend the date by which farms must prepare or amend, and implement their Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plans, to May 10, 2013. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of this Federal Register, EPA is amending the date by which farms must prepare or amend, and implement their Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plans to May 10, 2013, as a direct final rule without a prior proposed rule. If we receive no adverse comment, we will not take further action on this proposed rule.

EPA is taking final action to approve a revision to the State Implementation Plan (SIP), submitted by the State of North Carolina, through the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources' (NC DENR) Division of Air Quality, to EPA on August 11, 2010, for parallel processing. NC DENR submitted the final version of this SIP revision on May 17, 2011. The SIP revision establishes new NC DENR air quality regulations, specific to the regulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) under North Carolina's New Source Review (NSR) Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program. Specifically, the SIP revision establishes appropriate emission thresholds for determining which new stationary sources and modification projects become subject to North Carolina's PSD permitting requirements for their GHG emissions. This rule incorporates state law changes into the federally approved SIP, and specifically, clarifies the applicable thresholds in the North Carolina SIP for GHG PSD requirements. EPA is approving North Carolina's May 17, 2011, SIP revision because the Agency has made the determination that this SIP revision is in accordance with the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and EPA regulations, including regulations pertaining to PSD permitting for GHGs. Additionally, EPA is responding to adverse comments received on EPA's November 5, 2010, proposed approval of North Carolina's August 11, 2010, draft SIP revision.

The EPA is proposing to revise the agency's definition of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for purposes of preparing state implementation plans (SIPs) to attain the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone under Title I of the Clean Air Act (CAA). This proposed revision would add 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (also known as HFO-1234yf) and trans-1,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (also known as HFO- 1234ze) to the list of compounds excluded from the definition of VOC on the basis that these compounds make a negligible contribution to tropospheric ozone formation.

The EPA is proposing to correct an erroneous reference in EPA's procedures for handling data collected under the Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule, which are provided in the Special Rules Governing Certain Information Obtained under the Clean Air Act. The proposed correction would not change any requirements for entities regulated under the Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule or the final confidentiality determinations EPA has made for such data. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of this Federal Register, we are making this correction as a direct final rule without a prior proposed rule. If we receive no adverse comment, we will not take further action on this proposed rule.

EPA is approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of Maryland. This SIP revision includes amendments to the Code of Maryland (COMAR) 26.11.19.13, Volatile Organic Compounds from Specific Processes, Drum and Pail Coating. Maryland's SIP revision meets the requirement to adopt Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) for sources covered by EPA's Control Techniques Guidelines (CTG) standards for drum and pail coatings and will help Maryland attain and maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone. EPA is approving this revision concerning the adoption of the CTG requirements for drum and pail coatings in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

EPA's grant regulations require the Agency to evaluate the performance of agencies which receive grants. EPA's regulations for regional consistency require that the Agency notify the public of the availability of the reports of such evaluations. EPA performed end-of- year evaluations of eight state air pollution control programs (Alabama Department of Environmental Management; Florida Department of Environmental Protection; Georgia Department of Natural Resources; Commonwealth of Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet; Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality; North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources; South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control; and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) and 17 local programs (City of Huntsville Division of Natural Resources, AL; Jefferson County Department of Health, AL; Broward County Environmental Protection and Growth Management Department, FL; City of Jacksonville Environmental Quality Division, FL; Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission, FL; Miami- Dade County Air Quality Management Division, FL; Orange County Environmental Protection Division, FL; Palm Beach County Health Department, FL; Pinellas County Parks and Conservation Resources, FL; Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, KY; Forsyth County Environmental Affairs Department, NC; Mecklenburg County Land Use and Environmental Services Agency, NC; Western North Carolina Regional Air Quality Agency, NC; Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau, TN; Shelby County Health Department, TN; Knox County Department of Air Quality Management, TN; and Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County Public Health Department, TN). The 25 evaluations were conducted to assess the agencies' Fiscal Year 2010 performance under the grants awarded by EPA under authority of section 105 of the Clean Air Act. EPA Region 4 has prepared reports for each agency identified above and these reports are now available for public inspection.

EPA is announcing that it is lifting the Administrative Stay of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) section 313 toxic chemical release reporting requirements for hydrogen sulfide (Chemical Abstracts Service Number (CAS No.) 7783-06-4). Hydrogen sulfide was added to the EPCRA section 313 list of toxic chemicals in a final rule published in the Federal Register on December 1, 1993. However, on August 22, 1994, EPA issued an Administrative Stay of the reporting requirements for hydrogen sulfide in order to evaluate issues brought to the Agency's attention after promulgation of the final rule concerning the human health effect basis for the listing and the Agency's use of exposure analysis in EPCRA section 313 listing decisions. Although the final rule listing hydrogen sulfide under section 313 of EPCRA remained in force, the stay deferred the reporting requirements for hydrogen sulfide while EPA completed this further evaluation. EPA completed its further evaluation of additional information that has become available since the stay was put in place regarding the human health and environmental effects of hydrogen sulfide, and the Agency published a position that the stay should be lifted in the February 26, 2010, Federal Register document ``Intent to Consider Lifting Administrative Stay; Opportunity for Public Comment.'' Based on EPA's further evaluation and the consideration of the public comments received on the notice of intent, EPA continues to believe that the Administrative Stay should be lifted. By this current action, EPA is not revisiting the original listing decision, which was accomplished by final rule on December 1, 1993. Rather, EPA is lifting the Administrative Stay of the reporting requirements for hydrogen sulfide.

The EPA is proposing revisions to the new source performance standards (NSPS) for nitric acid plants. Nitric acid plants include one or more nitric acid production units. These proposed revisions include a change to the nitrogen oxides (NOX) emission limit, which applies to each nitric acid production unit commencing construction, modification, or reconstruction after October 14, 2011. These proposed revisions will also include additional testing and monitoring requirements.

EPA is taking direct final action to extend the grace period before the Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator model (currently MOVES2010a) is required for regional emissions analyses for transportation conformity determinations (``regional conformity analyses''). This final rule provides an additional year to the previously established two-year conformity grace period. As a result, EPA is announcing in this Federal Register that MOVES is not required for regional conformity analyses until March 2, 2013. This action does not affect EPA's previous approval of the use of MOVES in official state air quality implementation plan (SIP) submissions or the existing grace period before MOVES2010a is required for carbon monoxide and particulate matter hot-spot analyses for project-level conformity determinations.

EPA is approving a revision to the Indiana State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) on November 24, 2010. The SIP revision consists of amendments to 326 Indiana Administrative Code (IAC) 8-2-1 and 326 IAC 8-2-9, the applicability sections for Indiana's miscellaneous metal and plastic parts surface coating rules. These rules are approvable because they satisfy the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) for volatile organic compound (VOC) reasonably available control technology (RACT) rules.

EPA has received applications to register pesticide products containing active ingredients not included in any previously registered pesticide products. Pursuant to the provisions of section 3(c)(4) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), EPA is hereby providing notice of receipt and opportunity to comment on these applications.

Notice is hereby given that the State of Maryland is revising its approved Public Water System Supervision Program. Maryland has adopted drinking water regulations for the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2), the Lead and Copper Rule Short Term Revisions (LCRSTR), Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) and the Ground Water Rule (GWR). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that the State rules (i.e., LT2, LCRSTR, UCMR and the GWR) meet all minimum federal requirements, and that they are no less stringent than the corresponding federal regulations. Therefore, EPA has tentatively decided to approve the State program revisions.

This document announces the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) responses to Agency Clearance requests, in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for EPA regulations are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and 48 CFR chapter 15.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (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 collection and the estimated burden and cost.

EPA is making two determinations regarding the Charleston, West Virginia fine particulate matter (PM2.5) nonattainment area (hereafter referred to as ``Charleston Area'' or ``Area''). First, EPA is determining that the Area has attained the 1997 annual average PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). This determination of attainment is based upon complete, quality-assured, and certified ambient air monitoring data for the 2007-2009 period showing that the Charleston Area has attained the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS and data available to date for 2010 in EPA's Air Quality System (AQS) database that show the area continues to attain. EPA's determination releases the Charleston Area from the requirements to submit attainment demonstrations and associated reasonably available control measures (RACM), a reasonable further progress (RFP) plan, contingency measures, and other planning State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions related to attainment of the standard for so long as the Area continues to attain the annual PM2.5 NAAQS. Second, EPA is determining based on quality-assured and certified monitoring data for the 2007-2009 monitoring period that the area has attained the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS, by its applicable attainment date of April 5, 2010.

The Regional Administrator of EPA Region 10 is hereby granting a waiver from the Buy American requirements of ARRA Section 1605(a) under the authority of Section 1605(b)(2) [manufactured goods are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality] to the City for the purchase of six Carrier split ductless air conditioning (AC) units, manufactured in Mexico and South Korea. This is a project specific waiver and only applies to the use of the specified products 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 waiver applicant states that AC systems are required to provide a constant temperature for the electrical control room as part of the City's project to upgrade of the wastewater treatment plant. The City's consulting engineer requested the Carrier AC system products based on specifications on the project plans for six Carrier split ductless AC units. The City has provided sufficient documentation to support their request. This action allows the installation of the six specified ductless AC units as noted in the City's June 22, 2011, request and additional follow up documentation.

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 March 31, 2012. 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.

California has applied for final authorization of certain revisions to its hazardous waste program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reviewed California's application and has reached a final determination that the revisions to California's hazardous waste program satisfy all of the requirements necessary to qualify for final authorization. Thus, with respect to these revisions, EPA is granting final authorization to the State to operate its program subject to the limitations on its authority retained by EPA in accordance with the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92- 463, notice is hereby given that the Good Neighbor Environmental Board (GNEB) will hold a public teleconference on November 2, 2011 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The meeting is open to the public. For further information regarding the teleconference and background materials, please contact Mark Joyce at the number listed below. Background: GNEB is a Federal advisory committee chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, PL 92463. GNEB provides advice and recommendations to the President and Congress on environmental and infrastructure issues along the U.S. border with Mexico. Purpose of Meeting: The purpose of this teleconference is to discuss and approve the Good Neighbor Environmental Board's Fourteenth Report, which focuses on the potential environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy development in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or we) is announcing the availability of, and soliciting public comments for 45 days on, the proposed approval of the radioactive, remote-handled (RH), transuranic (TRU) waste characterization program implemented by the Central Characterization Project (CCP) at Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This waste is intended for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. In accordance with the WIPP Compliance Criteria, EPA evaluated the characterization of RH TRU debris waste from SNL-CCP during an inspection conducted in three steps: Observation of the Visual Examination (VE) and sampling process at SNL on March 8, 2011; dose-to- curie (DTC) measurements on May 10, 2011 at SNL; and, the formal baseline inspection on June 7-8, 2011 in Golden, Colorado. Using the systems and processes developed as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) program, EPA verified whether DOE could adequately characterize RH TRU waste consistent with the Compliance Criteria. The results of EPA's evaluation of SNL-CCP's RH program and its proposed approval are described in the Agency's inspection report, which is available for review in the public dockets listed in ADDRESSES. We will consider public comments received on or before the due date mentioned in DATES. This notice summarizes the waste characterization processes evaluated by EPA and EPA's proposed approval. As required by the 40 CFR 194.8, at the end of a 45-day comment period EPA will evaluate public comments received, and if appropriate, finalize the reports responding to the relevant public comments, and issue a final report and approval letter to DOE.