Environmental Protection Agency January 25, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is proposing to approve the Minnesota State Implementation Plan addressing regional haze for the first implementation period. Minnesota submitted its regional haze plan on December 30, 2009. A supplemental submission was made on January 5, 2012. The Minnesota regional haze plan addresses Clean Air Act (CAA) and Regional Haze Rule (RHR) requirements to remedy any existing and prevent future anthropogenic visibility impairment at mandatory Class I areas. We are proposing fully to approve the Minnesota regional haze plan if Minnesota submits its proposed Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) emission limits for taconite facilities in fully adopted form prior to our final action under this proposal, or to conditionally approve the plan if Minnesota has not done so.

EPA is announcing a 45-day extension to the public comment period for the external review of the draft research report titled, ``Investigation of Ground Water Contamination near Pavillion, Wyoming'' (FRL-9506-7; 76 FR 77829). The draft research report was prepared by the National Risk Management Research Laboratory, within the EPA Office of Research and Development, and EPA Region 8. This draft research report is not final as described in EPA's Information Quality Guidelines, and does not represent and should not be construed to represent Agency policy or views. Eastern Research Group, Inc., an EPA contractor for external peer review, will convene an independent panel of experts for peer review of this draft research report. Public comments submitted during the public comment period will be made available to the peer review panel for consideration in their review. An external peer review meeting will take place following the public comment period. An additional Federal Register notice will be published about one month prior to the meeting to provide the meeting date, location, and registration information. Additional details about the peer review process can be found at: https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si publicpraview.cfm?dirEntryID=240345.

EPA is proposing a limited approval and a limited disapproval of six revisions to the Virginia State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the Commonwealth of Virginia, through the Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ), that address regional haze for the first implementation period. These revisions address the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) and EPA's rules that require states to prevent any future and remedy any existing anthropogenic impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas (national parks and wilderness areas) caused by emissions of air pollutants from numerous sources located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the ``regional haze program''). States are required to assure reasonable progress toward the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas. EPA is proposing a limited approval of these SIP revisions to implement the regional haze requirements for Virginia on the basis that the revisions, as a whole, strengthen the Virginia SIP. Also in this action, EPA is proposing a limited disapproval of these same SIP revisions because of the deficiencies in the Commonwealth's regional haze SIP submittal arising from the remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC Circuit) to EPA of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). EPA is also proposing to approve this revision as meeting the infrastructure requirements relating to visibility protection for the 1997 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and the 1997 and 2006 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) NAAQS.

EPA is taking direct final action to approve a revision to the North Carolina State Implementation Plan (SIP), submitted to EPA on April 13, 2011, with supplemental information submitted on May 18, 2011, by the State of North Carolina, through the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR), through the Department of Air Quality. The revisions propose to modify North Carolina's SIP to address the required maintenance plan for the 1997 8- hour ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, North Carolina 1-hour ozone maintenance area, hereafter referred to as ``the Triad Area.'' The Triad Area is comprised of Davidson, Forsyth, and Guilford and a portion of Davie County. This maintenance plan was submitted to ensure the continued attainment of the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS through the year 2018 in the Triad Area. EPA is approving these SIP revisions pursuant to section 110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act). The submitted maintenance plan meets all of the statutory and regulatory requirements, and is consistent with EPA's guidance.

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of rimsulfuron in or on the caneberry subgroup 13-07A and the bushberry subgroup 13-07B. Interregional Research Project No. 4 (IR-4) requested these tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

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, titled: ``Partial Update of the TSCA Section 8(b) Inventory Data Base, Production and Site Reports'' and identified by EPA ICR No. 1884.07 and OMB Control No. 2070-0162, is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2012. Before submitting the ICR to OMB for review and approval, EPA is soliciting comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection.