Environmental Protection Agency February 27, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to section 112(l) of the 1990 Clean Air Act, EPA granted delegation of specific national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection on October 6, 2011. EPA is proposing to revise the Code of Federal Regulations to reflect the current delegation status of NESHAP in Nevada.

EPA is proposing a limited approval of a revision to the Georgia state implementation plan (SIP) submitted by the State of Georgia through the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Protection Division (GA EPD), on February 11, 2010, as supplemented on November 19, 2010, that addresses regional haze for the first implementation period. This SIP revision, as supplemented, addresses the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) 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 this SIP revision to implement the regional haze requirements for Georgia on the basis that the revision, as a whole, strengthens the Georgia SIP. EPA has previously proposed a limited disapproval of the Georgia regional haze SIP because of deficiencies in the State's regional haze SIP submittal arising from the remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) to EPA of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). Consequently, EPA is not proposing to take action in this rulemaking to address the State's reliance on CAIR to meet certain regional haze requirements.

Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the United States Environmental Protection Agency has entered into a settlement for past response costs concerning the Anniston PCB Superfund Site located in Anniston, Calhoun County, Alabama.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is establishing a No Discharge Zone (NDZ) for marine waters of the State of California for sewage discharges from: all large passenger vessels of 300 gross tons or greater; and from large oceangoing vessels of 300 gross tons or greater with available holding tank capacity or containing sewage generated while the vessel was outside of the marine waters of the State of California, pursuant to Section 312(f)(4)(A) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), 33 U.S.C. 1322(f)(4)(A). This action is being taken in response to an April 5, 2006, application from the California State Water Resources Control Board requesting establishment of this NDZ. Based on the State's application, EPA has determined that the protection and enhancement of the quality of California's marine waters requires the prohibition of sewage discharges from two classes of large vessels. For the purposes of today's rule, the marine waters of the State of California are defined as the territorial sea measured from the baseline, as determined in accordance with the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, and extending seaward a distance of three miles and including all enclosed bays and estuaries subject to tidal influences from the Oregon border to the Mexican border. State marine waters extend three miles from State islands, including the Farallones and the Northern and Southern Channel Islands.