Environmental Protection Agency May 22, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the availability of final national recommended water quality criteria for the protection of aquatic life from effects of carbaryl (EPA-820-R-12-007). The final criteria document incorporates the latest scientific knowledge on the toxicity of carbaryl to aquatic life. On November 1, 2011, EPA published draft national recommended water quality criteria for carbaryl and provided the public an opportunity to provide scientific views. EPA developed the aquatic life criteria based on EPA's Guidelines for Deriving Numerical National Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Aquatic Organisms and Their Uses (1985), (EPA/R-85- 100). EPA's recommended section 304(a) water quality criteria provides guidance to States and authorized Tribes in adopting water quality standards for protecting aquatic life and human health. These criteria are intended to protect aquatic life and do not evaluate human health toxicity data. EPA's recommended water quality criteria provide technical information for states and authorized tribes in adopting water quality standards, but by themselves have no binding legal effect. EPA's national recommended final acute and chronic ambient water quality criteria (AWQC) for protecting freshwater organisms from potential effects of carbaryl is 2.1 [mu]g/L. For the protection of estuarine/marine organisms from potential effects of carbaryl, EPA is recommending a final acute AWQC of 1.6 [mu]g/L. At the present time, there are insufficient data to calculate a chronic AWQC for estuarine/ marine organisms.

The EPA hereby withdraws nine final Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for Chloride, Sulfate, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) for the Bayou de L'Outre Watershed in Arkansas. The EPA withdraws the Bayou de L'Outre TMDLs due to the discovery of inconsistencies in the values used to derive the flow and load duration curves, resulting in the calculation of TMDLs which do not accurately reflect the loading capacity of the segments. This action does not affect seven other final TMDLs published under the same Federal Register notice (see 76 FR 52947) which pertain to segments 08040203-010, 08040204-006, and 08040206-015, -016, -716, -816, -916. The Agency hereby withdraws the final TMDLs pertaining to segments 08040202-006, -007, and -008 with respect to Chlorides, Sulfates and TDS. Public Participation: EPA received five comment letters from representatives of Clean Harbors Environmental Services, Clean Harbors Environmental ServicesEl Dorado, El Dorado Water Utility, Great Lakes Chemical CorporationChemtura, and Lion Oil Company in support of the withdrawal of nine TMDLs pertaining to Bayou de L'Outre. The Agency did not receive any adverse comments relating to the withdrawal action.

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 approving a revision to the Rhode Island State Implementation Plan (SIP) that addresses regional haze for the first planning period from 2008 through 2018. The revision was submitted by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM) on August 7, 2009. This revision addresses the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA's regulations that require States to prevent any future, and remedy any existing, manmade impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I Areas caused by emissions of air pollutants from numerous sources located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the ``regional haze program'').

EPA is taking action to finalize two separate and independent determinations regarding the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) nonattainment area of Baltimore (hereafter referred to as the ``Baltimore Area'' or ``Area''). First, EPA is determining that the Baltimore Area has attained the 1997 annual PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) under the Clean Air Act (CAA). This determination is based upon complete, quality-assured, and certified ambient air monitoring data for the 2008-2010 monitoring period showing that the Area has monitored attainment of the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS, and data available to date for 2011 in EPA's Air Quality System (AQS) database showing that the Area continues to attain. Under EPA's PM2.5 implementation regulations, this final determination suspends obligation of the Area to submit an attainment demonstration and associated reasonably available control measures and reasonably available control technologies (RACM/RACT), a reasonable further progress (RFP) plan, contingency measures, and other planning State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions related to the attainment of the standard for so long as the Area continues to attain the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS. EPA is also determining, based on complete quality-assured and certified monitoring data for the 2007- 2009 monitoring period, that the Area attained the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS by its applicable attainment date of April 5, 2010. In addition, EPA is withdrawing its July 31, 2009 (74 FR 38161) proposed determination of attainment for the Baltimore Area, because more recent monitoring data has become available. EPA is finalizing a determination of attainment for the Baltimore Area, in accordance with the requirements of the (CAA).