Environmental Protection Agency June 11, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On April 20, 2011, EPA published proposed standards for cooling water intake structures at all existing power generating facilities and existing manufacturing and industrial facilities as part of implementing section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act (CWA). As a result of that notice, EPA received extensive comments on its proposal. These comments included a substantial amount of new information accompanied by reports, studies and other documents often supplemented with the substantiating data. In some cases, the materials may not have included the underlying data supporting the documents' conclusions. Consequently, in many circumstances, EPA contacted the commenters to obtain the raw data underlying the documents for EPA's use in further assessing its proposal. This notice presents a summary of the significant new information and data EPA has received since proposal and a discussion of possible revisions to the final rule that EPA is considering that were suggested by the data and comments. EPA solicits public comment on the data and possible revisions presented in this notice and the record supporting this notice.

Idaho applied to EPA for final authorization of certain changes to its hazardous waste program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended (RCRA). On February 29, 2012, EPA published a proposed rule to authorize the changes and opened a public comment period under Docket ID No. EPA-R10-RCRA-2011-0973. The comment period closed on March 30, 2012. EPA received two comments on the proposed rule. EPA's responses are included in the section B of this final rule labeled ``What Were the Comments on EPA's Proposed Rule.'' EPA has decided that the revisions to the Idaho hazardous waste management program satisfy all the requirements necessary to qualify for final authorization and EPA is authorizing these revisions to Idaho's authorized hazardous waste management program in this final rule.

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Interagency Testing Committee (ITC) transmitted its 70th ITC Report to the EPA Administrator on May 3, 2012. Under TSCA, the ITC is required to prepare and submit a report to the EPA Administrator every 6 months even if there are no changes to the TSCA section 4(e) Priority Testing List. In the 70th ITC Report, which is included with this notice, the ITC is not making any changes to the TSCA section 4(e) Priority Testing List.

EPA is proposing to approve in part, and conditionally approve in part, the State Implementation Plans (SIPs), submitted by the State of Tennessee, through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) as demonstrating that the State meets the requirements of sections 110(a)(1) and (2) of the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act) for the 1997 annual and 2006 24-hour fine particulate (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). Section 110(a) of the CAA requires that each state adopt and submit a SIP for the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of each NAAQS promulgated by the EPA, which is commonly referred to as an ``infrastructure'' SIP. Tennessee certified that the Tennessee SIP contains provisions that ensure the 1997 annual and 2006 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS are implemented, enforced, and maintained in Tennessee (hereafter referred to as ``infrastructure submission''). EPA is proposing to conditionally approve a portion of sub-element 110(a)(2)(E)(ii) of Tennessee's December 14, 2007, and October 19, 2009, submissions because the current Tennessee SIP does not currently include provisions to comply with all the requirements of this sub-element, however, the State has committed to adding such provisions to the SIP within one year of EPA's final action on the infrastructure submission. With the exception of a portion of sub- element 110(a)(2)(E)(ii), EPA is proposing to determine that Tennessee's infrastructure submission, provided to EPA on December 14, 2007, addressed all the required infrastructure elements for the 1997 annual PM2.5 NAAQS and that its October 19, 2009, submission addressed all the required infrastructure elements for the 2006 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS.

EPA is finalizing a limited approval of revisions to the Indiana State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) on January 14, 2011, and March 10, 2011, addressing regional haze for the first implementation period that ends 2018. This action is being taken in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA's rules for states to prevent and remedy future and existing anthropogenic impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas through a regional haze program. As part of this action, EPA is also approving limits for the Alcoa facility that EPA finds satisfy the requirements for best available retrofit technology (BART).