Environmental Protection Agency October 29, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA announced in the Federal Register on October 3, 2012 [FRL- 9737-3] a Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Committee (FRRCC) Teleconference to be held on October 22, 2012. Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92463, EPA gives notice of cancellation of that public meeting for the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Committee (FRRCC). The FRRCC provides policy advice, information, and recommendations to the EPA Administrator on a range of environmental issues and policies that are of importance to agriculture and rural communities. The purpose of this teleconference was to discuss specific topics of relevance for consideration by the Committee in order to provide advice and insights to the Agency on environmental policies and programs that affect and engage agriculture and rural communities.

The Director, Office of Water and Watersheds, EPA Region 10, is publishing this notice of availability of the final National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permits for Oil and Gas Exploration Facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf and Contiguous State Waters in the Beaufort Sea (Permit No. AKG282100) and on the Outer Continental Shelf in the Chukchi Sea (Permit No. AKG288100). The Beaufort and Chukchi general permits authorize thirteen types of discharges from facilities engaged in field exploration and exploratory drilling activities under the Offshore Subcategory of the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category (40 CFR part 425, Subpart A), as authorized by Section 402 of the Clean Water Act (CWA or ``the Act''), 33 U.S.C. 1342. The Beaufort and Chukchi general permits contain effluent limitations and requirements that ensure the discharges will not cause unreasonable degradation of the marine environment, as required by Section 403(c) of the Clean Water Act (i.e. the Ocean Discharge Criteria), 33 U.S.C. 1343(c).

EPA is approving the attainment demonstration portion of the attainment plan submitted by the State of Maryland as a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision. The Maryland SIP revision demonstrates attainment of the 1997 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, PA-NJ-MD-DE moderate nonattainment area (Philadelphia Area) by the applicable attainment date of June 2011. EPA is approving the SIP revision in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

EPA proposes to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the State of West Virginia for the purpose of establishing amendments to Legislative Rule, 45 CSR 8Ambient Air Quality Standards. 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 EPA 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.