Environmental Protection Agency November 6, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

With this action, EPA is promulgating a final rule that amends the Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment Rule. This action is mandated by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (DCIA) to adjust for inflation certain statutory civil monetary penalties that may be assessed for violations of EPA-administered statutes and their implementing regulations. The Agency is required to review the civil monetary penalties under the statutes it administers at least once every four years and to adjust such penalties as necessary for inflation according to a formula prescribed by the DCIA. The regulations contain a list of all civil monetary penalty authorities under EPA-administered statutes and the applicable statutory amounts, as adjusted for inflation, since 1996.

This notice announces EPA's receipt of test data on 21 chemicals. These data were submitted pursuant to 3 test rules issued by EPA under section 4 of the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA). The purpose of this notice is to alert the public about test data received between June 29, 2011, and July 31, 2013.

EPA has authorized its contractor, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) of McLean, VA, and its subcontractors to access information which has been submitted to EPA under all sections of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Some of the information may have been claimed or determined to be Confidential Business Information (CBI).

On September 10, 2013, EPA published a direct final rule approving portions of three revisions to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) concerning the Texas Federal Operating Permits Program. The direct final action was published without prior proposal because EPA anticipated no adverse comments. EPA stated in the direct final rule that if we received relevant, adverse comments by October 10, 2013, EPA would publish a timely withdrawal in the Federal Register. EPA subsequently received timely adverse comments on the direct final rule. Therefore, EPA is withdrawing the direct final approval and will proceed to respond to all relevant, adverse comments in a subsequent action based on the parallel proposal published on September 10, 2013. As stated in the parallel proposal, EPA will not institute a second comment period on this action.

EPA is seeking comment on a repellency awareness graphic for producers of skin-applied insect repellent products to voluntarily place on repellent product labels. This is part of a voluntary, ongoing effort to enhance public health information on, and to improve the clarity of, pesticide product labeling for consumers. Under this effort, producers of skin-applied insect repellent products can seek to use a standardized repellency awareness graphic that will clearly communicate to consumers the estimated number of hours mosquitoes and/ or ticks are repelled by a product when used as directed. With this notice, EPA is also seeking comment on a guidance document that describes the recommended criteria and processes for companies to voluntarily request the use of this graphic.