Environmental Protection Agency February 6, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with section 113(g) of the Clean Air Act, as amended (``CAA'' or the ``Act''), notice is hereby given of a proposed settlement agreement to address a lawsuit filed by Finger Lakes Zero Waste Coalition, Inc. and Katherine M. Bennett Roll (collectively Plaintiffs''): Finger Lakes Zero Waste Coalition, Inc. v. McCarthy, No. 6:14-cv-06542 (W.D.N.Y.). On September 16, 2014, Plaintiffs filed this complaint alleging that Gina McCarthy, in her official capacity as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (``EPA''), failed to perform a non-discretionary duty to grant or deny within 60 days a petition submitted by Plaintiffs. In their petition, Plaintiffs requested that EPA object to a CAA Title V permit issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to Seneca Energy II, LLC, for purposes of operating a landfill gas-to-energy facility in Stanley, New York. The proposed settlement agreement would establish a deadline for EPA to respond to this petition.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve portions of four State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submittals from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA). Whenever new or revised national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) are promulgated, the CAA requires states to submit a plan for the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of such NAAQS. The plan is required to address basic program elements, including, but not limited to, regulatory structure, monitoring, modeling, legal authority, and adequate resources necessary to assure attainment and maintenance of the standards. These elements are referred to as infrastructure requirements. Pennsylvania has made four separate submittals addressing the infrastructure requirements for the 2008 ozone, the 2010 nitrogen dioxide (NO2), the 2010 sulfur dioxide (SO2), and the 2012 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) NAAQS. In this rulemaking action, EPA is proposing to approve, in accordance with the requirements of the CAA, the four infrastructure SIP submissions with the exception of some portions of the submittals addressing visibility protection.

The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to submit an information collection request (ICR), ``Monthly Progress Reports (Renewal)'' to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. Before doing so, EPA is soliciting public comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below. This is a proposed extension of the ICR, which is currently approved through May 31, 2015. An Agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is extending the Clean Air Act's (CAA) prohibition against the sale of conventional gasoline in reformulated gasoline (RFG) areas to the southern Maine counties of York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Knox, and Lincoln (hereinafter, the ``Southern Maine Counties''). This action is based on a request from the Governor of the State of Maine for areas within the ozone transport region established under the CAA. The CAA does not give the EPA discretion to deny a Governor's request on this matter. The scope of the EPA's discretion is limited to establishing the date that the prohibition commences. Consistent with the Governor's request, the EPA is finalizing as proposed a prohibition commencement date of May 1, 2015 for all refiners, importers, and distributors in the Maine counties referenced in the Governor's request, and June 1, 2015 for all retailers and wholesale purchaser- consumers in those counties. The EPA is also adding in its RFG opt-out rules a provision to reflect that there is a four-year minimum opt-in period for areas that opt into the RFG program on the basis of their location within the ozone transport region. This clarification aligns the federal regulation for RFG opt-out requirements with the CAA.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of the Army (Army) are announcing the withdrawal of an interpretive document addressing the exemption from permitting provided under section 404(f)(1)(A) of the Clean Water Act (CWA).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the receipt of a complete petition requesting that the EPA add the chemical n-Propyl Bromide (nPB) (Chemical Abstract Service No. 106-94- 5) to the list of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) contained in section 112(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act (CAA). On October 28, 2010 and November 28, 2012, the Halogenated Solvent Industry Alliance (HSIA) submitted a petition to list nPB as a HAP and a supplement to the petition, respectively. In addition, on November 24, 2011, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) submitted a petition to add nPB to the HAP list. We have determined that these petitions are complete for purposes of this process, which means they provide sufficient information to assess the human health impacts on people living in the vicinity of facilities emitting nPB. Today's document initiates our comprehensive technical review phase of the petition process. The EPA invites the public to comment on these petitions and to provide additional data, beyond what are in these petitions, on sources, emissions, exposure, health effects and environmental impacts associated with nPB that may be relevant to our technical review. These petitions and supporting information are available through Docket ID EPA-HQ-OAR-2014-0471. Following completion of the technical review phase that is initiated by today's notice and runs through the EPA's evaluation of all the comments received, the EPA will decide whether to grant or deny the petitions.