Environmental Protection Agency December 21, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA issued a notice in the Federal Register of November 13, 2015, concerning the cancellation of pesticides for non-payment of year 2015 registration maintenance fees. This document is being issued to correct Table 2 of the cancellation notice by removing one entry which was inadvertently included.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) plans to authorize various contractors to access information which will be submitted to the EPA under Title II of the Clean Air Act that may be claimed as, or may be determined to be, confidential business information (CBI). Access to this information, which is related to registration of fuels and fuel additives under 40 CFR part 79; various fuels reporting programs under 40 CFR part 80; and reporting of various greenhouse gas reporting items under the mandatory reporting rule of 40 CFR part 98, subparts A, LL and MM will begin on December 31, 2015.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public meeting of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Sulfur Oxides Panel and a public teleconference of the Chartered CASAC and CASAC Sulfur Oxides Panel to review of EPA's Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Sulfur Oxides Health Criteria (External Review DraftNovember 2015).

EPA is opening a comment period to allow for further public comment on lead test kits and other field testing options as suggested in EPA's Fiscal Year 2015 Appropriations Act policy rider. Among other things, the 2008 Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting rule (RRP) established performance recognition criteria for lead test kits for use as an option to determine if regulated lead-based paint is not present in target housing and child-occupied facilities. The use of an EPA- recognized lead test kit, when used by a trained professional, can reliably determine that regulated lead-based paint is not present by virtue of a negative result. The RRP rule also established negative response and positive response criteria for lead test kits recognized by EPA. No lead test kit has been developed that meets the positive response criterion. On June 4, 2015, EPA hosted a public meeting and webinar to solicit input from stakeholders in an effort to understand the current state of the science for lead test kits and lead-based paint field testing alternatives, as well as the existing market and potential availability of additional lead test kits. To date, no company's lead test kit has met both the negative response and positive response criteria outlined in the RRP rule. Based on stakeholder input, EPA is unaware of any lead test kit available now or in the foreseeable future that would meet both of the performance criteria.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving into the Illinois Regional Haze State Implementation Plan (SIP) a variance for the electrical generating units (EGUs) included in the Ameren Multi-Pollutant Standard Group (Ameren MPS Group). The Ameren MPS Group consists of five facilities owned by Illinois Power Holdings, LLC (IPH) and two facilities owned by AmerenEnergy Medina Valley Cogen, LLC (Medina Valley). The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) submitted the variance to EPA for approval on September 3, 2014.

This regulation establishes tolerances for residues of pendimethalin in or on multiple commodities which are identified and discussed later in this document. Interregional Research Project Number 4 (IR-4) requested the tolerances associated with pesticide petition number (PP) 4E8282, and BASF requested the tolerances associated with (PP) 4F8261, under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).