Environmental Protection Agency December 19, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As required by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as amended by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act in June 2016, EPA is publishing an initial list of ten (10) chemical substances that will be the subject of the Agency's chemical risk evaluations to determine whether the chemical substances present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment. The law requires that EPA initiate risk evaluations on 10 chemical substances drawn from the 2014 update of the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical Assessments and that EPA publish this list within 180 days of enactment (i.e., by December 19, 2016). EPA's designation of the first ten chemical substances constitutes the initiation of the risk evaluation process for each of these chemical substances, pursuant to the requirements of TSCA section 6(b)(4). For each chemical substance, within six months from the date of publication of this notice, EPA will issue a scoping document. EPA has also established dockets for each of these chemical substances to document each risk evaluation and to facilitate receipt of information that will be useful to the Agency's risk evaluation.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces the release of the draft of Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria and/or Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin2016 for a 60-day public comment. These are the draft recommended concentrations of the toxins microcystins and cylindrospermopsin in recreational water protective of human health while swimming or participating in other activities on the water. Recreational exposure to the microcystins and cylindrospermopsin produced by cyanobacteria has the potential to result in liver and kidney toxicity, respectively. The recommended values found in this draft document do not replace or supersede the 2012 Recreational Water Quality Criteria (RWQC) recommendations for E. coli and Enterococcus. Rather, once final, they will supplement the 2012 RWQC to provide further public health protection for additional, potentially hazardous conditions found in ambient recreational waters. Following closure of this 60-day public comment period, EPA will consider the comments, revise the draft document, as appropriate, and then publish a final document that will provide recommendations for States and authorized Tribes to establish water quality standards under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Alternatively, States and authorized Tribes may use these same values as the basis of swimming advisories for public notification purposes.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing federal Clean Water Act (CWA) water quality standards (WQS) for certain waters under the state of Maine's jurisdiction, including human health criteria (HHC) to protect the sustenance fishing designated use in waters in Indian lands and in waters subject to sustenance fishing rights under the Maine Implementing Act (MIA). EPA is promulgating these WQS to address various disapprovals of Maine's standards that EPA issued in February, March, and June 2015, and to address the Administrator's determination that Maine's HHC are not adequate to protect the designated use of sustenance fishing for certain waters.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing action on revisions to the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District (ICAPCD or District) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). We are proposing full approval of two rules and a limited approval and limited disapproval of one rule. All three rules update and revise the District's New Source Review (NSR) permitting program for new and modified sources of air pollution. We are taking comments on this proposal and plan to follow with a final action.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving administrative revisions for incorporation into the Michigan's State Implementation Plan (SIP). The submittal, by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) on December 21, 2015, makes minor corrections to Michigan's Air Pollution Control Rules entitled ``Emissions Limitations and ProhibitionsMiscellaneous.''

EPA is proposing to establish fees related to the provision of federal credit assistance under Subtitle C of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014 (WRRDA), which is referred to as the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 (WIFIA). WIFIA authorizes EPA to provide secured (direct) loans and loan guarantees to eligible water infrastructure projects and to charge fees to recover all or a portion of the Agency's cost of providing credit assistance and the costs of retaining expert firms, including financial, engineering, and legal advisory services, in the field of municipal and project finance to assist in the underwriting and servicing of Federal credit instruments. The agency seeks comment on all aspects of this proposal.