Environmental Protection Agency September 22, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency is announcing the availability of two final Pesticide Registration Notices (PRNs) entitled, ``Guidance for Pesticide Registrants on Pesticide Resistance Management Labeling'' and ``Guidance for Herbicide Resistance Management Labeling, Education, Training, and Stewardship.'' The Agency signed these final PRNs, identified as 2017-1 and 2017-2 respectively, on August 24, 2017. PRNs are issued by the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) to inform pesticide registrants and other interested persons about important policies, procedures, and registration-related decisions, and to provide guidance to pesticide registrants and OPP personnel. PRN 2017-1, which updates PRN 2001-5, provides guidance for registrants to follow when developing resistance management information to include on their pesticide labels. PRN 2017-2 communicates the Agency's current thinking and approach to address herbicide-resistant weeds by providing guidance on labeling, education, training, and stewardship for herbicides undergoing registration review or registration (i.e., new herbicide active ingredients, new uses proposed for use on herbicide-resistant crops, or other case-specific registration actions). The Agency requested comment on both of PRNs on June 3, 2016 (81 FR 35766 and 81 FR 35767). Today's final PRNs reflect consideration of public comments.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a temporary modification of the currently-designated Massachusetts Bay Dredged Material Disposal Site (MBDS) pursuant to the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, as amended (MPRSA). The purpose of this temporary site modification is to allow for the environmental restoration of a particular area adjacent to the currently-designated MBDS (Potential Restoration Area) by temporarily expanding the boundaries of the existing MBDS. The temporary expansion is a circular area that contains the Potential Restoration Area, which includes most of the historic Industrial Waste Site (IWS). Decades ago, the IWS was used for the disposal of barrels containing industrial, chemical and radioactive waste, as well as for the disposal of munitions, ordnance, construction equipment, and contaminated dredged material. The proposed modification of the disposal site boundary will enable the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to place suitable dredged material from Boston Harbor generated during the Deep Draft Navigation Project at the Potential Restoration Area in order to cover the barrels and other wastes disposed there in the past. The Deep Draft Navigation Project includes maintenance dredging in the inner harbor, which includes the expansion of a confined aquatic disposal (CAD) cell and will generate approximately 1 million cubic yards (cy) of dredged material, as well as improvement dredging of the main ship channel, which will generate approximately 11 million cy of dredged material. The existing MBDS will continue to be used for disposal of other dredging projects as usual. The expansion area would be permanently closed upon completion of the Boston Harbor maintenance and improvement projects, while the existing MBDS will remain open for the disposal of suitable dredged material. Like the MBDS, however, the expansion would be subject to ongoing monitoring and management to ensure continued protection of the marine environment.

This notice announces EPA's approval of the State of Arizona's request to revise its National Primary Drinking Water Regulations Implementation EPA-authorized program to allow electronic reporting.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conditionally approving revisions to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) addressing Oxides of Nitrogen (NOX) Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) for the Martin Marietta (formerly, Texas Industries, Inc., or TXI) cement manufacturing plant in Ellis County. We are fully approving revisions to the Texas SIP addressing NOX RACT for all other affected sources in the ten county Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) 2008 8-Hour ozone nonattainment area. We are also approving NOX RACT negative declarations (a finding that there are no major sources of NOX emissions in certain categories) for the DFW 2008 8-Hour ozone nonattainment area. The DFW 2008 8-Hour ozone nonattainment area consists of Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, and Wise counties. The RACT requirements apply to major sources of NOX in these ten counties.