Environmental Protection Agency October 26, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Environmental Protection Agency is announcing the joint 2017 Fall Meeting of the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) and the Mid-Atlantic Northeast Visibility Union (MANE- VU). The meeting agenda will include topics regarding reducing ground- level ozone precursors and matters relative to Regional Haze and visibility improvement in Federal Class I areas in a multi-pollutant context.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to notify the public that it has received a negative declaration for the City of Philadelphia Air Management Services (Philadelphia AMS) for sewage sludge incineration (SSI) units. This negative declaration certifies that SSI units subject to the requirements of sections 111(d) and 129 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) do not exist within the City of Philadelphia in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. EPA is accepting the negative declaration in accordance with the requirements of the CAA. In the Final Rules section of this issue of the Federal Register, EPA is accepting the negative declaration as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.

As required under section 8(b)(10)(D) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA is proposing reporting requirements for applicable persons to provide information to assist in the preparation of an ``inventory of mercury supply, use, and trade in the United States,'' where ``mercury'' is defined as ``elemental mercury'' and ``a mercury compound.'' The requirements would be applicable to any person who manufactures (including imports) mercury or mercury-added products, or otherwise intentionally uses mercury in a manufacturing process. Based on the inventory of information collected, the Agency is directed to ``identify any manufacturing processes or products that intentionally add mercury; and . . . recommend actions, including proposed revisions of Federal law or regulations, to achieve further reductions in mercury use.'' At this time, EPA is not making such identifications or recommendations.