Environmental Protection Agency December 21, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Arizona applied to the EPA for final authorization of changes corresponding to certain federal hazardous waste rules promulgated between May 26, 1998, and July 28, 2006 (also known as RCRA Cluster VIII (checklist 167D) and Clusters IX through XVII) to its hazardous waste program under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). On October 5, 2017, EPA proposed to authorize the State's changes. During the 30-day comment period no adverse comments were received.

This notice announces the availability of EPA's (or Agency) draft ecological non-pollinator risk assessment for the registration review of imidacloprid, along with draft human health and non- pollinator ecological risk assessments for the registration review of clothianidin, thiamethoxam, and dinotefuran, and opens a public comment period on these assessments. This notice also announces the availability of assessments of benefits of neonicotinoid insecticide use in cotton and citrus. While EPA typically releases benefits assessments along with the proposed interim decisions, EPA is releasing and obtaining public comment on these two benefits assessments at an earlier stage of the registration review process. These benefits assessments will help EPA evaluate the impacts of potential measures to reduce certain risks to pollinators identified in previously issued preliminary pollinator risk assessments. EPA is not proposing any mitigation at this stage, and anticipates that early input and information from the public on the benefits of these compounds will be helpful as EPA evaluates and considers the risks and the benefits of the neonicotinoid insecticides. Finally, EPA is releasing a response to public comments on the Agency's 2014 assessment of the benefits of neonicotinoid seed treatments to soybean production. This assessment and associated comments are available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0737. Copies of all of the benefits assessments will be placed in the individual chemical dockets for each of the four neonicotinoid insecticides listed in Table 1 of Unit III.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a portion of the revision to the Arkansas State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) on March 24, 2017. The revision updates the definition of ``volatile organic compounds'' (VOC). Specifically, the submitted revision will incorporate the EPA's latest definition of VOC on the basis that these compounds make negligible contribution to tropospheric ozone formation. This action is being taken pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act).

Pursuant to the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing an approval of revisions to the Louisiana State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of Louisiana through the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) that address regional haze for the first planning period. LDEQ submitted these revisions to address the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the EPA's rules that require states to prevent any future and remedy any existing anthropogenic impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I areas (national parks and wilderness areas) caused by emissions of air pollutants from numerous sources located over a wide geographic area (also referred to as the ``regional haze program''). To address the Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) requirement for sulfur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOX) and particulate matter (PM), the EPA is finalizing approval of source-by- source BART determinations for certain electric generating and non- electric generating units. To address the BART requirement for NOX for electric generating units, we are finalizing our proposed determination that Louisiana's participation in the Cross- State Air Pollution Rule's (CSAPR) trading program for ozone-season NOX qualifies as an alternative to BART.

Due to the receipt of an adverse comment, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is withdrawing the November 2, 2017, direct final rule approving changes to the Illinois Administrative Code definition of volatile organic material, otherwise known as volatile organic compound (VOC). The revision would remove recordkeeping and reporting requirements related to the use of t-butyl acetate as a VOC, and is in response to an EPA rulemaking that occurred in 2016.

EPA is providing notice to the public that it has initiated a rulemaking process to revise certain requirements in the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard. EPA expects to publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in FY 2018 to solicit public input on proposed revisions to the WPS requirements for minimum age, designated representative, and application exclusion zone.