Environmental Protection Agency August 23, 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, notice is hereby given that the next meeting of the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) will be held September 5 and 6, 2019 at Milken Institute School of Public Health, located at 950 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington, DC 20052. Due to unforeseen administrative circumstances, EPA is announcing this meeting with less than 15 calendar days' notice. The CHPAC advises the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on science, regulations and other issues relating to children's environmental health.

Pursuant to the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving revisions to the Arkansas State Implementation Plan (SIP) Permitting Programs submitted on October 24, 2002, July 26, 2010, November 6, 2012, and March 24, 2017. Most of the revisions are administrative in nature and make the SIP current with Federal rules. In addition, the revisions add permit flexibility provisions to the NSR program. This final action is consistent with the requirements of section 110 of the CAA.

In accordance with the EPA Administrator's October 16, 2017, Directive Promoting Transparency and Public Participation in Consent Decrees and Settlement Agreements, notice is hereby given of a proposed stipulated partial settlement agreement in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in the case of Center for Biological Diversity et. al., v. United States Environmental Protection Agency et al., No. 3:11 cv 0293 (N.D.Ca.). Plaintiffs filed the original case on January 20, 2011, asserting a single claim against EPA for allegedly violating section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by failing to initiate and reinitiate consultation with the Services with respect to its ongoing oversight of 382 pesticide active ingredients. After several motions to narrow the case and an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the plaintiffs filed their fourth amended complaint on June 29, 2018 for failure to initiate ESA section 7(a)(2) consultation for certain pesticide products containing 35 pesticide active ingredients. After several settlement discussions, the parties reached a partial agreement in this case. The parties are proposing to reach a settlement in the form of a stipulated partial settlement agreement. Among other provisions, this agreement would set a February 14, 2021, deadline for EPA to complete ESA section 7(a)(2) effects determination for carbaryl and methomyl, and, as appropriate, request initiation of any ESA section 7(a)(2) consultations with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and/or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that EPA may determine to be necessary as a result of those effects determinations. Additional deadlines would include August 14, 2021, for atrazine and simazine, and August 14, 2024, for brodifacoum, bromadiolone, warfarin, and zinc phosphide for EPA to complete effects determinations, and, as appropriate, request initiation of any ESA consultations with NMFS and/or USFWS. The stipulated partial settlement agreement would also include a meet and confer deadline of August 30, 2021, for all parties to discuss possible resolution of the remaining issues in this case.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final action for 11 ozone nonattainment areas that are classified as ``Moderate'' for the 2008 ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). First, the agency is determining that two Moderate areas Baltimore, Maryland, and Mariposa County, Californiaattained the standards by the July 20, 2018, applicable attainment date. Second, the agency is granting a 1-year attainment date extension for the two Moderate areas in Sheboygan County, WisconsinInland Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, and Shoreline Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Third, the agency is determining that seven Moderate areas failed to attain the standards by the applicable attainment dateChicago-Naperville, Illinois- Indiana-Wisconsin; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Greater Connecticut, Connecticut; Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, Texas; Nevada County (Western part), California; New York-North New Jersey-Long Island, New York-New Jersey-Connecticut; and San Diego County, California. The effect of failing to attain by the applicable attainment date is that these areas will be reclassified by operation of law to ``Serious'' nonattainment for the 2008 ozone NAAQS on September 23, 2019, the effective date of this final rule. Accordingly, the responsible state air agencies must submit State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions and implement controls to satisfy the statutory and regulatory requirements for Serious areas for the 2008 ozone NAAQS according to the deadlines established in this final rule.