Environmental Protection Agency February 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires each State Implementation Plan (SIP) to contain adequate provisions prohibiting emissions that will significantly contribute to nonattainment or interfere with maintenance of air quality in other states. The State of Montana made a submission to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) to address these requirements for the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). EPA is proposing to approve the submission for Montana as meeting the requirement that the SIP contains adequate provisions to prohibit emissions that will significantly contribute to nonattainment or interfere with maintenance of the 2015 ozone NAAQS in any other state.

EPA issued a notice in the Federal Register of July 30, 2021, concerning the availability of EPA's interim registration review decisions and case closures for several pesticides, including citric acid. This document corrects an incorrect docket number and case number in the notice for citric acid.

This notice announces the availability of EPA's proposed interim registration review decisions and opens a 60-day public comment period on the proposed interim decisions for the following pesticides: Dimethoxane; ferbam; iprodione; laminarin; linalool; thiram; and ziram.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), EPA hereby provides notice of a meeting of the Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC) and the Small Communities Advisory Subcommittee (SCAS) on the date and times described below. This meeting will be open to the public. For information on public attendance and participation, please see the registration information under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.

This regulation establishes an exemption from the requirement of a tolerance for residues of alcohols, C10-16, ethoxylated, sulfates, mono(hydroxyethyl)ammonium salts (CAS No. 157627-92-4); when used as an inert ingredient in pesticide formulations used pre- and post-harvest as well as in formulations applied to livestock. Spring Regulatory Sciences, on behalf of BASF Corporation, submitted a petition to EPA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), requesting an exemption from the requirement of a tolerance for specific uses. This regulation eliminates the need to establish a maximum permissible level for residues of alcohols, C10-16, ethoxylated, sulfates, mono(hydroxyethyl)ammonium salts (CAS No. 157627-92-4) on food or feed commodities or when applied to livestock.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to submit an information collection request (ICR), ``Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) and Clean School Bus (CSB) Rebate Programs'' (EPA ICR No. 2461.04, OMB Control No. 2060-0686) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. Before doing so, EPA is soliciting public comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below. This is a proposed extension of the ICR, which is currently approved through April 30, 2022. An Agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

On December 7, 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent the State of West Virginia (West Virginia) a letter acknowledging that West Virginia's delegation of authority to implement and enforce the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) and New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) had been updated, as provided for under previously approved delegation mechanisms. To inform regulated facilities and the public, EPA is making available a copy of EPA's letter to West Virginia through this notice.

This notice announces the availability of EPA's interim registration review decisions for the following chemicals: Amitraz, cinnamaldehyde, farnesol and nerolidol, fenbuconazole, isoxaflutole, mesotrione, metaldehyde, nosema locustae, rotenone, sodium cyanide, sodium fluoroacetate, spiromesifen, tembotrione, topramezone, and ulocladium oudemansii (U3 Strain).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is requesting nominations for an external expert panel to peer review EPA's Biofuels and the Environment: Third Triennial Report to Congress (RtC3). The peer review will be conducted under the framework of EPA's Scientific Integrity Policy (https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2014-02/ documents/scientific_integrity_policy_2012.pdf) and follow procedures established in EPA's Peer Review Handbook 4th Edition, 2015 (EPA/100/B- 15/001). EPA invites the public to nominate scientific experts to be considered as peer reviewers for this contractor-managed peer review. Nominations of peer review candidates will be accepted by EPA's contractor, Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG). Relevant expertise includes economics, engineering, agronomics, land use change, remote sensing, air quality, biogeochemistry, water quality, hydrology, conservation biology, limnology, and ecology. EPA has instructed ERG to formulate a single pool of eighteen (18) candidate external reviewers to provide independent external peer review. After consideration of peer reviewer nominations submitted to ERG in response to this Federal Register notice (FRN) and after consideration of public comments on the List of Candidates (to be announced in a future FRN), ERG will select from this pool the final list of up to nine (9) peer reviewers in a manner consistent with EPA's Peer Review Handbook 4th Edition, 2015 (EPA/100/B-15/001), ensuring their combined expertise best spans the above disciplines.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to find that the Manitowoc, Wisconsin area is attaining the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS or standard) and to act in accordance with a request from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) to redesignate the area to attainment for the 2015 ozone NAAQS, because the request meets the statutory requirements for redesignation under the Clean Air Act (CAA). Also, EPA is proposing to approve WDNR's certification that its stationary annual emissions statement regulation, which has been previously approved by EPA under a prior ozone standard, satisfies the CAA emission statement rule requirement for the 2015 ozone standard. WDNR submitted these requests on August 3, 2020 and October 29, 2021. EPA is also proposing to approve, as a revision to the Wisconsin State Implementation Plan (SIP), the State's plan for maintaining the 2015 ozone NAAQS through 2033 in the Manitowoc area. EPA also finds adequate and is proposing to approve Wisconsin's 2025 and 2033 volatile organic compound (VOC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOX) Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets (MVEBs) for the Manitowoc area. Finally, these revisions satisfy the emissions inventory requirements for the partial Manitowoc area under the 2015 ozone NAAQS. The CAA requires emission inventories for all areas that were designated nonattainment.

In accordance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), EPA is issuing a notice of receipt of requests by the registrants to voluntarily cancel their registrations of certain products and to amend their product registrations to terminate one or more uses. EPA intends to grant these requests at the close of the comment period for this announcement unless the Agency receives substantive comments within the comment period that would merit its further review of the requests, or unless the registrants withdraw its requests. If these requests are granted, any sale, distribution, or use of products listed in this notice will be permitted after the registrations have been cancelled and uses terminated, only if such sale, distribution, or use is consistent with the terms as described in the final order.