03-27482. Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Toxic Chemical Release Reporting, Alternate Threshold for Low Annual Reportable Amounts, Recordkeeping, Supplier Notification and ...

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that the following continuing Information Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The Agency is requesting that OMB renew for 3 years the existing approval for this ICR, which is scheduled to expire on October 31, 2003. Under OMB regulations, the Agency may continue to conduct or sponsor the collection of information while this submission is pending at OMB. This ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its estimated burden and cost.

DATES:

Additional comments may be submitted on or before December 1, 2003.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number OEI-2003-0026, to (1) EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by e-mail to [e-mail], or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Information Docket, 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, and (2) OMB at: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Attention: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Judith Kendall, Office of Environmental Information, Mailcode 2844T, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: [phone]; fax number: [phone]; e-mail address: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A Federal Register notice announcing the Agency's intent to seek the renewal of this ICR and the 60-day public comment opportunity, requesting comments on the request and the contents of the ICR, was issued on July 1, 2003 (68 FR 39071). EPA received and responded to public comments that were submitted in response to this ICR renewal request. The comments and EPA's responses are included in an attachment to the ICR Supporting Statement that is being submitted to OMB with this ICR renewal request, and will be made available in the docket for OEI-2003-0026 and on the EPA TRI Web site at http://www.epa.gov/​tri.

EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID No. OEI-2003-0026, which is available for public viewing at the Office of Environmental Information Docket in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West, Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Reading Room is [phone], and the telephone number for the Office of Environmental Information Docket is [phone]. An electronic version of the public docket is available through EPA Dockets (EDOCKET) at http://www.epa.gov/​edocket. Use EDOCKET to submit or view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the public docket, and to access those documents in the public docket that are available electronically. Once in the system, select “search,” then key in the docket ID number identified above.

Any comments related to this ICR should be submitted to EPA and OMB within 30 days of this notice. EPA's policy is that public comments, whether submitted electronically or in paper, will be made available for public viewing in EDOCKET as EPA receives them and without change, unless the comment contains copyrighted material, CBI, or other information whose public disclosure is restricted by statute. When EPA identifies a comment containing copyrighted material, EPA will provide a reference to that material in the version of the comment that is placed in EDOCKET. The entire printed comment, including the copyrighted material, will be available in the public docket. Although identified as an item in the official docket, information claimed as CBI, or whose disclosure is otherwise restricted by statute, is not included in the official public docket, and will not be available for public viewing in EDOCKET. For further information about the electronic docket, see EPA's Federal Register notice describing the electronic docket at 67 FR 38102 (May 31, 2002), or go to http://www.epa.gov/​edocket.

Title: Toxic Chemical Release Reporting, Alternate Threshold for Low Annual Reportable Amounts, Recordkeeping, Supplier Notification and Petitions under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA): Renewal.

Abstract: EPCRA section 313 requires certain facilities manufacturing, processing, or otherwise using certain toxic chemicals in excess of specified threshold quantities to report their environmental releases and other waste management quantities of such chemicals annually. Each such facility must file a separate report for each such chemical.

In accordance with the authority in EPCRA, EPA has established an alternate threshold for those facilities with low amounts of a listed toxic chemical in wastes. A facility that otherwise exceeds the current reporting thresholds, but estimates that the total amount of the chemical in waste does not exceed 500 pounds per year, and that the chemical was manufactured, processed, or otherwise used in an amount not exceeding 1 million pounds during the reporting year, can take advantage of reporting under the alternate threshold option for that chemical for that reporting year.

Each qualifying facility that chooses to apply the revised threshold must file the Form A Certification Statement (EPA Form 9350-2) in lieu of a complete TRI reporting Form R (EPA Form 9350-1). In submitting the Form A certification statement, the facility certifies that the sum of the amount of the EPCRA section 313 chemical in wastes did not exceed 500 pounds for the reporting year, and that the chemical was manufactured, processed, or otherwise used in an amount not exceeding 1 million pounds during the reporting year. Use of the Form A certification represents a substantial savings to respondents, both in burden hours and in labor costs.

The Form A certification statement provides communities with information that the chemical is being manufactured, processed or otherwise used at facilities. Additionally, the Form A certification provides compliance monitoring and enforcement programs and other interested parties with a means to track chemical management activities and verify overall compliance with the rule. Responses to this collection of information are mandatory (see 40 CFR part 372) and facilities subject to reporting must submit either a Form A Certification Statement or a Form R.

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. The OMB control numbers for EPA's regulations are listed in 40 CFR part 9.

Burden Statement: The annual public burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 13.7 hours for a facility that certifies one chemical per Form A Certification Statement.

Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; train personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information; search data sources; complete and review the collection of information; and transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

The following is a summary of the estimates taken from the ICR supporting statement:

Respondents/affected entities: Owners or operators of certain facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use certain specified toxic chemicals and chemical categories and are required to report annually on the environmental releases and transfers of waste management activities for such chemicals.

Estimated No. of Responses: 5,000.

Frequency of Responses: Annual.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 173,850 burden hours.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Costs: $ 8.02 million in labor costs.

Changes in Burden Estimates

The burden estimated in this supporting statement differs from OMB's inventory as a result of adjustments to estimates of number of responses (from 5,121 responses to 5,000 responses), changes to subsequent year unit reporting burden estimates (from 30.2 to 9.3 burden hours per chemical certified on a Form A Certification Statement), and an adjustment for use of TRI-ME for those forms completed using TRI-ME. These changes are described in greater detail in the supporting statement for this ICR, available in the public version of the official record.

Dated: October 27, 2003.

Doreen Sterling,

Acting Director, Collection Strategies Division.