[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 247 (Wednesday, December 24, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67358-67360]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-33455]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[OPPTS-00229; FRL-5762-5]
TRI; Alternate Threshold for Low Annual Reportable Amounts;
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Renewal and Request
for Comment
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, this notice
announces that EPA is planning to submit the following continuing
Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) pursuant to the procedures described in 5 CFR 1320.12.
Before submitting the following ICR to OMB for review and reapproval,
EPA is soliciting comments on specific aspects of the information
collection, which is briefly described below. The ICR is a continuing
ICR entitled ``Alternate Threshold for Low Annual Reportable Amounts,''
EPA ICR No. 1704.05, OMB No. 2070-0143. This ICR covers the reporting
and recordkeeping requirements associated with reporting
[[Page 67359]]
under the alternate threshold for reporting to the Toxic Release
Inventory (TRI), which appear at 40 CFR part 372. 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.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before February 23,
1998.
ADDRESSES: Each comments must bear the docket control number ``OPPTS-
00229'' and administrative record number 187. All comments should be
sent in triplicate to: OPPT Document Control Officer (7407), Office of
Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M
St., SW., Room G-099, East Tower, Washington, DC 20460.
Comments and data may also be submitted electronically to: oppt.
ncic@epamail.ep.gov. Follow the instructions under Unit III. of this
document. No Confidential Business Information (CBI) should be
submitted through e-mail.
All comments which contains information claimed as CBI must be
clearly marked as such. Three sanitized copies of any comments
containing information claimed as CBI must be also be submitted and
will be placed in the public record for this document. Persons
submitting information on any portion of which they believe is entitled
to treatment as CBI by EPA must asset a business confidentiality claim
in accordance with 40 CFR 2.203(b) for each such portion. This claim
must be made at the time that the information is submitted to EPA. If a
submitter does not assert a confidentiality claim at the time of
submission, EPA will consider this as a waiver of any confidentiality
claim and the information may be made available to the public by EPA
without further notice to the submitter.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information contact: Susan
B. Hazen, Director, Environmental Assistance Division (7408), Office of
Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Environmental Protection of Agency,
401 M St., SW., Washington, DC 20460, Telephone: 202-554-1404, TDD:
202-554-0551, e-mail: TSCA-Hotline@epamail.epa.gov. For technical
information contact: Tim Crawford, Environmental Assistance Division
(7408), Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Environmental
Protection Agency, 401 M St., SW., Washington, DC 20460, Telephone:
202-260-1715; Fax: 202-401-8142; e-mail: crawford.tim@epamail.epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Electronic Availability
Internet
Electronic copies of the ICR are available from the EPA Home Page
at the Federal Register--Environmental Documents entry for this
document under ``Laws and Regulations'' (http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/).
An electronic copy of the collection instrument referenced in this ICR
and instructions for its completion is available at http://www.epa.gov/
opptintr/afr96.
Fax-on-Demand
Using a faxphone call 202-401-0527 and select item 4056 for a copy
of the ICR and item number 4049 for a copy of an interim report on Form
A.
I. Background
Affected entities: Entities potentially affected by this action are
those chemical facilities that manufacture, process or otherwise use
certain toxic chemicals listed on the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) and
which are required, under section 313 of the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA), to report annually to EPA
their environmental releases of such chemicals.
For the collection of information addressed in this notice, EPA
would like to solicit comments to:
1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Agency,
including whether the information will have practical utility.
2. Evaluate the accuracy of the Agency's estimate of the burden of
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used.
3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected.
4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic
submission of responses.
II. Information Collection
EPA is seeking comments on the following ICR, as well as the
Agency's intention to renew the corresponding OMB approval, which is
currently scheduled to expire on May 31, 1998.
Title: Alternate Threshold for Low Annual Reportable Amounts.
ICR Numbers: EPA ICR No. 1704.04, OMB No. 2070-0143.
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 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 meets the current
reporting thresholds but estimates that the total amount of the
chemical in total waste does not exceed 500 pounds per year, and that
the chemical manufactured, processed, or otherwise used in a 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 (EPA Form 9350-2) in lieu of a complete
TRI reporting Form R (EPA Form 9350-1). In submitting the Form A, the
facility certifies that the sum of the amount of the EPCRA section 313
chemical in wastes did not exceed 500 pounds of 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 in place of the Form R represents a substantial savings to
respondents, both in burden hours and in labor costs.
The primary function served by the submission of the Form A is to
satisfy the statutory requirement to maintain reporting on a
substantial majority of releases for all listed chemicals. Without the
Form A, users of TRI data would not have access to any information on
these chemicals. The Form A also serves as a de facto range report,
which is useful to any party interested in amounts being handled at a
particular facility or for broader statistical purposes. Additionally,
the Form A 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 either submit a Form A or a Form
R.
Burden Statement: The burden to respondents for complying with this
ICR
[[Page 67360]]
is estimated to total 991,000 hours per year with an annual cost of
$61.9 million. These totals are based on an average burden of 34.6
hours per response for an estimated 14,453 respondents making one
response annually. These estimates include the time needed to determine
applicability; 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
use of Form A may save reporting facilities a total of up to 500,000
hours and $30 million per year, compared to the cost of reporting on
Form R.
III. Public Record and Electronic Submissions
The official record for this document as well as the pubic version,
has been established for this document under docket control number
``OPPTS-00229'' (including comments and data submitted electronically
as described below). A public version of this record, including
printed, paper versions of electronic comments, which does not include
any information claimed as CBI, is available for inspection from 12
noon to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The
official rulemaking record is located in the TSCA Nonconfidential
Information Center, Rm. NE-B607, 401 M St., SW., Washington, DC.
Electronic comments can be sent directly to EPA at:
oppt.ncic@epamail.epa.gov
Electronic comments must be submitted as an ASCII file avoiding the
use of special characters and any form of encryption. Comments and data
will also be accepted on disks in WordPerfect 5.1/6.1 or ASCII file
format. All comments and data in electronic form must be identified by
the docket control number ``OPPTS-00229'' and administrative control
number 187. Electronic comments on this document may be online at many
Federal Depository Libraries.
List of Subjects
Environmental protection; information collection requests;
reporting and recordkeeping.
Dated: December 16, 1997.
Susan H. Wayland,
Acting Assistant Administrator for Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic
Substances.
[FR Doc. 97-33455 Filed 12-23-97; 8:45 am]
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