98-5314. Notice of Proposed Revisions to Approved Programs To Administer the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permitting Program in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin Resulting in Part From Adoption of the Water Quality Guidance ...  

  • [Federal Register Volume 63, Number 40 (Monday, March 2, 1998)]
    [Notices]
    [Pages 10221-10222]
    From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
    [FR Doc No: 98-5314]
    
    
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
    
    [FRL-5972-4]
    
    
    Notice of Proposed Revisions to Approved Programs To Administer 
    the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permitting Program 
    in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin Resulting in Part From 
    Adoption of the Water Quality Guidance for the Great Lakes System
    
    AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
    
    ACTION: Notice.
    
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the United States Environmental 
    Protection Agency (EPA) has received for review and approval revisions 
    to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) programs 
    in Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. Most of the proposed 
    revisions were adopted to comply with section 118(c) of the Clean Water 
    Act and 40 CFR 132.4, although in some cases, States have also proposed 
    revisions that are not related to those required by section 118(c) of 
    the CWA and 40 CFR 132.4. EPA invites public comment on whether EPA 
    should approve these revisions pursuant to 40 CFR 123.62 and 132.5.
    
    DATES: Comments on whether EPA should approve the revisions to 
    Indiana's, Michigan's, Ohio's and Wisconsin's NPDES programs must be 
    received in writing by April 1, 1998.
    
    ADDRESSES: Written comments on these documents may be submitted to Jo 
    Lynn Traub, Director, Water Division, Attn: GLI Implementation 
    Procedures, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 77 West Jackson 
    Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604. In the alternative, EPA will accept 
    comments electronically. Comments should be sent to the following 
    Internet E-mail address: karnauskas.joan@epamail.epa.gov. Electronic 
    comments must be submitted in an ASCII file avoiding the use of special 
    characters and any form of encryption. EPA will print electronic 
    comments in hard-copy paper form for the official administrative 
    record. EPA will attempt to clarify electronic comments if there is an 
    apparent error in transmission. Comments provided electronically will 
    be considered timely if they are submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. 
    (Central time), April 1, 1998.
    
    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mery Jackson-Willis, Standards and 
    Applied Sciences Branch, Water Division, U.S. Environmental Protection 
    Agency, Region 5, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604, 
    or telephone her at (312) 886-3717.
        Copies of the rules adopted by the States, and other related 
    materials submitted by the States in support of these revisions, are 
    available for review at: EPA, Region 5, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, 15th 
    Floor, Chicago, Illinois; Indiana Department of Environmental 
    Management, Office of Water Management, Rule Section, 100 North Senate 
    Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana; Michigan Department of Environmental 
    Quality, Surface Water Quality Division, Knapps Centre, 300 South 
    Washington, Lansing, Michigan; Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, 
    Division of Surface Water, 1800 WaterMark Drive, Columbus, Ohio; and 
    Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Wastewater 
    Management, GEF II Building, 101 South Webster, Madison, Wisconsin. To 
    access the docket material in Chicago, call (312) 886-3717 between 8 
    a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (Central time) (Monday-Friday); in Indiana, call 
    (317) 232-8399; in Michigan, call (517) 335-4184; in Ohio, call (614) 
    644-2154; and in Wisconsin, call (608) 267-7662.
    
    SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 23, 1995, EPA published the Final 
    Water Quality Guidance for the Great Lakes System (Guidance) pursuant 
    to section 118(c)(2) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1268(c)(2) 
    (March 23, 1995, 60 FR 15366). The Guidance, which was codified at 40 
    CFR Part 132, requires the Great Lakes States to adopt and submit to 
    EPA for approval water quality criteria, methodologies, policies and 
    procedures that are consistent with the Guidance. 40 CFR 132.4 and 
    132.5. EPA is required to approve of the State's submission within 90 
    days or notify the State that EPA has determined that all or part of 
    the submission is inconsistent with the Clean Water Act or the Guidance 
    and identify any necessary changes to obtain EPA approval. If the State 
    fails to make the necessary changes within 90 days, EPA must publish a 
    notice in the Federal Register identifying the approved and disapproved 
    elements of the submission and a final rule identifying the provisions 
    of Part 132 that shall apply for discharges within the State.
        As of January 31, 1998, EPA Region 5 had received submissions from 
    Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. The bulk of these submissions 
    consist of new, revised or existing water quality standards which EPA 
    is reviewing for consistency with the Guidance in accordance with 40 
    CFR 131 and 132.5. EPA is not soliciting comment on those portions of 
    these submissions relating to the water quality criteria and 
    methodologies, use designations or antidegradation. EPA also is not 
    soliciting comment on the Guidance itself.
        Instead, EPA is only requesting comment on whether it should 
    approve, pursuant to 40 CFR 123.62, and 132.5(g), those portions of 
    these submissions that revise the States' approved National Pollutant 
    Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program. In most cases 
    these revisions relate to the following provisions of 40 CFR Part 132, 
    Appendix F: Procedure 3 (``Total Maximum Daily Loads, Wasteload 
    Allocations for Point Sources, Load Allocations for Nonpoint Sources, 
    Wasteload Allocations in the Absence of a TMDL, and Preliminary 
    Wasteload Allocations for Purposes of Determining the Need for Water 
    Quality Based Effluent Limits''); Procedure 4 (``Additivity''); 
    Procedure 5 (``Reasonable Potential''); Procedure 6 (Whole Effluent 
    Toxicity''); Procedure 7 (``Loading Limits''); Procedure 8:
    
    [[Page 10222]]
    
    (``Water Quality-based Effluent Limitations Below the Quantification 
    Level); Procedure 9 (``Compliance Schedules''). EPA is not soliciting 
    comment on the States' adoption of requirements pertaining to 
    Implementation Procedures 1 (``Site Specific Modifications'') or 2 
    (``Variances'') because those requirements constitute parts of the 
    States' water quality standards, not its NPDES program.
        Under 40 CFR 123.62(b)(2) and 132.5(e), whenever EPA determines 
    that a proposed revision to a State NPDES program is substantial, EPA 
    must provide notice and allow public comment on the proposed revisions. 
    The extent to which the States have modified their NPDES programs to be 
    consistent with the Guidance varies significantly, depending on the 
    extent to which their existing programs already were ``as protective 
    as'' the implementation procedures in the Guidance. EPA has not 
    conducted a State-by-State review of the submissions to ascertain for 
    each State individually whether their changes constitute substantial 
    program modifications. However, in light of the fact that the States 
    have modified these programs in response to the explicit statutory 
    mandate contained in section 118(c) of the Clean Water Act, EPA 
    believes that it is appropriate to consider the NPDES component of the 
    States' submissions to be substantial program modifications, and 
    therefore has decided to solicit public comment regarding those 
    provisions.
        Based on General Counsel Opinion 78-7 (April 18, 1978), EPA has 
    long considered a determination to approve or deny a State NPDES 
    program submission to constitute an adjudication because an 
    ``approval'', within the meaning of the APA, constitutes a ``license'', 
    which, in turn, is the product of an ``adjudication''. For this reason, 
    the statutes and Executive Orders that apply to rulemaking action are 
    not applicable here. Among these are provisions of the Regulatory 
    Flexibility Act (RFA), 5 U.S.C. Sec. 601 et seq. Under the RFA, 
    whenever a federal agency proposes or promulgates a rule under section 
    553 [of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA)], after being required 
    by that section or any other law to publish a general notice of 
    proposed rulemaking, the agency must prepare a regulatory flexibility 
    analysis for the rule, unless the Agency certifies that the rule will 
    not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
    entities. If the Agency does not certify the rule, the regulatory 
    flexibility analysis must describe and assess the impact of a rule on 
    small entities affected by the rule.
        Even if the NPDES program modification were a rule subject to the 
    RFA, the Agency would certify that approval of the State's modified 
    program would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial 
    number of small entities. EPA's action to approve an NPDES program 
    modification merely recognizes revisions to the program which have 
    already been enacted as a matter of State law; it would, therefore, 
    impose no additional obligations upon those subject to the State's 
    program. Accordingly, the Regional Administrator would certify that 
    this program modification, even if a rule, would not have a significant 
    economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
    Michelle D. Jordan,
    Acting Regional Administrator.
    [FR Doc. 98-5314 Filed 2-27-98; 8:45 am]
    BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
    
    
    

Document Information

Published:
03/02/1998
Department:
Environmental Protection Agency
Entry Type:
Notice
Action:
Notice.
Document Number:
98-5314
Dates:
Comments on whether EPA should approve the revisions to Indiana's, Michigan's, Ohio's and Wisconsin's NPDES programs must be received in writing by April 1, 1998.
Pages:
10221-10222 (2 pages)
Docket Numbers:
FRL-5972-4
PDF File:
98-5314.pdf