[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 14, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18195-18196]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-9819]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-5995-8]
Notice of Proposed Revisions to Approved Program to Administer
the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permitting Program
in Pennsylvania Resulting in Part From Adoption of the Water Quality
Guidance for the Great Lakes System
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: Notification is hereby given that the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has received for review and approval revisions to the
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program in
Pennsylvania. 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, the Commonwealth has 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
Pennsylvania's NPDES program must be received in writing by May 14,
1998.
ADDRESSES: Written comments on these documents may be submitted to
Thomas J. Maslany, Director, Water Protection Division, Attn: Great
Lakes Coordinator (3WP11), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 841
Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107. In the alternative,
EPA will accept comments electronically. Comments should be sent to the
following Internet E-mail address: sapp.charles@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. (Eastern time) May 14, 1998.
Interested persons may request a public hearing regarding whether
EPA should approve, pursuant to 40 CFR 123.62, and 132.5(g), those
portions of the Commonwealth's submission that revise the
Commonwealth's approved National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permitting program. EPA will determine based on requests
received if there is significant interest to warrant a public hearing.
In making a finding of significant interest, EPA will consider the
scope and content of comments received concerning those portions of the
Commonwealth's submission that revise its approved NPDES permitting
program. It should be noted that EPA is not soliciting comment on those
portions of the Commonwealth's submission relating to the water quality
criteria and methodologies, use designations or antidegradation, or on
40 CFR part 132 itself.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles W. Sapp, PA/DE Branch (3WP11),
Office of Watersheds, Water Protection Division, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 3, 841 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania 19107, or telephone him at (215) 566-5725.
Copies of the rules adopted by the Commonwealth, and other related
materials submitted by the Commonwealth in support of these revisions,
are available for review at: EPA, Region 3, 841 Chestnut Street, 13th
Floor, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection, Northwest Regional Office, 230 Chestnut
Street, Meadville, Pennsylvania. To access the docket material in
Philadelphia, call (215) 566-5725 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (Eastern
time) (Monday-Friday); in Meadville, call (814) 332-6942.
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
[[Page 18196]]
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 document 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.
U.S. EPA has received the submission from Pennsylvania. The bulk of
this submission consists of new, revised or existing water quality
standards which EPA is reviewing for consistency with the Guidance in
accordance with 40 CFR parts 131 and 132.5. EPA is not soliciting
comment on those portions of this submission 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
this submission that revise the Commonwealth's 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: (``Water Quality-based Effluent Limitations Below the
Quantification Level''); and Procedure 9 (``Compliance Schedules'').
EPA is not soliciting comment on the Commonwealth's adoption of
requirements pertaining to Implementation Procedure 1 (``Site Specific
Modifications'') because those requirements constitute parts of the
Commonwealth's 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' submission 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. 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.
Thomas C. Voltaggio,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region III.
[FR Doc. 98-9819 Filed 4-13-98; 8:45 am]
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