[Federal Register: December 4, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 233)]
[Notices]
[Page 72166-72168]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr04de02-69]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[OEI-2002-0004; FRL-7417-4]
Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission of EPA ICR
No. 1704.06 (OMB No. 2070-0143) to OMB for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Toxic Chemical Release Reporting; Alternate Threshold for Low
Annual Reportable Amounts
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)(44 U.S.C.
3501 et seq.), this notice announces that the following continuing
Information Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval pursuant to the
procedures described in 5 CFR 1320.12: Alternate Threshold for Low
Annual Reportable Amounts, Toxic Chemical Release Reporting (EPA ICR
No. 1704.06, OMB No. 2070-0143). The ICR, which is described below,
describes the nature of the information collection and its estimated
burden and cost; where appropriate, it includes the actual data
collection instrument.
The Agency is requesting that OMB renew for 3 years the existing
approval for this ICR, which is scheduled to expire on January 31,
2003. 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, 2002 (67 FR 44197). A Federal Register correction
notice, correcting the address for submission of comments in person,
was issued on July 15, 2002 (67 FR 46503). EPA received a number of
comments on this ICR during the comment period, which have been
addressed. 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-2002-0004 and on the EPA TRI Web site at www.epa.gov/tri
.
DATES: Additional comments may be submitted on or before January 3,
2003.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Judith Kendall, TRI Program Division,
Office of Environmental Information, Mailcode 2844, Environmental
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460;
telephone number: (202) 566-0750; e-mail address:
kendall.judith@epa.gov; fax number: (202)566-0741.
ADDRESSES: Follow the detailed instructions in the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Review Requested: This is a request to renew a currently approved
information collection pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.12.
ICR Numbers: EPA ICR 1704.06; OMB Control No. 2070-0143.
Current Expiration Date: Current OMB approval expires on January
31, 2003.
EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID
No. OEI-2002-0004, which is available for public viewing at the OEI
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 (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the OEI Docket is
(202) 566-1752. 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.
[[Page 72167]]
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, and according to the following detailed
instructions: (1) Submit your comments to EPA online using EDOCKET (our
preferred method), by e-mail to oei.docket@epa.gov, or by mail to: EPA
Docket Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2844, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, and (2) Mail your
comments to 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.
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).
Background: 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.
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) to certify that they are not required to file a 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 Statement 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
Statement 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, as appropriate.
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 and 48 CFR chapter 15.
Burden Statement: Under the PRA, ``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. For this collection, it 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 annual public burden for this collection of information, which
is approved under OMB Control No. 2070-0143, is estimated to average
13.7 hours for a facility that certifies one chemical per Form A
Certification Statement. Responding to this information collection
requires (1) determining whether a listed toxic chemical is eligible
for certification under the alternate threshold, and (2) completing the
Form A Certification Statement. The burden of determining eligibility
for certification and associated recordkeeping is estimated to average
12.3 hours for each chemical that is certified. The burden of
completing the Form A Certification Statement is estimated to average
1.4 hours, regardless of the number of chemicals being certified. The
total burden per response is the combination of these two, and will
vary depending on the number of listed toxic chemicals being certified.
The ICR supporting statement provides a detailed explanation of the
burden estimates that are summarized in this notice. The following is a
summary of the estimates taken from the ICR supporting statement:
Estimated No. of Respondents: 5,451 respondents.
Frequency of Responses: Annual.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 172,313 burden hours.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Costs: $7.57 million.
Changes in the Burden Estimates: The estimated burden described
above differs from what is currently in OMB's inventory for alternate
threshold reporting: 14,793 responses (chemicals) and 644,761 burden
hours. The burden estimated in this supporting statement differs from
OMB's inventory as a result of adjustments to estimates of the number
of responses (from 14,793 responses (chemicals) to 5,121 responses
(Form A Certification Statements)), changes to subsequent year unit
reporting burden estimates (from 30.2 to 9.2 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.
According to the procedures prescribed in 5 CFR 1320.12, EPA has
submitted this ICR to OMB for review
[[Page 72168]]
and approval. Any comments related to the renewal of this ICR should be
submitted within 30 days of this notice, as described above.
Dated: November 22, 2002.
Oscar Morales,
Director, Collection Strategies Division, Office of Environmental
Information.
[FR Doc. 02-30761 Filed 12-3-02; 8:45 am]
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