[Federal Register: June 27, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 122)]
[Notices]
[Page 36935-36937]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr27jn05-46]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[OW-2003-0039; FRL-7928-3]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to OMB for
Review and Approval; Comment Request; BEACH Act Grant Program
(Renewal), EPA ICR Number 2048.02, OMB Control Number 2040-0244
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501
et seq.), this document announces that an Information Collection
Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) for review and approval. This is a request to renew an existing
approved collection. This ICR is scheduled to expire on July 31, 2005.
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 July 27, 2005.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number OW-2003-
0039, to (1) EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by e-mail
to OW-Docket@epa.gov, or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental
Protection Agency, Water Docket, (4101T), 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: Lars Wilcut, Standards and Health
Protection Division, Office of Science and Technology (4305T),
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.,
Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 566-0447; fax number:
(202) 566-0409; e-mail address: wilcut.lars@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA has submitted the following ICR to OMB
for review and approval according to the procedures prescribed in 5 CFR
1320.12. On February 22, 2005 (70 FR 8581), EPA sought comments on this
ICR pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.8(d). EPA received no comments.
EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID
No. OW-2003-0039, which is available for public viewing at the Water
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 Water Docket
is (202) 566-2426. 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: BEACH Act Grant Program (Renewal).
Abstract: Congress passed the Beaches Environmental Assessment and
Coastal Health (BEACH) Act in October 2000 to amend the Clean Water
Act, in part by adding section 406, ``Coastal Recreation Water
Monitoring and Notification.'' Section 406(b) authorizes EPA to make
grants to States and local governments to develop and implement
programs for monitoring and public notification for coastal recreation
waters adjacent to beaches or similar points of access that are used by
the public, if the State or local government satisfies the requirements
of the BEACH Act.
Several of these requirements require a grant recipient to collect
and submit information to EPA as a condition for receiving the grant.
Section 406(b) requires a grant recipient to provide the factors that
the state or local government uses to prioritize funds and a list of
waters for which the grant funds will be used. Section 406(b) also
requires that a grant recipient's program be consistent with the
performance requirements set by EPA under section 406(a); EPA needs
information from the grant recipients to determine if the monitoring
and notification programs are consistent with these criteria. On July
19, 2002, EPA published the National Beach Guidance and Required
Performance Criteria for Grants (67 FR 47540). Section 406(b) also
requires that a grant recipient submit a report to EPA that describes
the data collected as part of a monitoring and notification program and
the actions taken to notify the public when water quality standards are
exceeded. Section 406(c) requires a
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grant recipient to identify lists of coastal recreation waters,
processes for States to delegate to local governments the
responsibility for implementing a monitoring and notification program,
and the content of the monitoring and notification program.
The information covered by this ICR is required of States and local
governments that seek to obtain BEACH Act funding. It allows EPA to
properly review State and local governments' monitoring and
notification programs to determine if they are eligible for BEACH Act
grant funding. This information also enables EPA to fulfill its
obligations to make this information available to the public as
required by sections 406(e) and (g).
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 in 40 CFR are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and are identified on
the form and/or instrument, if applicable.
Burden Statement: The annual public reporting and recordkeeping
burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 2,374
hours per response. 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.
Respondents/Affected Entities: Information collected by EPA will be
submitted by environmental and public health agencies in coastal and
Great Lakes states, territories and authorized tribes.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 40.
Frequency of Response: Annually.
Estimated Total Annual Hour Burden: 94,947.
Estimated Total Annual Cost: $11,389,000, includes $3,750,000
annualized capital or O&M costs and $7,639,000 annual labor costs.
Changes in the Estimates: There is an increase of 25,192 hours in
the total estimated burden currently identified in the OMB Inventory of
Approved ICR Burdens. This increase is due to an adjustment to the
estimates. The respondent average annual burden increased from 5,979 to
7,121 hours which represents a 19.1% increase and the total average
annual number of respondents increased from 35 to 40 respondents. EPA
used the higher number of respondents because the Agency expects
several tribes to apply for BEACH Act Grants that had not done so
during the original ICR period. The annual operation and maintenance
costs for all respondents also increased from $473,040 to $3,749,760
for all states. This is because the estimated number of beaches
monitored by grant recipients increased from 1,314 (estimated from the
2000 National Beaches Survey) to 3,472 (estimated from EPA's 2003
National List of Beaches), a 164.2% percent increase. In addition, EPA
changed its estimate of the number of samples collected at each beach
from one sample per week sample to two and changed the length of the
beach season from 12 weeks to 18 weeks based on information that
several state Beach Program contacts provided to EPA as the Agency was
developing its initial assessment of burden.
EPA also revised the labor rates, which increased from $40.26 to
$42.96 for a Managerial employee and from $26 to $30.03 for a Technical
employee based on the average Bureau of Labor Statistics salaries for
managerial and technical employees in state and local governments as
shown in their September 2004 publication.
Several burden estimates for specific tasks under the performance
criteria were also changed based on consultations with several of the
respondents consulted in updating this ICR. The original estimates for
these tasks were significantly lower than the actual burden reported by
these respondents. These changes are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1.--Changes in State and Territory Burden Estimates from Original 2002 ICR
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Total annual burden (hours) Change between
Performance criteria State activity -------------------------------- current and
Current ICR Previous ICR previous ICR
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1. Risk-based Beach Evaluation and Collect and submit beach 200 20 180
Classification. lat/long coordinates
(georeference beaches
using maps, gps, etc.).
Identify bathing beaches 100 6 94
and submit beach miles.
Rank beaches............. 103 13 90
2. Sampling Design and Monitoring Ensure data quality...... 112 10 102
Implementation Plan. Train monitoring staff... 216 24 192
Create database and data 400 200 102
submission process.
Manage data for beach 200 108 102
season.
Program implementation 240 48 200
and oversight.
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[[Page 36937]]
Dated: June 20, 2005.
Oscar Morales,
Director, Collection Strategies Division.
[FR Doc. 05-12655 Filed 6-24-05; 8:45 am]
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