[Federal Register: February 24, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 36)]
[Notices]
[Page 9070-9071]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr24fe05-65]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-7876-6]
Clean Water Act; Contractor Access to Confidential Business
Information
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of intended transfer of confidential business
information to contractors and subcontractors.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to transfer
confidential business information (CBI) collected from the pulp, paper,
and paperboard manufacturing; iron and steel manufacturing; and other
industries listed below to Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), and its
subcontractors. Transfer of the information will allow the contractor
and subcontractors to support EPA in the planning, development, and
review of effluent limitations guidelines and standards under the Clean
Water Act (CWA), and the development of discharge standards under Title
XIV: Certain Alaskan Cruise Ship Operations (33 U.S.C. 1902 note). The
information being transferred was or will be collected under the
authority of section 308 of the CWA. Some information being transferred
from the pulp, paper, and paperboard industry was collected under the
additional authorities of section 114 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and
section 3007 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
Interested persons may submit comments on this intended transfer of
information to the address noted below.
DATES: Comments on the transfer of data are due March 3, 2005.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to Mr. M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document
Control Officer, Engineering and Analysis Division (4303T), Room 6231S
[[Page 9071]]
EPA West, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC
20460.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document
Control Officer, at (202) 566-1044, or via e-mail at
siddiqui.ahmar@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA has previously transferred to its
contractor, ERG (located in Chantilly, Virginia and Lexington,
Massachusetts), information, including CBI, that was collected under
the authority of section 308 of the CWA. Notice of the transfer was
provided to the affected industries (see, for example, 59 FR 58840,
November 15, 1994). EPA determined that this transfer was necessary to
enable the contractors and subcontractors to perform their work in
supporting EPA in planning, developing, and reviewing effluent
guidelines and standards for certain industries.
Today, EPA is giving notice that it has entered into additional
contracts, numbers 68-C-02-095 and 68-C-01-073, with ERG. The reason
for these contracts is to secure additional contractor support in
engineering analysis, survey and database development, economic
analyses, and ecological analyses. To obtain assistance in responding
to these contracts, ERG has entered into contracts with their
subcontractors. In particular, ERG has obtained the services of the
following subcontractors: Abt Associates (located in Cambridge,
Massachusetts); AH Environmental Consultants, Inc. (located in Newport
News and Springfield, Virginia); AmDyne Corporation (located in Glen
Burnie, Maryland); Amendola Engineering, Inc. (located in Westlake,
Ohio); Analytica Alaska, Inc. (located in Juneau, Alaska); Applied
Geographics, Inc. (located in Boston, Massachusetts); Avanti
Corporation (located in Annandale, Virginia); CK Environmental (located
in Atlanta, Georgia); DRPA, Inc. (located in Rosslyn, Virginia);
GeoLogics Corporation (located in Alexandria, Virginia); Hydraulic and
Water Resources Engineers, Inc. (located in Waltham, Massachusetts); N.
McCubbin Consultants, Inc. (located in Foster, Quebec, Canada); Stratus
Consulting, Inc. (located in Boulder, Colorado); Tetra Tech, Inc.
(located in Fairfax, Virginia); Versar, Inc. (located in Springfield,
Virginia); and independent consultant Danforth Bodien.
All EPA contractor, subcontractor, and consultant personnel are
bound by the requirements and sanctions contained in their contracts
with EPA and in EPA's confidentiality regulations found at 40 CFR Part
2, Subpart B. ERG and its subcontractors adhere to EPA-approved
security plans which describe procedures to protect CBI. The procedures
in these plans are applied to CBI previously gathered by EPA for the
industries identified below and to CBI that may be gathered in the
future for these industries. The security plans specify that contractor
and subcontractor personnel are required to sign non-disclosure
agreements and are briefed on appropriate security procedures before
they are permitted access to CBI. No person is automatically granted
access to CBI; a need to know must exist.
The information that will be transferred to ERG and its
subcontractors consists primarily of information previously collected
by EPA to support the development and review of effluent limitations
guidelines and standards under the CWA and the development of discharge
standards under Title XIV. In particular, information, including CBI,
collected for the planning, development, and review of effluent
limitations guidelines and standards for the following industries may
be transferred: Airport deicing; aquaculture; concentrated animal
feeding operations; centralized waste treatment; coal mining; drinking
water; industrial laundries; waste combustors; iron and steel
manufacturing; landfills; meat and poultry products; metal finishing;
metal products and manufacturing; nonferrous metals manufacturing; oil
and gas extraction (including coalbed methane); ore mining and
dressing; organic chemicals, plastics, and synthetic fibers; pesticide
chemicals; pharmaceutical manufacturing; petroleum refining; pulp,
paper, and paperboard manufacturing; steam electric power generation;
textile mills; timber products processing; tobacco; and transportation
equipment cleaning. In addition, for the development of standards under
Title XIV, EPA may transfer information, including CBI, about large
cruise ships that operate in the waters around Alaska.
EPA also intends to transfer to ERG and its subcontractors all
information listed in this notice, of the type described above
(including CBI) that may be collected in the future under the authority
of section 308 of the CWA or voluntarily submitted (e.g., in comments
in response to a Federal Register notice), as is necessary to enable
ERG and its subcontractors to carry out the work required by their
contracts to support EPA's effluent guidelines planning process;
development of effluent limitations guidelines and standards; and
discharge standards from cruise ships.
Dated: February 15, 2005.
Geoffrey H. Grubbs,
Director, Office of Science and Technology.
[FR Doc. 05-3528 Filed 2-23-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P