[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 145 (Thursday, July 29, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44790-44791]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-18646]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0492; FRL-9182-8]
Second Draft Document Related to the Review of the National
Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of Extension of Comment Period.
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SUMMARY: The EPA is announcing an extension of the public comment
period for one chapter of the draft assessment document titled, Policy
Assessment for the Review of the Particulate Matter National Ambient
Air Quality Standards--Second External Review Draft. The EPA is
extending the comment period for chapter 4--Review of the Secondary
Standards for Visibility-Related Effects. This chapter is based on the
Particulate Matter Urban-Focused Visibility Assessment (UFVA) which was
finalized later than originally anticipated. As a result, the Agency is
extending the comment period by two weeks to provide stakeholders and
the public with adequate time to conduct appropriate analysis and
prepare meaningful comments on chapter 4 of the second draft Policy
Assessment. The original comment period was to end on August 16, 2010.
The extended comment period for chapter 4 will now close on August 30,
2010.
DATES: Comments should be submitted on or before August 30, 2010.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2007-0492, by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments.
E-mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail)
to [email protected], Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-
0492.
Fax: Fax your comments to 202-566-9744, Attention Docket
ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0492.
Mail: Send your comments to: Air and Radiation Docket and
Information Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T,
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID
No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0492.
Hand Delivery or Courier: Deliver your comments to: EPA
Docket Center, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Room 3334, Washington, DC.
Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of
operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of
boxed information.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2007-0492. The EPA's policy is that all comments received will be
included in the public docket without change and may be made available
online at http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal
information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed
to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information
that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without
going through http://www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of
any defects or viruses.
Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Air Docket in the
EPA Docket Center, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW.,
Washington, DC. This Docket Facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The Docket
telephone number is 202-566-1742; fax 202-566-9744.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions related to this draft
document, please contact Ms. Beth Hassett-Sipple, Office of Air Quality
Planning and Standards (Mail code C504-06), U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; e-mail: [email protected]; telephone: 919-541-4605; fax: 919-541-0237.
General Information
A. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for EPA?
1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to EPA through
http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. Clearly mark the part or all of
the information that you claim to be CBI. For CBI information in a disk
or CD ROM that you mail to EPA, mark the outside of the disk or CD ROM
as CBI and then identify electronically within the disk or CD ROM the
specific information that is claimed as CBI. In addition to one
complete version of the comment that includes information claimed as
CBI, a copy of the comment that does not contain the information
claimed as CBI must be submitted for inclusion in the public docket.
Information so marked will not be disclosed except in accordance with
procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2.
2. Tips for Preparing Your Comments. When submitting comments,
remember to:
Identify the rulemaking by docket number and other
identifying information (subject heading, Federal Register date and
page number).
[[Page 44791]]
Follow directions--The agency may ask you to respond to
specific questions or organize comments by referencing a Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number.
Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives
and substitute language for your requested changes.
Describe any assumptions and provide any technical
information and/or data that you used.
If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how
you arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be
reproduced.
Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns, and
suggest alternatives.
Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period
deadline identified.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under section 108(a) of the Clean Air Act
(CAA), the Administrator identifies and lists certain pollutants which
``cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be
anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.'' The EPA then issues
air quality criteria for these listed pollutants, which are commonly
referred to as ``criteria pollutants.'' The air quality criteria are to
``accurately reflect the latest scientific knowledge useful in
indicating the kind and extent of all identifiable effects on public
health or welfare which may be expected from the presence of [a]
pollutant in the ambient air, in varying quantities.'' Under section
109 of the CAA, EPA establishes primary (health-based) and secondary
(welfare-based) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for
pollutants for which air quality criteria are issued. Section 109(d) of
the CAA requires periodic review and, if appropriate, revision of
existing air quality criteria. The revised air quality criteria reflect
advances in scientific knowledge on the effects of the pollutant on
public health or welfare. The EPA is also required to periodically
review and revise the NAAQS, if appropriate, based on the revised
criteria.\1\
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\1\ See http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/review.html for more
information on the NAAQS review process.
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As part of EPA's review of the primary (health-based) and secondary
(welfare-based) PM NAAQS, the Agency recently released the Policy
Assessment for the Review of the Particulate Matter National Ambient
Air Quality Standards--Second External Review Draft \2\ (Policy
Assessment; 75 FR 39253; July 8, 2010). The second draft Policy
Assessment builds on the scientific and technical information available
in this review as assessed in the Integrated Science Assessment for
Particulate Matter \3\ and two quantitative assessment documents,
Particulate Matter Urban-Focused Visibility Assessment (UFVA) and
Quantitative Health Risk Assessment for Particulate Matter.\4\
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\2\ EPA-452/P-10-007, June 2010; Available: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/pm/s_pm_2007_pa.html.
\3\ EPA 600/R-08/139F and EPA 600/R-08/139FA, December 2009;
Available: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/pm/s_pm_2007_isa.html.
\4\ EPA 452/R-10-004, July 2010 and EPA 452/R-10-005, June 2010;
Available: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/pm/s_pm_2007_risk.html.
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The UFVA was scheduled to be finalized on or about June 30, 2010
(75 FR 39252, July 8, 2010). However, in finalizing this document, EPA
staff identified a data processing error which caused organic
carbonaceous material to be over estimated on some days. The
corrections were quite small and did not affect the conclusions.
Corrections have been made to the final UFVA. Since the UFVA was
finalized later than originally anticipated and chapter 4 of the second
draft Policy Assessment (Review of the Secondary Standards for
Visibility-Related Effects) builds on the information presented in the
UFVA, EPA is extending the comment period by two weeks for this chapter
to provide stakeholders and the public with adequate time to conduct
appropriate analysis and prepare meaningful comments. The second draft
Policy Assessment may be accessed online through EPA's TTN website at:
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/pm/s_pm_2007_pa.html.
The draft document described above does not represent and should
not be construed to represent any final EPA policy, viewpoint, or
determination.
Dated: July 22, 2010.
Jennifer Noonan Edmonds,
Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. 2010-18646 Filed 7-28-10; 8:45 am]
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