[Federal Register: October 31, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 211)]
[Notices]
[Page 62070-62072]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr31oc03-52]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[OEI-2003-0026; FRL-7581-2]
Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission to OMB for
Review and Approval; Comment Request; 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): Renewal; EPA ICR
Number 1704.07, OMB Control Number 2070-0143
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 document announces that the following continuing
Information Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The Agency is
requesting that OMB renew for 3 years the existing approval for this
ICR, which is scheduled to expire on October 31, 2003. 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 December 1,
2003.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number OEI-2003-
0026, to (1) EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by e-mail to oei.docket@epa.gov, or by mail
[[Page 62071]]
to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Office of
Environmental Information Docket, 28221T, 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: Judith Kendall, Office of
Environmental Information, Mailcode 2844T, Environmental Protection
Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone
number: (202) 566-0750; fax number: (202) 566-0741; e-mail address: kendall.judith@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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, 2003 (68 FR 39071). EPA
received and responded to public comments that were submitted in
response to this ICR renewal request. 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-2003-0026 and on the EPA TRI Web site
at http://www.epa.gov/tri.
EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID
No. OEI-2003-0026, which is available for public viewing at the Office
of Environmental Information 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 Office of Environmental Information 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. 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: 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): Renewal.
Abstract: 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.
In accordance with the authority in EPCRA, 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) in lieu of a complete TRI reporting 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 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
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.
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.
Burden Statement: The annual public burden for this collection of
information is estimated to average 13.7 hours for a facility that
certifies one chemical per Form A Certification Statement.
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.
The following is a summary of the estimates taken from the ICR
supporting statement:
Respondents/affected entities: Owners or operators of certain
facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use certain
specified toxic chemicals and chemical categories and are required to
report annually on the environmental releases and transfers of waste
management activities for such chemicals.
Estimated No. of Responses: 5,000.
Frequency of Responses: Annual.
[[Page 62072]]
Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 173,850 burden hours.
Estimated Total Annual Burden Costs: $ 8.02 million in labor costs.
Changes in Burden Estimates
The burden estimated in this supporting statement differs from
OMB's inventory as a result of adjustments to estimates of number of
responses (from 5,121 responses to 5,000 responses), changes to
subsequent year unit reporting burden estimates (from 30.2 to 9.3
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.
Dated: October 27, 2003.
Doreen Sterling,
Acting Director, Collection Strategies Division.
[FR Doc. 03-27482 Filed 10-30-03; 8:45 am]
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