(a) The Regional Administrator of the region in which the discharge will occur has final responsibility for approval of any alternate test procedure proposed by the responsible person or firm making the discharge.

(b) Within thirty days of receipt of an application, the Director will forward such application proposed by the responsible person or firm making the discharge, together with his recommendations, to the Regional Administrator. Where the Director recommends rejection of the application for scientific and technical reasons which he provides, the Regional Administrator shall deny the application, and shall forward a copy of the rejected application and his decision to the Director of the State Permit Program and to the Director of the Analytical Methods Staff, Washington, DC.

(c) Before approving any application for an alternate test procedure proposed by the responsible person or firm making the discharge, the Regional Administrator shall forward a copy of the application to the Director of the Analytical Methods Staff, Washington, DC.

(d) Within ninety days of receipt by the Regional Administrator of an application for an alternate test procedure, proposed by the responsible person or firm making the discharge, the Regional Administrator shall notify the applicant and the appropriate State agency of approval or rejection, or shall specify the additional information which is required to determine whether to approve the proposed test procedure. Prior to the expiration of such ninety day period, a recommendation providing the scientific and other technical basis for acceptance or rejection will be forwarded to the Regional Administrator by the Director of the Analytical Methods Staff, Washington, DC. A copy of all approval and rejection notifications will be forwarded to the Director, Analytical Methods Staff, Washington, DC, for the purposes of national coordination.

(e) Approval for nationwide use. (1) Within sixty days of the receipt by the Director of the Analytical Methods Staff, Washington, DC, of an application for an alternate test procedure for nationwide use, the Director of the Analytical Methods Staff shall notify the applicant in writing whether the application is complete. If the application is incomplete, the applicant shall be informed of the information necessary to make the application complete.

(2) Within ninety days of the receipt of a complete package, the Analytical Methods Staff shall perform any analysis necessary to determine whether the alternate method satisfies the applicable requirements of this part, and the Director of the Analytical Methods Staff shall recommend to the Administrator that he/she approve or reject the application and shall also notify the applicant of such recommendation.

(3) As expeditiously as practicable, an alternate method determined by the Administrator to satisfy the applicable requirements of this part shall be proposed by EPA for incorporation in subsection 136.3 of 40 CFR part 136. EPA shall make available for review all the factual bases for its proposal, including any performance data submitted by the applicant and any available EPA analysis of those data.

(4) Following a period of public comment, EPA shall, as expeditiously as practicable, publish in the Federal Register a final decision to approve or reject the alternate method.