[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 2 (Thursday, January 3, 2013)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 277-278]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-31091]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Parts 9, 63, 80, 85, 122, 123, and 412
[EPA-HQ-OW-2012-0813, FRL-9764-8]
Section 610 Review of NPDES Permit Regulation and Effluent
Limitations Guidelines Standards for Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operations (CAFOs); Extension of Comment Period
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Extension of public comment period.
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SUMMARY: On October 31, 2012 the EPA published a request for comments
on a Regulatory Flexibility Act section 610 review titled, Section 610
Review of NPDES Permit Regulation and Effluent Limitations Guidelines
Standards for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). As
initially published in the Federal Register, written comments were to
be submitted to the EPA on or before December 31, 2012 (a 60-day public
comment period). Since publication, the EPA has received a request for
additional time to submit comments. Therefore, the EPA is extending the
public comment period for 60 days until March 1, 2013.
DATES: The public comment period for the review published October 31,
2012 (77 FR 65840) is being extended for 60 days to March 1, 2013 in
order to provide the public additional time to submit comments and
supporting information.
ADDRESSES:
Comments: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OW-2012-0813, by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments.
Email: [email protected], Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OW-2012-0813.
Fax: (202) 566-9744.
Mail: Water Docket, Environmental Protection Agency,
Mailcode: 28221T, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2012-0813, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460.
Hand Delivery: EPA Docket Center, EPA West, Room 3334,
1301
[[Page 278]]
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-
HQ-OW-2012-0813. Such deliveries are accepted only during the Docket
Center'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-OW-2012-
0813. The EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included
in the public docket without change and could be made available online
at 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 www.regulations.gov or email. The
www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system, which
means that the EPA will not know your identity or contact information
unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an email
comment directly to the EPA without going through www.regulations.gov
your email 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, the 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 the
EPA cannot read your comment because of technical difficulties and
cannot contact you for clarification, the EPA might 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. For additional information about the EPA's public docket visit
the EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm. For additional instructions on submitting comments, go to
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the
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 www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Water Docket, EPA/DC, EPA
West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20004. The
Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through
Friday, excluding federal holidays. The telephone number for the Public
Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Water
Docket is (202) 566-2426.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information contact,
Hema Subramanian, Office of Wastewater Management (4203M), U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.,
Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 564-5041; fax number:
(202) 564-6384; email address: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. General Information
Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act requires that an
agency review, within 10 years of promulgation, each rule that has or
will have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of
small entities (SISNOSE). The EPA undertakes section 610 reviews to
decide whether the agency should continue a rule unchanged, amend it,
or withdraw it. We encourage small entities to provide comments on the
need to change these rules, and in particular, how the rules could be
made clearer, more effective, or if there is need to remove conflicting
or overlapping requirements with other Federal or State regulations.
The EPA promulgated revised regulations for CAFOs on February 12,
2003 (68 FR 7175). The ``2003 CAFO Rule'' expanded the number of
operations covered by the CAFO regulations and included requirements to
address the land application of manure from CAFOs. The 2003 CAFO Rule
required all CAFOs to seek NPDES permit coverage. The EPA developed a
Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) for the 2003 CAFO Rule. In
the 2003 CAFO Rule, the EPA took several steps to minimize its impacts
on small businesses, including regulatory revisions designed to focus
on the largest producers, eliminating the ``mixed'' animal calculation
for operations with more than a single animal type for determining
which AFOs are CAFOs, raising the duck threshold for dry manure
handling duck operations, and adopting a dry-litter chicken threshold
higher than proposed.
Subsequently, a series of court decisions based on legal challenges
to the rulemaking have limited the requirement for NPDES permit
coverage specifically to CAFOs that discharge. In response to these
court decisions, the EPA made revisions to the CAFO regulations in 2008
(73 FR 70418) and 2012 (77 FR 44494). In promulgating the 2008
regulatory revision, the EPA certified that the 2008 rule would not
have a significant adverse economic impact on a substantial number of
small entities. In promulgating the 2012 regulatory revision, the 2012
rule was not subject to the RFA because the RFA applies only to rules
subject to notice and comment rulemaking requirements under the
Administrative Procedure Act (APA) or any other statute, and the 2012
rule was not subject to notice and comment requirements. Both rules
reduced the potential impact of the EPA's CAFO regulations on small
entities by reducing the universe of CAFOs that must apply for NPDES
permits. Although the EPA has made these subsequent revisions to the
CAFO regulations, the scope of this 610 review is limited to the
impacts on small entities of the 2003 CAFO Rule as amended.
II. Extension of Comment Period for the Section 610 Review of the 2003
CAFO Rule
The EPA is extending the deadline for submitting comments on the
section 610 review of the CAFO Rule to March 1, 2013. The original
deadline for comments, based on a 60-day comment period, was December
31, 2012. The EPA's decision responds to a request to extend the
comment deadline. The EPA believes that this 60-day extension will
assist in providing an adequate amount of additional time for the
public to review the action and to provide written comments.
Dated: December 19, 2012.
Alexander Cristofaro,
Director, Office of Regulatory Policy and Management.
[FR Doc. 2012-31091 Filed 1-2-13; 8:45 am]
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