[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 146 (Monday, July 29, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39449-39453]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-19195]


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[[Page 39450]]


ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[AD-FRL-5543-8]


Request for Comments: Industrial Combustion Coordinated 
Rulemaking Information Collection Request

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 
et seq.), this notice announces that EPA is planning to submit the 
following proposed Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB). Before submitting the ICR to OMB for 
review and approval, EPA is soliciting comments on specific aspects of 
the proposed information collection as described below.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before September 27, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Comments. Comments should be submitted (in duplicate, if 
possible) to: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air and Radiation 
Docket and Information Center (6102), Attention: Docket Number A-96-17, 
Room M-1500, 401 M Street SW., Washington, DC 20460. The EPA requests 
that a separate copy also be sent to Mr. Jim Eddinger, Combustion Group 
(MD-13), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, 
North Carolina 27711. Copies of ICR. The draft ICR and other relevant 
materials, including the draft supporting statement, are available 
electronically on the Technology Transfer Network (TTN). Choose the 
``ICCR-Industrial Combustion Coordinated Rulemaking Process'' selection 
from the Technical Information Areas menu. To download the draft ICR 
from the main menu, select `` Download Forms for Replies''. The TTN 
is one of the EPA's electronic bulletin boards. The TTN provides 
information and technology exchange in various areas of air pollution 
control. The service is free except for the cost of a phone call. Dial 
(919) 541-5472 for up to a 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) modem. The TTN 
is also accessible through the Internet at ``TELNET 
ttnbbs.rtpnc.epa.gov''. If more information on the TTN is needed, call 
the help desk at (919) 541-5384. The help desk is staffed from 11 a.m. 
to 5 p.m., Eastern time. A voice menu system is available at other 
times.
    Copies of the ICR may also be obtained from the docket at the above 
address in Room M-1500, Waterside Mall (ground floor), phone number 
(202) 260-7548. A reasonable fee may be charged for copying. The docket 
is open for public inspection and copying between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, except for Federal holidays. Copies of the draft 
ICR may also be obtained free of charge by contacting one of the people 
listed below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Jim Eddinger, Combustion Group 
(MD-13), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, 
North Carolina 27711, phone number (919) 541-5426, facsimile number 
(919) 541-0072; or, at the same address and facsimile number, Mr. Fred 
Porter, phone number (919) 541-5251; Mr. Sims Roy, phone number (919) 
541-5263; Ms. Amanda Agnew, phone number (919) 541-5268; Mr. Walt 
Stevenson, phone number (919) 541-5264; or Mr. Bill Maxwell, phone 
number (919) 541-5430.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Affected entities: Entities affected by this 
action are those which own or operate the following combustion sources: 
Industrial/institutional/commercial boilers, process heaters, 
industrial/commercial and other solid waste incinerators (not including 
hazardous waste incinerators, medical waste incinerators, or municipal 
waste incinerators burning more than 40 tons/day of municipal solid 
waste), stationary gas turbines, or stationary internal combustion 
engines.
    These combustion sources are operated in a wide variety of settings 
by many businesses and industries, including but not limited to the 
following: Petroleum refining; oil and natural gas extraction and 
transmission; asphalt and other petroleum-based products manufacturing; 
chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing; lumber processing; furniture 
manufacturing; durable and consumer goods manufacturing; paper/pulp 
mills; agricultural products manufacturing; metal products production; 
machine/equipment manufacturing; electronic equipment industry; 
automobile and transportation equipment industry; secondary metals 
processing industry; mining; military bases; food production plants; 
meat processing plants; municipal water services; public utilities; 
independent power producers; telephone companies; small municipalities; 
construction businesses; commercial establishments; hotels; apartment 
complexes; laundries; hospitals; research companies; veterinary 
services; funeral services; medical centers; research centers; schools; 
colleges; and other institutions.
    Title: Industrial Combustion Coordinated Rulemaking Information 
Collection Request.
    Abstract: Sections 112 and 129 of the Clean Air Act (the Act) 
require EPA to develop regulations to limit emissions of toxic or 
hazardous air pollutants, and in some cases, emissions of certain 
criteria air pollutants as well, from several categories of combustion 
sources, including industrial boilers, commercial/institutional 
boilers, process heaters, industrial/commercial waste incinerators, 
other solid waste combustors, stationary gas turbines, and stationary 
internal combustion engines. These combustion sources are used 
pervasively for energy generation and waste disposal in a wide variety 
of industries and commercial and institutional establishments. They 
combust fuels including oil, coal, natural gas, wood, and non-hazardous 
wastes. Both hazardous air pollutants and criteria pollutants are 
emitted.
    These regulations could affect hundreds of thousands of combustion 
sources nationwide and will have significant environmental, health, and 
cost impacts. The EPA has decided to coordinate the development of 
these regulations in a single effort termed the ``Industrial Combustion 
Coordinated Rulemaking'' (ICCR).
    The overall goal of the ICCR is to develop a unified set of Federal 
air emissions regulations that will maximize environmental and public 
health benefits in a flexible framework at a reasonable cost of 
compliance, avoiding duplicative and overlapping regulatory 
requirements, within the constraints of the Act. A Federal Advisory 
Committee Act (FACA) advisory committee and a series of work groups, 
composed of stakeholders and EPA, are being established to develop 
recommendations that will assist EPA in implementing the ICCR. This 
will permit active stakeholder participation in all aspects of 
regulatory development.
    Additional information about the ICCR, as well as information on 
how to participate in the ICCR, is available in the document 
``Industrial Combustion Coordinated Rulemaking--Proposed Organizational 
Structure and Process.'' This document may be downloaded from the TTN 
or may be obtained by contacting one of the individuals mentioned above 
under For Further Information Contact.
    The organizational structure and process of the ICCR permits the 
Federal Advisory Committee (referred to as the Coordinating Committee) 
and the Source Work Groups (one for each of the various combustion 
sources) to identify, collect, and compile information necessary for 
regulatory development; undertake and perform various analyses of this 
information; identify and

[[Page 39451]]

develop a number of regulatory alternatives (i.e., possible 
regulations) for each combustion source; and undertake and perform 
assessments or analyses of the environmental and public health benefit, 
as well as the cost and economic impacts associated with each of the 
regulatory alternatives. The structure and process of the ICCR also 
permits each Source Work Group to develop recommendations regarding 
which regulatory alternative should serve as the basis for a 
regulation, as well as recommendation on all other aspects of the 
regulation, and present these recommendations to the Coordinating 
Committee. Finally, the structure and process of the ICCR permits the 
Coordinating Committee to review and consider these recommendations and 
then present recommendations to EPA. The EPA will retain its full and 
independent decision making authority and responsibility, but will give 
great weight and consideration to these recommendations.
    The Clean Air Act requires development of six of the seven 
regulations by November 2000, which in turn necessitates proposal by 
November 1999--only three years from now. To ensure that the 1999 and 
2000 dates are met, the necessary information to develop these 
regulations must be collected in 1996 and in early 1997, analyses of 
the information must be completed in 1997, regulatory alternatives must 
be identified and various analyses of the impacts associated with these 
alternatives must be completed in 1998, and the proposed rule(s) must 
be developed and proposed in 1999.
    It should be noted that the EPA is under Court Order to develop 
regulations under section 129 of the Act for industrial and commercial 
waste incinerators, which is one of the source categories included in 
the ICCR. The litigants have agreed to an interim extension of the 
court-ordered proposal date for these regulations from May 30, 1996 to 
January 1997. As a condition associated with this extension, EPA must 
develop a formal ICR under section 114 of the Act by January 1997 to 
collect all the information the EPA feels is necessary to develop 
regulations for industrial and commercial solid waste incinerators. The 
EPA will meet with the litigants in January 1997 to discuss whether 
sufficient information to develop regulations for industrial and 
commercial solid waste incinerators is likely to be obtained more 
quickly and effectively by sending out the ICR questionnaire or by 
other means, such as through the ICCR.
    It is the EPA's hope that through the efforts of the stakeholders 
participating in the ICCR, there will be no need--or only a limited 
need--for EPA to use the authority of section 114 of the Act (which 
requires mandatory response) to send the formal ICR to thousands of 
combustion sources. It should be the goal and the task of the Source 
Work Groups working under the ICCR FACA Advisory Committee to devise 
and implement a means for gathering the information necessary to 
develop regulations from all sources--including industry--in a 
voluntary and cooperative manner.
    While initial response to the ICCR has been positive from all 
stakeholders, including industry, State/local agencies, environmental 
groups, etc., and EPA is committed to doing everything it can to ensure 
the success of the ICCR, EPA must be prepared and in a position to meet 
the statutory dates in the Act for adoption of the regulations. 
Consequently, EPA must proceed with development of an ICR for all the 
combustion sources included in the ICCR, and must proceed along this 
path in parallel with the Source Work Group activities under the ICCR. 
This will permit EPA to send out the ICR questionnaire to gather the 
necessary information and do the necessary analyses in time to meet the 
statutory and court-ordered deadlines if the ICCR Work Group 
information collection efforts do not succeed.
    If the judgment in January 1997 is that the information collection 
efforts through the ICCR have failed or proven to be inadequate, then 
the EPA will implement the formal information collection effort by mid-
January 1997. However, if it appears that the ICCR will be successful 
in collecting the needed information voluntarily, the ICR questionnaire 
will not be sent out, or a scaled back version could be used to collect 
only the information that has not been obtained by other means. Whether 
EPA will be required to send out the ICR questionnaire for the 
industrial and commercial waste incinerator category will depend on 
whether EPA can demonstrate to the litigant's satisfaction that the ICR 
is unnecessary because EPA is likely to obtain the information faster 
using some other process, such as voluntary collection efforts under 
the ICCR.
    Request for Comments: The EPA would like to solicit comments on 
this ICR to:
    (i) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    (ii) Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden 
of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of 
the methodology and assumptions used;
    (iii) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information 
to be collected; and
    (iv) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological techniques, or other 
forms of information technology, (e.g., permitting electronic 
submission of responses).
    The EPA also would like to solicit comments that will assist the 
EPA in demonstrating to the plaintiff in the Industrial and Commercial 
Waste Incinerators rulemaking litigation that sending out the ICR will 
be unnecessary because EPA is likely to obtain the information faster 
under another process, such as the ICCR. For example, commenters who 
plan to participate in the ICCR voluntary collection efforts could 
submit copies of any collection plans they are developing for their own 
use or an outline of the type of data they plan to submit voluntarily 
to EPA under the ICCR process along with the schedule for such 
submission.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information that is sent to ten or more 
persons unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The 
OMB control numbers for EPA's approved information collection requests 
are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and 48 CFR Ch. 15. This notice is the first 
step in obtaining approval for the ICR described below.
    ICR Description: To develop regulations, the EPA will need 
information to determine the maximum achievable control technology 
(MACT) floor; identify regulatory alternatives (i.e., possible 
regulations) more stringent than the MACT floor; and analyze the 
environmental and public health benefit, as well as the cost and 
economic impacts of the alternatives. These analyses of impacts are the 
basis for decisions about which regulatory alternative(s) to propose as 
the regulation.
    The proposed ICR has five parts: General facility information; 
combustor information; control device information; emissions 
information; and capital and annual costs. Part I, general facility 
information, would be completed once for each facility to determine the 
facility name, facility size, and location. This

[[Page 39452]]

information will be used to determine regional economic impacts and 
small business impacts. Location information is also an input to the 
environmental and public health benefits analyses, and is often a 
critical factor in determining the MACT floor.
    Part II, combustor information, would be completed separately for 
each combustor at a facility to determine combustor size, design and 
operating data, usage patterns, types of fuels and wastes combusted, 
control devices, and pollution prevention methods in use. This 
information will be used to determine in which source category or 
subcategory the combustor belongs, to determine the MACT floor, and to 
identify various regulatory alternatives. The combustor design, fuel, 
and control device information can also be used to estimate emissions.
    Part III, control device information, would be completed separately 
for each control device associated with each combustor. Information 
such as control efficiencies and operating temperatures will be used to 
estimate emissions, determine the MACT floor, and identify regulatory 
alternatives.
    Part IV, emissions information, would be completed separately for 
each combustor to provide permit limits and emissions test data for 
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrogen chloride, particulate matter, 
mercury, lead, cadmium, dioxins/furans, hazardous air pollutants, 
opacity, and visible emissions. This information will be used to 
determine the MACT floor and regulatory alternatives above the MACT 
floor, and to estimate emission impacts of the regulatory alternatives 
and assess the public health benefits of the regulations.
    Part V, capital and annual costs, would also be completed 
separately for each combustor to provide information on combustion and 
control equipment installation costs, retrofit costs, and annual 
operating costs and revenues. This information will be used to estimate 
the costs of the regulatory alternatives and to determine the economic 
impacts of the regulations.
    As discussed above, if necessary, the ICR would be mailed--either 
in total or in part, as appropriate--in hardcopy form to the intended 
recipients. An electronic version of the questionnaire is being 
considered to allow for electronic completion and submittal. Recipients 
of this ICR would be required to respond under the authority of section 
114 of the Act. If a respondent believes the disclosure of certain 
information requested would compromise a trade secret, it would need to 
be clearly identified as such and will be treated as confidential until 
a determination is made. Any information subsequently determined to 
constitute a trade secret will be protected under 18 U.S.C. 1905. If no 
claim of confidentiality accompanies the information when it is 
received by EPA, it may be made available to the public without further 
notice (40 CFR 2.203, September 1, 1976).
    Burden Statement: Burden means the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, 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 purpose 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 purpose of this ICR is to collect and evaluate existing 
information. The generation of new data (e.g., conducting an emission 
test) is not required to complete this questionnaire. This is a one-
time data collection effort.
    The time to complete this ICR will vary for each respondent 
depending on the number of combustion sources at the facility. Many 
respondents may have only one combustion source (a crematorium, for 
example), while other respondents may have 30 or more sources (a 
petroleum refinery or military base, for example). The ICR is expected 
to require 39 hours per combustion source to complete. The respondents 
are expected to have an overall average of 10 combustion sources per 
facility, and would require 390 hours to complete and submit the ICR. 
This cost has been estimated to be $12,500 per average facility.
    The total number of respondents will be a sample of the total 
population which will be determined based on the information available 
from EPA data bases, State agencies, and other available references 
being gathered now and through the ICCR. Preliminary efforts have 
estimated the total number of sources to be over 500,000. The EPA plans 
to request that this ICR be considered for 20,000 recipients. If the 
average recipient has 10 combustion sources, the total respondent 
burden would be 7.78 million hours at a total cost of approximately 
$247 million. This equates to an average of $35.3 million per 
regulation to be developed.
    While 20,000 recipients may seem like a large sample, this is not 
the case because of the large number of sources, the numerous and 
varied uses of these sources, the complexity of some of the sites--
particularly the industrial sites--at which these sources are used, and 
the number of regulations that EPA is concurrently developing under the 
ICCR--seven at minimum. The estimate of 20,000 questionnaire recipients 
is less than 5 percent of the total number of sources. The population 
includes seven source categories, encompassing many types of 
industries, many geographic locations, multiple combustor designs and 
sizes, and a range of fuels and control levels. In order to adequately 
represent these parameters, a sample size of 20,000 may be needed, as 
further explained in the supporting statement for the ICR. Recipients 
will be selected from lists of sources obtained from EPA databases, 
State files, and other published directories.
    The advantage of this ICR is that it will gather information for 
multiple source categories (industrial boilers, commercial/
institutional boilers, process heaters, industrial/commercial waste 
incinerators, other solid waste combustors, stationary gas turbines, 
and internal combustion engines) in one combined effort, which will be 
much less burdensome for the respondents than if separate ICR's were 
required for each source category.
    It is very possible that the per combustor and total respondent 
burdens may be greatly reduced if the ICCR Coordinating Committee and 
Source Work Groups are successful in collecting information through the 
ICCR. The ICR may be used only for a portion of the source categories 
included in the ICCR, or the ICR may be reduced in scope to focus only 
on areas of information that the Coordinating Committee and Source Work 
Groups were unable to obtain by other means. Again, the EPA is 
committed to the process of the ICCR, but must necessarily be prepared 
to use a formal ICR if the ICCR, or the information collect efforts of 
the Coordinating Committee and the Source work Groups under the ICCR, 
are not successful. The ICR must be developed in parallel with other 
information gathering efforts under the ICCR so that the EPA will be 
able to send out the ICR in time to meet the statutory and court-
ordered deadlines if these other efforts are not successful.


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    Dated: July 23, 1996.
Bruce C. Jordan,
Director, Emissions Standards Division.
[FR Doc. 96-19195 Filed 7-26-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P