[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 14, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18195-18196]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-9819]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-5995-8]


Notice of Proposed Revisions to Approved Program to Administer 
the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permitting Program 
in Pennsylvania Resulting in Part From Adoption of the Water Quality 
Guidance for the Great Lakes System

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: Notification is hereby given that the Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA) has received for review and approval revisions to the 
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program in 
Pennsylvania. Most of the proposed revisions were adopted to comply 
with section 118(c) of the Clean Water Act and 40 CFR 132.4, although 
in some cases, the Commonwealth has also proposed revisions that are 
not related to those required by section 118(c) of the CWA and 40 CFR 
132.4. EPA invites public comment on whether EPA should approve these 
revisions pursuant to 40 CFR 123.62 and 132.5.

DATES: Comments on whether EPA should approve the revisions to 
Pennsylvania's NPDES program must be received in writing by May 14, 
1998.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on these documents may be submitted to 
Thomas J. Maslany, Director, Water Protection Division, Attn: Great 
Lakes Coordinator (3WP11), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 841 
Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107. In the alternative, 
EPA will accept comments electronically. Comments should be sent to the 
following Internet E-mail address: [email protected]. 
Electronic comments must be submitted in an ASCII file avoiding the use 
of special characters and any form of encryption. EPA will print 
electronic comments in hard-copy paper form for the official 
administrative record. EPA will attempt to clarify electronic comments 
if there is an apparent error in transmission. Comments provided 
electronically will be considered timely if they are submitted 
electronically by 11:59 p.m. (Eastern time) May 14, 1998.
    Interested persons may request a public hearing regarding whether 
EPA should approve, pursuant to 40 CFR 123.62, and 132.5(g), those 
portions of the Commonwealth's submission that revise the 
Commonwealth's approved National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System 
(NPDES) permitting program. EPA will determine based on requests 
received if there is significant interest to warrant a public hearing. 
In making a finding of significant interest, EPA will consider the 
scope and content of comments received concerning those portions of the 
Commonwealth's submission that revise its approved NPDES permitting 
program. It should be noted that EPA is not soliciting comment on those 
portions of the Commonwealth's submission relating to the water quality 
criteria and methodologies, use designations or antidegradation, or on 
40 CFR part 132 itself.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles W. Sapp, PA/DE Branch (3WP11), 
Office of Watersheds, Water Protection Division, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Region 3, 841 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania 19107, or telephone him at (215) 566-5725.
    Copies of the rules adopted by the Commonwealth, and other related 
materials submitted by the Commonwealth in support of these revisions, 
are available for review at: EPA, Region 3, 841 Chestnut Street, 13th 
Floor, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Pennsylvania Department of 
Environmental Protection, Northwest Regional Office, 230 Chestnut 
Street, Meadville, Pennsylvania. To access the docket material in 
Philadelphia, call (215) 566-5725 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (Eastern 
time) (Monday-Friday); in Meadville, call (814) 332-6942.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 23, 1995, EPA published the Final 
Water Quality Guidance for the Great Lakes System (Guidance) pursuant 
to section 118(c)(2) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1268(c)(2). 
(March 23, 1995, 60 FR 15366). The Guidance, which was codified at 40 
CFR part 132, requires the Great Lakes States to adopt and submit to 
EPA for approval water quality criteria, methodologies, policies and 
procedures that are consistent with the Guidance. 40 CFR 132.4 and 
132.5. EPA is required to approve of the State's

[[Page 18196]]

submission within 90 days or notify the State that EPA has determined 
that all or part of the submission is inconsistent with the Clean Water 
Act or the Guidance and identify any necessary changes to obtain EPA 
approval. If the State fails to make the necessary changes within 90 
days, EPA must publish a document in the Federal Register identifying 
the approved and disapproved elements of the submission and a final 
rule identifying the provisions of part 132 that shall apply for 
discharges within the State.
    U.S. EPA has received the submission from Pennsylvania. The bulk of 
this submission consists of new, revised or existing water quality 
standards which EPA is reviewing for consistency with the Guidance in 
accordance with 40 CFR parts 131 and 132.5. EPA is not soliciting 
comment on those portions of this submission relating to the water 
quality criteria and methodologies, use designations or 
antidegradation. EPA also is not soliciting comment on the Guidance 
itself.
    Instead, EPA is only requesting comment on whether it should 
approve, pursuant to 40 CFR 123.62, and 132.5(g), those portions of 
this submission that revise the Commonwealth's approved National 
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program. In 
most cases, these revisions relate to the following provisions of 40 
CFR part 132, appendix F: Procedure 3 (``Total Maximum Daily Loads, 
Wasteload Allocations for Point Sources, Load Allocations for Nonpoint 
Sources, Wasteload Allocations in the Absence of a TMDL, and 
Preliminary Wasteload Allocations for Purposes of Determining the Need 
for Water Quality Based Effluent Limits''); Procedure 4 
(``Additivity''); Procedure 5 (``Reasonable Potential''); Procedure 6 
(``Whole Effluent Toxicity''); Procedure 7 (``Loading Limits''); 
Procedure 8: (``Water Quality-based Effluent Limitations Below the 
Quantification Level''); and Procedure 9 (``Compliance Schedules''). 
EPA is not soliciting comment on the Commonwealth's adoption of 
requirements pertaining to Implementation Procedure 1 (``Site Specific 
Modifications'') because those requirements constitute parts of the 
Commonwealth's water quality standards, not its NPDES program.
    Under 40 CFR 123.62(b)(2) and 132.5(e), whenever EPA determines 
that a proposed revision to a State NPDES program is substantial, EPA 
must provide notice and allow public comment on the proposed revisions. 
The extent to which the States have modified their NPDES programs to be 
consistent with the Guidance varies significantly, depending on the 
extent to which their existing programs already were ``as protective 
as'' the implementation procedures in the Guidance. EPA has not 
conducted a State-by-State review of the submissions to ascertain for 
each State individually whether their changes constitute substantial 
program modifications. However, in light of the fact that the States 
have modified these programs in response to the explicit statutory 
mandate contained in section 118(c) of the Clean Water Act, EPA 
believes that it is appropriate to consider the NPDES component of the 
States' submission to be substantial program modifications, and 
therefore has decided to solicit public comment regarding those 
provisions.
    Based on General Counsel Opinion 78-7 (April 18, 1978), EPA has 
long considered a determination to approve or deny a State NPDES 
program submission to constitute an adjudication because an 
``approval,'' within the meaning of the APA, constitutes a ``license,'' 
which, in turn, is the product of an ``adjudication.'' For this reason, 
the statutes and Executive Orders that apply to rulemaking action are 
not applicable here. Among these are provisions of the Regulatory 
Flexibility Act (RFA), 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq. Under the RFA, whenever a 
federal agency proposes or promulgates a rule under section 553 (of the 
Administrative Procedures Act (APA)), after being required by that 
section or any other law to publish a general notice of proposed 
rulemaking, the agency must prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis 
for the rule, unless the Agency certifies that the rule will not have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. 
If the Agency does not certify the rule, the regulatory flexibility 
analysis must describe and assess the impact of a rule on small 
entities affected by the rule.
    Even if the NPDES program modification were a rule subject to the 
RFA, the Agency would certify that approval of the State's modified 
program would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial 
number of small entities. EPA's action to approve an NPDES program 
modification merely recognizes revisions to the program which have 
already been enacted as a matter of State law; it would, therefore, 
impose no additional obligations upon those subject to the State's 
program. Accordingly, the Regional Administrator would certify that 
this program modification, even if a rule, would not have a significant 
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
Thomas C. Voltaggio,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region III.
[FR Doc. 98-9819 Filed 4-13-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P