[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 168 (Tuesday, August 29, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52425-52426]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-22053]



[[Page 52425]]

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

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-6859-6]


Regulatory Reinvention (XL) Pilot Projects

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of availability of Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC) 
Pretreatment Project XL Draft Final Project Agreement.

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

SUMMARY: EPA is today requesting comments on a draft Project XL Final 
Project Agreement (FPA) for the Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC). The 
FPA is a voluntary agreement developed collaboratively by NBC, 
stakeholders, the state of Rhode Island, and EPA. Project XL, announced 
in the Federal Register on May 23, 1995 (60 FR 27282), gives regulated 
sources the opportunity to propose alternative strategies that will 
replace or modify specific regulatory requirements on the condition 
that they produce greater environmental benefits.
    NBC operates the wastewater collection and treatment system for the 
greater Providence area as well as regulates the facilities that 
discharge to the collection system. Through its Industrial Pretreatment 
Program, which is required to operate under its Rhode Island Pollution 
Discharge Elimination System (RIPDES) permits, NBC collects and 
regulates wastewater discharges from approximately 360,000 people and 
8,000 businesses and includes two treatment plants.
    In 1994, NBC developed two regulatory/pollution prevention 
integration programs, NBC Metal finishing 2000 and CLEAN P2 Regulatory 
Relief. The programs test new regulatory approaches to improve 
environmental compliance by the local industrial community.
    NBC would like to expand the projects currently being tested by 
offering flexibility with state and federal requirements, in addition 
to specific NBC regulations, in order to investigate and demonstrate 
improved environmental procedures and practices. NBC would like the 
flexibility to reduce self-monitoring requirements and inspections for 
Significant Industrial Users (SIUs), so staff can focus on problem 
industries. Specifically, NBC requests a modification to portions of 
the pretreatment regulations found at 40 Code of Federal Regulations 
(CFR) Part 403 for up to ten metal finishing companies that have 
established a history of exemplary environmental performance and 
compliance (described as Tier 1 facilities) as an incentive to maintain 
their performance. Eliminating certain inspection and monitoring 
requirements for these high performing companies will allow NBC to 
refocus its resources towards increased compliance inspections, 
pollution prevention audits and technical assistance on lower level 
performers (Tier 2 facilities).
    The primary goal of this XL Project is to demonstrate that through 
more efficient use of existing resources and manpower, NBC can achieve 
measurable improvements in the environmental performance levels of Tier 
II companies while encouraging and assisting Tier I companies to 
maintain or possibly improve their current level of environmental 
performance.
    Once a facility is selected for Tier 1 status, it may request, as 
part of Project XL, program modifications in three areas. These 
include: (1) Reduced frequency of required inspections, (2) reduced 
frequency of self-monitoring of wastewater effluent, and (3) 
elimination of categorical self-monitoring for certain constituents not 
used within a facility. The facility must meet specific criteria for 
each type of regulatory relief being sought (the exact qualifications 
necessary to obtain each of the three regulatory benefits being offered 
as part of this project are described in the FPA). For example, if a 
facility sought a reduced compliance inspection frequency by NBC, it 
would have to show, among other things, that they have not had any 
record keeping, reporting or operational violations in the last three 
years. If a facility requests a reduced frequency of self-monitoring, 
it must show, among other things, a pattern of nothing worse than 
infrequent minor discharge violations.
    Generally NBC inspects each of their significant industrial users 
(SIUs) once every 6 months, while the federal requirement is once every 
year. As part of this XL Project, NBC is requesting that they be 
allowed to reduce their compliance inspection frequency of qualified 
Tier 1 facilities to once every two years. NBC intends to use the 
resources saved by not inspecting Tier 1 facilities to increase the 
frequency of compliance inspections at Tier 2 facilities. See the FPA 
for a more detailed breakdown of NBC's resource reallocation.
    Ten Tier 2 facilities will be selected from NBC's metal finishing 
user base that have shown a poor record of environmental performance 
but have also expressed an interest to implement recommended pollution 
prevention projects that may be offered by NBC. NBC will select these 
facilities in consultation with RIDEM and EPA. At a minimum, facilities 
showing a pattern of repeat violations or lack of responsiveness to NBC 
Notices of Violation or Letters of Deficiency will not be considered in 
this Project.
    NBC has proposed as a goal that this XL project will result in 
several areas of pollution reduction. Over the six years of this 
project, NBC proposes the goal that the Tier 2 facilities will reduce 
their process water usage by 25%, total metals (which include the 
regulated metal finishing pollutants along with arsenic and selenium) 
loadings in their effluent discharge by 25% and their generation of 
F006 waste by 25% as well. Progress towards these goals will be 
evaluated against one year of information collected from the facility 
by NBC for the year preceding selection as a Tier 2 facility. NBC would 
then compile annual information and report progress towards the 25% 
reduction goals in each annual report. NBC also projects as a goal that 
Tier 2 facilities will improve their compliance rate by 75%.
    EPA intends to propose a rule modifying the pretreatment 
regulations, as described above and further described in the FPA, in a 
separate future Federal Register Notice. The public will have an 
opportunity to comment on the proposed rule changes at that time.

DATES: The period for submission of comments ends on September 12, 
2000.

ADDRESSES: All comments on the proposed Final Project Agreement should 
be sent to: Chris Rascher, EPA New England, 1 Congress Street (SPP), 
Boston, MA 02114, or Chad Carbone, U.S. EPA, Room 1027WT (1802), 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460. Comments may also be faxed 
to Mr. Rascher (617) 918-1810, or Mr. Carbone (202) 260-1812. Comments 
may also be received via electronic mail sent to: [email protected] 
or [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To obtain a copy of the proposed Final 
Project Agreement, Test Plan or Fact Sheet, contact: Chris Rascher, EPA 
New England, 1 Congress Street (SPP), Boston Massachusetts, 02114 or 
Chad Carbone, Room 1027WT (1802) U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, 
Washington, DC 20460. The FPA and related documents are also available 
via the Internet at the following location: http://www.epa.gov/ProjectXL. Questions to EPA regarding the documents can be directed to 
Chris Rascher at (617) 918-1834 or Chad Carbone at (202) 260-4296. For

[[Page 52426]]

information on all other aspects of the XL Program contact Christopher 
Knopes at the following address: Office of Policy, Economics and 
Innovation, United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Room 1029WT (Mail Code 1802), Washington, DC 
20460. Additional information on Project XL, including documents 
referenced in this notice, other EPA policy documents related to 
Project XL, regional XL contacts, application information, and 
descriptions of existing XL projects and proposals, is available via 
the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/projectxl/inter/page1.htm.

    Dated: August 22, 2000.
Elizabeth A. Shaw,
Director, Office of Environmental Policy Innovation.
[FR Doc. 00-22053 Filed 8-28-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P