[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 211 (Friday, October 31, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62069-62070]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-27481]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[OEI-2003-0025; FRL-7581-3]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to OMB for 
Review and Approval; Comment Request; Toxic Chemical Release Reporting, 
Recordkeeping, Supplier Notification and Petitions Under Section 313 of 
the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA): 
Renewal; EPA ICR Number 1363.13, OMB Control Number 2070-0093

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that an Information 
Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The Agency is requesting that 
OMB renew for 3 years the existing approval for this ICR, which is 
scheduled to expire on October 31, 2003. Under OMB regulations, the 
Agency may continue to conduct or sponsor the collection of information 
while this submission is pending at OMB. This ICR describes the nature 
of the information collection and its estimated burden and cost.

DATES: Additional comments may be submitted on or before December 1, 
2003.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number OEI-2003-
0025, to (1) EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by email 
to [email protected], or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental 
Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Information Docket, 28221T, 
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, and (2) OMB at: 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB), Attention: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th Street, NW., 
Washington, DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Judith Kendall, Office of 
Environmental Information, Mailcode 2844T, Environmental Protection 
Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone 
number: (202) 566-0750; fax number: (202) 566-0741; email address: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA has submitted the following ICR to OMB 
for review and approval according to the procedures prescribed in 5 CFR 
1320.12. A Federal Register notice announcing the Agency's intent to 
seek the renewal of this ICR and the 60-day public comment opportunity, 
requesting comments on the request and the contents of the ICR, was 
issued on July 1, 2003 (68 FR 39074). EPA received a number of comments 
on this ICR during the comment period, which have been addressed. The 
comments and EPA's responses are included as part of the ICR renewal 
request package, and will be made available in the docket for OEI-2003-
0025 and on the EPA TRI Web site at http://www.epa.gov/tri.
    EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID 
No. OEI-2003-0025, which is available for public viewing at the Office 
of Environmental Information Docket in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), 
EPA West, Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC. The 
EPA Docket Center Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 
p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone 
number for the Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number 
for the Office of Environmental Information Docket is (202) 566-1752. 
An electronic version of the public docket is available through EPA 
Dockets (EDOCKET) at http://www.epa.gov/edocket. Use EDOCKET to submit 
or view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of 
the public docket, and to access those documents in the public docket 
that are available electronically. Once in the system, select 
``search,'' then key in the docket ID number identified above.
    Any comments related to this ICR should be submitted to EPA and OMB 
within 30 days of this notice. EPA's policy is that public comments, 
whether submitted electronically or in paper, will be made available 
for public viewing in EDOCKET as EPA receives them and without change, 
unless the comment contains copyrighted material, CBI, or other 
information whose public disclosure is restricted by statute. When EPA 
identifies a comment containing copyrighted material, EPA will provide 
a reference to that material in the version of the comment that is 
placed in EDOCKET. The entire printed comment, including the 
copyrighted material, will be available in the public docket. Although 
identified as an item in the official docket, information claimed as 
CBI, or whose disclosure is otherwise restricted by statute, is not 
included in the official public docket, and will not be available for 
public viewing in EDOCKET. For further information about the electronic 
docket, see EPA's Federal Register notice describing the electronic 
docket at 67 FR 38102 (May

[[Page 62070]]

31, 2002), or go to http://www.epa.gov/edocket.
    Title: Toxic Chemical Release Reporting, Recordkeeping, Supplier 
Notification and Petitions under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning 
and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA): Renewal
    Abstract: EPCRA section 313 requires owners and operators of 
certain facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use any of 
over 650 listed toxic chemicals and chemical categories in excess of 
applicable threshold quantities to report annually to the Environmental 
Protection Agency and to the states in which such facilities are 
located on their environmental releases and other waste management 
quantities of such chemicals. In addition, section 6607 of the 
Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) requires that facilities provide 
information on the quantities of the toxic chemicals in waste streams 
and the efforts made to reduce or eliminate those quantities.
    EPA collects, processes, and makes available to the public all of 
the information collected. The information gathered under these 
authorities is stored in a database maintained at EPA and is available 
through the Internet. This information, commonly known as the Toxics 
Release Inventory (TRI), is used extensively by both EPA and the public 
sector. Program offices within EPA use TRI data, along with other 
sources of data, to establish priorities, evaluate potential exposure 
scenarios, and undertake enforcement activities. Environmental and 
public interest groups use the data in studies and reports, making the 
public more aware of releases of chemicals in their communities.
    Responses to the collection of information are mandatory (see 40 
CFR part 372). Respondents may claim all or part of a notice 
confidential. EPA will disclose information that is covered by a claim 
of confidentiality only to the extent permitted by, and in accordance 
with, the procedures in TSCA section 14 and 40 CFR part 2.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for EPA's 
regulations in 40 CFR are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and are identified on 
the form.
    Burden Statement: The annual public burden for this collection of 
information is estimated to average 19.5 hours per response. Under the 
PRA, ``burden'' means the total time, effort, or financial resources 
expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or 
provide information to or for a federal agency. For this collection, it 
includes the time needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, 
install, and utilize technology and systems for the purposes 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 following is a summary of the burden estimates taken from the 
ICR:
    Respondents/affected entities: Owners or operators of certain 
facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use certain 
specified toxic chemicals and chemical categories and are required to 
report annually on the environmental releases and transfers of waste 
management activities for such chemicals.
    Estimated total number of potential responses: 84,000.
    Frequency of response: Annual.
    Estimated total annual burden hours: 2,432,898.
    Estimated total annual burden costs: $111.3 million in labor costs.

Changes in Burden Estimates

    The reduction in the estimated total burden of 3,133,666 hours is 
the result of three adjustments.
    The first adjustment is to the number of responses. The estimate of 
88,117 responses in the existing OMB approval incorporated a predicted 
reporting increase from the economic analysis of the final rule to 
lower reporting thresholds for lead and lead compounds. This prediction 
overestimated actual reporting levels; EPA received about 70 percent of 
the additional lead and lead compound reports that were forecast. The 
number of responses in this ICR supporting statement have been adjusted 
to accurately reflect actual reporting levels (rounded to the next 
highest thousand responses). This adjustment accounts for a decrease of 
about 218,000 hours.
    The second adjustment is to the unit burden hour estimates for 
subsequent year reporting. EPA has adjusted the estimate of unit burden 
hours for Form R completion in subsequent years from 47.1 hours to 14.5 
hours based on responses from TRI reporting facilities. This adjustment 
accounts for a decrease of about 2.68 million hours.
    The third adjustment relates to the adoption of TRI-ME, an 
automated reporting software package. EPA has reduced the burden 
estimates related to Form R Completion and Recordkeeping/Submission by 
15 percent for the reports filed using TRI-ME. An estimated 90 percent 
of reports are expected to be filed using TRI-ME over the three years 
of the ICR. This adjustment accounts for a decrease of about 232,000 
hours.
    The sum of these adjustments is a decrease of 4,117 responses and 
3,133,666 burden hours from the current approved total.

    Dated: October 27, 2003.
Doreen Sterling,
Acting Director, Collection Strategies Division.
[FR Doc. 03-27481 Filed 10-30-03; 8:45 am]
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