[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 36 (Thursday, February 24, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9070-9071]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-3528]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7876-6]


Clean Water Act; Contractor Access to Confidential Business 
Information

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of intended transfer of confidential business 
information to contractors and subcontractors.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to transfer 
confidential business information (CBI) collected from the pulp, paper, 
and paperboard manufacturing; iron and steel manufacturing; and other 
industries listed below to Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), and its 
subcontractors. Transfer of the information will allow the contractor 
and subcontractors to support EPA in the planning, development, and 
review of effluent limitations guidelines and standards under the Clean 
Water Act (CWA), and the development of discharge standards under Title 
XIV: Certain Alaskan Cruise Ship Operations (33 U.S.C. 1902 note). The 
information being transferred was or will be collected under the 
authority of section 308 of the CWA. Some information being transferred 
from the pulp, paper, and paperboard industry was collected under the 
additional authorities of section 114 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and 
section 3007 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). 
Interested persons may submit comments on this intended transfer of 
information to the address noted below.

DATES: Comments on the transfer of data are due March 3, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to Mr. M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document 
Control Officer, Engineering and Analysis Division (4303T), Room 6231S

[[Page 9071]]

EPA West, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20460.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document 
Control Officer, at (202) 566-1044, or via e-mail at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA has previously transferred to its 
contractor, ERG (located in Chantilly, Virginia and Lexington, 
Massachusetts), information, including CBI, that was collected under 
the authority of section 308 of the CWA. Notice of the transfer was 
provided to the affected industries (see, for example, 59 FR 58840, 
November 15, 1994). EPA determined that this transfer was necessary to 
enable the contractors and subcontractors to perform their work in 
supporting EPA in planning, developing, and reviewing effluent 
guidelines and standards for certain industries.
    Today, EPA is giving notice that it has entered into additional 
contracts, numbers 68-C-02-095 and 68-C-01-073, with ERG. The reason 
for these contracts is to secure additional contractor support in 
engineering analysis, survey and database development, economic 
analyses, and ecological analyses. To obtain assistance in responding 
to these contracts, ERG has entered into contracts with their 
subcontractors. In particular, ERG has obtained the services of the 
following subcontractors: Abt Associates (located in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts); AH Environmental Consultants, Inc. (located in Newport 
News and Springfield, Virginia); AmDyne Corporation (located in Glen 
Burnie, Maryland); Amendola Engineering, Inc. (located in Westlake, 
Ohio); Analytica Alaska, Inc. (located in Juneau, Alaska); Applied 
Geographics, Inc. (located in Boston, Massachusetts); Avanti 
Corporation (located in Annandale, Virginia); CK Environmental (located 
in Atlanta, Georgia); DRPA, Inc. (located in Rosslyn, Virginia); 
GeoLogics Corporation (located in Alexandria, Virginia); Hydraulic and 
Water Resources Engineers, Inc. (located in Waltham, Massachusetts); N. 
McCubbin Consultants, Inc. (located in Foster, Quebec, Canada); Stratus 
Consulting, Inc. (located in Boulder, Colorado); Tetra Tech, Inc. 
(located in Fairfax, Virginia); Versar, Inc. (located in Springfield, 
Virginia); and independent consultant Danforth Bodien.
    All EPA contractor, subcontractor, and consultant personnel are 
bound by the requirements and sanctions contained in their contracts 
with EPA and in EPA's confidentiality regulations found at 40 CFR Part 
2, Subpart B. ERG and its subcontractors adhere to EPA-approved 
security plans which describe procedures to protect CBI. The procedures 
in these plans are applied to CBI previously gathered by EPA for the 
industries identified below and to CBI that may be gathered in the 
future for these industries. The security plans specify that contractor 
and subcontractor personnel are required to sign non-disclosure 
agreements and are briefed on appropriate security procedures before 
they are permitted access to CBI. No person is automatically granted 
access to CBI; a need to know must exist.
    The information that will be transferred to ERG and its 
subcontractors consists primarily of information previously collected 
by EPA to support the development and review of effluent limitations 
guidelines and standards under the CWA and the development of discharge 
standards under Title XIV. In particular, information, including CBI, 
collected for the planning, development, and review of effluent 
limitations guidelines and standards for the following industries may 
be transferred: Airport deicing; aquaculture; concentrated animal 
feeding operations; centralized waste treatment; coal mining; drinking 
water; industrial laundries; waste combustors; iron and steel 
manufacturing; landfills; meat and poultry products; metal finishing; 
metal products and manufacturing; nonferrous metals manufacturing; oil 
and gas extraction (including coalbed methane); ore mining and 
dressing; organic chemicals, plastics, and synthetic fibers; pesticide 
chemicals; pharmaceutical manufacturing; petroleum refining; pulp, 
paper, and paperboard manufacturing; steam electric power generation; 
textile mills; timber products processing; tobacco; and transportation 
equipment cleaning. In addition, for the development of standards under 
Title XIV, EPA may transfer information, including CBI, about large 
cruise ships that operate in the waters around Alaska.
    EPA also intends to transfer to ERG and its subcontractors all 
information listed in this notice, of the type described above 
(including CBI) that may be collected in the future under the authority 
of section 308 of the CWA or voluntarily submitted (e.g., in comments 
in response to a Federal Register notice), as is necessary to enable 
ERG and its subcontractors to carry out the work required by their 
contracts to support EPA's effluent guidelines planning process; 
development of effluent limitations guidelines and standards; and 
discharge standards from cruise ships.

    Dated: February 15, 2005.
Geoffrey H. Grubbs,
Director, Office of Science and Technology.
[FR Doc. 05-3528 Filed 2-23-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P