[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 5, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38679-38680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-13170]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[OW-2004-0023; FRL-7932-8]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to OMB for 
Review and Approval; Comment Request; Best Management Practices (BMP) 
for the Bleached Papergrade Kraft and Soda Subcategory and the 
Papergrade Sulfite Subcategory of the Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Point 
Source Category (Renewal), EPA ICR Number 1829.03, OMB Control Number 
2040-0207

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 document announces that an Information Collection 
Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for review and approval. This is a request to renew an existing 
approved collection. This ICR is scheduled to expire on June 30, 
2005.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 August 4, 
2005.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number OW-2004-
0023, to (1) EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by e-mail 
to [email protected], or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental 
Protection Agency, Water Docket, 4101T, 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: Lynn Stabenfeldt, Office of Wastewater 
Management, 4201M, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania 
Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 564-0602; fax 
number: (202) 501-2396; e-mail 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. On August 30, 2004 (69 FR 52883) EPA sought comments on this 
ICR pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.8(d). EPA received no comments.
    EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID 
No. OW-2004-0023, which is available for public viewing at the Water 
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 Water Docket 
is (202) 566-2426.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 31, 2002), or go to http://www.epa.gov/edocket.
    Title: Best Management Practices (BMP) for the Bleached Papergrade 
Kraft and Soda Subcategory and the Papergrade Sulfite Subcategory of 
the Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Point Source Category (Renewal).
    Abstract: The EPA established BMP provisions as part of final 
amendments to 40 CFR part 430, the Pulp, Paper and Paperbaord Point 
Source Category promulgated on April 15, 1998 (see 63 FR 18504-18751). 
These provisions, promulgated under the authorities of sections 304, 
307, 308, 402 and 501 of the Clean Water Act, require that owners or 
operators of bleached papergrade kraft, soda and sulfite mills 
implement site-specific BMPs to prevent or otherwise contain leaks and 
spills of spent pulping liquors, soap and turpentine and to control 
intentional diversions of these materials.
    EPA has determined that these BMPs are necessary because the 
materials controlled by these practices, if spilled or otherwise lost, 
can interfere with wastewater treatment operations and lead to 
increased discharges of toxic, nonconventional, and conventional 
pollutants. For further discussion of the need for BMPs, see section 
VI.B.7. of the preamble to the amendments to 40 CFR part 430 (see 63 FR 
18561-18566).
    The BMP program includes information collection requirements that 
are intended to help accomplish the overall purposes of the program by, 
for example, training personnel, see 40 CFR 430.03(c)(4), analyzing 
spills that occur, see 40 CFR 430.03(c)(5), identifying equipment items 
that might need to be upgraded or repaired, see 40 CFR 430.03(c)(2), 
and performing

[[Page 38680]]

monitoring--including the operation of monitoring systems--to detect 
leaks, spills and intentional diversion and generally to evaluate the 
effectiveness of the BMPs, see 40 CFR 430.03(c)(3), (c)(10), (h), and 
(i). The regulations also require mills to develop and, when 
appropriate, amend plans specifying how the mills will implement the 
specified BMPs, and to certify to the permitting or pretreatment 
authority that they have done so in accordance with good engineering 
practices and the requirements of the regulation, see 40 CFR 430.03(d), 
(e), and (f). The purpose of those provisions is, respectively, to 
facilitate the implementation of BMPs on a site-specific basis and to 
help the regulating authorities to ensure compliance without requiring 
the submission of actual BMP plans. Finally, the record keeping 
provisions are intended to facilitate training, to signal the need for 
different or more vigorously implemented BMPs, and to facilitate 
compliance assessment, see 40 CFR 430.03(g).
    EPA has structured the regulation to provide maximum flexibility to 
the regulated community and to minimize administrative burdens on NPDES 
permit and pretreatment control authorities that regulate bleached 
papergrade kraft and soda and papergrade sulfite mills. Although EPA 
does not anticipate that mills will be required to submit any 
confidential business information or trade secrets as part of this ICR, 
all data claimed as confidential business information will be handled 
by EPA pursuant to 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 and/or instrument, if applicable.
    Burden Statement: The annual public reporting and recordkeeping 
burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 665 
hours per response. 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. This 
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.
    Respondents/Affected Entities: Entities potentially affected by 
this action are those operations that chemically pulp wood fiber using 
kraft or soda methods to produce bleached papergrade pulp, paperboard, 
coarse paper, tissue paper, fine paper, and/or paperboard; those 
operations that chemically pulp wood fiber, and/or paperboard; those 
operations that chemically pulp wood fiber using papergrade sulfite 
methods to produce pulp and/or paper; and State and local governments 
that regulate discharges where such operations are located.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 128.
    Frequency of Response: not less than annually.
    Estimated Total Annual Hour Burden: 60,262.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost: $2,377,000, includes $0 annualized 
capital or O&M costs and $2,377,000 annual labor costs.
    Changes in the Estimates: There is a decrease of 647 hours in the 
total estimated burden currently identified in the OMB Inventory of 
Approved ICR Burdens. This decrease results from an adjustment to the 
estimated respondent universe, which decreased by two.

    Dated: June 27, 2005.
Oscar Morales,
Director, Collection Strategies Division.
[FR Doc. 05-13170 Filed 7-1-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P