[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 241 (Monday, December 17, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71407-71409]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-24372]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-TRI-2007-0355; FRL-8507-4]


Agency Information Collection Activities, Proposed Collections; 
Toxic Chemical Release Reporting; Request for Comments on Proposed 
Changes and the Renewal of the Form A Certification Statement (EPA ICR 
No. 1704.09, OMB Control No. 2070-0143)

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. This is a request to make 
changes to and renew an existing approved collection. The ICR 
Supporting Statement, which is abstracted below, describes the nature 
of the information collection (including proposed minor form changes) 
and its estimated burden and cost.

DATES: Additional comments may be submitted on or before January 16, 
2008.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-TRI-
2007-0355, to (1) EPA online using http://www.regulations.gov (our 
preferred method), by e-mail to [email protected], or by mail to EPA 
Docket Center, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 2822T, 
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, and (2) OMB by mail 
to 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: Cassandra Vail, Toxics Release 
Inventory Program Division, Office of Information Analysis and Access 
(2844T), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20460; telephone number, 202-566-0753; fax number, 202-
566-0740; e-mail address, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA submitted an earlier version of the ICR 
Supporting Statement to OMB for review and approval according to the 
procedures prescribed in 5 CFR 1320.12. On July 11, 2007 (72 FR 37762), 
EPA sought comments on this ICR pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.8(d). EPA 
received four comments during the comment period, which are addressed 
in the Response to Comments document. Any additional comments on the 
revised ICR Supporting Statement should be submitted to EPA and OMB 
within 30 days of this notice.
    EPA has established a public docket for this ICR Supporting 
Statement under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-TRI-2007-0355, which is available 
for online viewing at http://www.regulations.gov, or in person at the 
OEI Docket, EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), U.S. EPA West Building, Room 
3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The EPA/DC Public 
Reading Room is open from 8 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 OEI Docket is 202-566-
1752.
    Use EPA's electronic docket and comment system at http://www.regulations.gov to submit or view public comments, to access the 
index listing of the contents of the docket, and to access those 
documents in the docket that are available electronically. Once in the 
system, select ``docket search,'' then key in the docket ID number 
identified above. Please note that EPA's policy is that public 
comments, whether submitted electronically or in paper, will be made 
available for public viewing at http://www.regulations.gov, as EPA 
receives them and without change, unless the comment contains 
copyrighted material, Confidential Business Information (CBI), or other 
information for which public disclosure is restricted by statute. For 
further information about the electronic docket, go to http://www.regulations.gov.
    Title: The ICR Renewal and Proposed Changes to the TRI Form A 
Certification Statement, Information Collection Request Supporting 
Statement.
    ICR numbers: EPA ICR No. 1704.09, OMB Control No. 2070-0143.

[[Page 71408]]

    ICR Status: The current ICR is scheduled to expire on January 31, 
2008. Under OMB regulations, the Agency may continue to conduct or 
sponsor the collection of information while this submission is pending 
at OMB. The OMB control numbers for EPA's regulations in title 40 of 
the CFR, after appearing in the Federal Register when approved, are 
listed in 40 CFR part 9 and are displayed either by publication in the 
Federal Register or by other appropriate means, such as on the related 
collection instrument or form, if applicable. The display of OMB 
control numbers in certain EPA regulations is consolidated in 40 CFR 
part 9.
    Abstract: The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act 
(EPCRA) section 313 requires owners and operators of certain facilities 
that manufacture, process, or otherwise use any of certain listed toxic 
chemicals and chemical categories in excess of applicable threshold 
quantities to report annually to the U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency and to the states in which such facilities are located on their 
environmental releases and transfers of and other waste management 
activities for such chemicals. In addition, section 6607 of the 
Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) requires facilities to provide 
information on the quantities of the toxic chemicals in waste streams 
and the efforts made to reduce or eliminate those quantities. Annual 
reporting under EPCRA section 313 of toxic chemical releases and other 
waste management information provides citizens with a useful picture of 
the total disposition of chemicals in their communities and helps focus 
industry's attention on pollution prevention and source reduction 
opportunities.
    In accordance with the mission to protect the environment and human 
health, EPA believes that the public has a right to know about the 
disposition of chemicals within communities and the management of such 
chemicals by facilities in industries subject to EPCRA section 313 
reporting. This reporting has been successful in providing communities 
with important information regarding the disposition of toxic chemicals 
and other waste management information of toxic chemicals from 
manufacturing facilities in their areas. EPA collects, processes, and 
makes available to the public all of the information collected that is 
not subject to trade secrecy claims. 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 regulatory and 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. 
Comprehensive publicly-available data about releases, transfers, and 
other waste management activities of toxic chemicals at the community 
level are generally not available, other than under the reporting 
requirements of EPCRA section 313. Permit data are often difficult to 
obtain, are not cross-media, and provide only a limited perspective on 
a facility's overall performance. With TRI, communities and governments 
know what toxic chemicals industrial facilities in their area release, 
transfer, or otherwise manage as waste. In addition, industries have an 
additional tool for evaluating their production efficiencies and for 
measuring their progress on their pollution prevention goals.
    Responses to the collection of information are mandatory (see 40 
CFR part 372). Respondents may claim trade secrecy for a chemical's 
identity as described in section 322 of EPCRA and its implementing 
regulations in 40 CFR part 350. EPA will disclose information that is 
covered by a claim of trade secrecy only to the extent permitted by, 
and in accordance with, the procedures in 40 CFR part 350 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 and/or instrument, if applicable.
    Burden Statement: The annual public reporting and recordkeeping 
burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 20.52 
hours for facilities submitting a Form A Certification Statement for 
Non-PBT chemicals and 35.89 hours for facilities submitting a Form A 
Certification statement for a single listed PBT chemical under EPCRA 
section 313. (All estimates incorporate proposed changes in the 
reporting burden.) 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 which have subsequently changed; 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: Facilities with low quantities of 
listed toxic chemicals in waste may certify on a Form A that they do 
not exceed an annual reportable amount (ARA) for total waste management 
(release, recycling, energy recovery, and treatment). Detailed release 
and waste management information need not be reported. Previously, a 
facility that met the EPCRA section 313 reporting thresholds, but 
estimated that their total waste management of a listed non-persistent, 
bioaccommulative, toxic (non-PBT) chemical did not exceed 500 pounds 
per year, could use the Form A Certification Statement, rather than the 
longer Form R, provided that facility met certain other conditions. The 
use of Form A was not previously allowed for PBT chemicals. Now due to 
a final TRI rule promulgated (71 FR 76932, December 22, 2006) Form A 
eligibility has been expanded as follows:
     New Eligibility for Form A: PBT Chemicals--allows a 
facility reporting on PBT chemicals, except dioxin and dioxin-like 
compounds, with zero disposal or other releases to use Form A, provided 
they meet the 1,000,000 pound alternate reporting threshold and have 
500 pounds or less of total other waste-management quantities. 
(Sections 8.2--8.8)
     Expanded Eligibility for Form A: Non-PBT Chemicals--allows 
a facility reporting on Non-PBT chemicals with total waste management 
of 5,000 pounds or less and 2,000 pounds or less of disposal or other 
releases to use Form A, provided they meet the 1,000,000 pound 
alternate reporting threshold.
    Each qualifying facility that chooses to apply this alternate 
manufacture, process or otherwise-use threshold must file a Form A 
Certification Statement certifying that they met the condition of the 
alternate threshold for one or more chemicals, in lieu of completing a 
Form R for each listed chemical for which the facility exceeded 
statutory thresholds. The Form A Certification Statement is submitted 
to both the TRI Data

[[Page 71409]]

Processing Center and the designated state recipient in the same manner 
that the Form R is submitted. The Form A Certification Statement 
provides a signed statement that the sum of the amount of the listed 
toxic chemical or chemicals in releases or wastes did not exceed the 
appropriate PBT or Non-PBT release and waste thresholds for the 
reporting year, and that the chemical(s) was manufactured, processed, 
or otherwise-used in an amount not exceeding 1,000,000 pounds during 
this reporting year. A single Form A Certification Statement may 
contain as many listed toxic chemicals as meet the conditions of the 
alternate threshold.
    Estimated Number of Responses: 10,235.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 10,235.
    Frequency of Response: Once per year.
    Estimated Total Annual Hour Burden: 515,901.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost: $26,007,920 includes $0 annualized 
capital or O&M costs.
    Changes in the Estimates: In this ICR Renewal, the effect of the 
TRI final rule expanding the eligibility criteria for Form A is 
expected to reduce the overall burden for TRI reporting overall due to 
increased Form A eligibility (i.e., number of Form Rs decreased and 
number of Form As increased, yielding a net burden decrease) with total 
respondent burden of Form A reporting projected at 515,284 hours. The 
TRI Program is proposing to add certain data elements to both reporting 
forms, but the addition of these data elements is estimated to be 
relatively small, increasing the total reporting burden for Form A 
reporting to 515,901 hours.
    Proposed Changes from the Last Approval: EPA proposes to make the 
following changes to the TRI Form A Certification Statement:
    (1) Enhance Public Contact information (applies to Form R and A.) 
EPA proposes to add a ``Public Contact'' field to the Form A 
Certification Statement so that a facility can provide the name of a 
person who can respond to questions from the public about the 
facility's Form A. This field would include the name, telephone number, 
and e-mail address for the public contact to make it easy to contact 
the individual identified. To date, some public contact information has 
been collected on Form R, but not on Form A.
    (2) Add boxes for entering revision codes (applies to Form R and 
Form A.) The TRI Program currently receives many form revisions each 
year, but does not currently collect information on the reasons for the 
revisions. The new revision codes will allow both the public and the 
TRI Program staff to better understand why a facility resubmitted a 
form. In addition, by analyzing the reasons for revisions, the TRI 
Program may be better able to address recurring reporting issues or 
problems that facilities may be facing, ultimately reducing errors and 
saving time for both the Agency and the reporting facilities. 
Therefore, facilities will now report up to two codes (listed and 
defined in the RFIs) indicating the main reason(s) that a form is being 
revised.
    (3) Provide a field for withdrawing a form; and add boxes for 
entering withdrawal codes (applies to Form R and Form A.) Currently, a 
facility that wishes to withdraw a previously submitted form must 
submit its request, including the rationale, as a hard copy memorandum 
to the TRI Data Processing Center. Adding a ``Withdrawal'' field and 
associated code boxes for reasons for withdrawal to Form A will (1) 
streamline the withdrawal process for facilities, (2) make it easier 
for EPA to automate the withdrawal process, and (3) improve the 
Agency's ability to analyze the reasons for withdrawals.

    Notes: 

    1. EPA also proposed other changes (72 FR 37762; July 11, 2007) 
but has since concluded those changes are not necessary.
    2. Baseline adjustments were made to ``Number of Responses,'' 
``Number of Respondents'' and ``Burden Hours'' to reflect the most 
recent conditions of RY2005. In the last ICR, RY2002 was the base 
year; in the last OMB Action, RY2004 was the base year. Over this 
period of time, the total number of Form A submissions declined.
    3. An additional change was made to the Form A ``Number of 
Responses'' and ``Number of Respondents'' to adjust for previously 
overstated counts.


    Dated: December 11, 2007.
Sara Hisel-McCoy,
Director, Collection Strategies Division.
[FR Doc. E7-24372 Filed 12-14-07; 8:45 am]
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