[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 247 (Tuesday, December 23, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78790-78791]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-30540]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-8756-1]


Notice of Availability of Preliminary Residual Designation of 
Certain Stormwater Discharges in the State of Massachusetts Under the 
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System of the Clean Water Act

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice and Request for Public Comment.

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SUMMARY: The Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection 
Agency's (EPA) New England Regional Office is providing notice of the 
availability of a preliminary determination that certain stormwater 
discharges in the Charles River watershed located in Bellingham, 
Milford, and Franklin, Massachusetts will be required to obtain permit 
coverage under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System 
(NPDES) of the Clean Water Act. EPA is seeking public comment on the 
nature and scope of this preliminary residual designation. The period 
for comment on this preliminary residual designation will remain open 
until the close of the public comment period on any NPDES general or 
individual permit related to this preliminary residual designation. 
However, EPA strongly encourages interested parties to submit their 
comments within 45 days of the commencement of the comment period, 
after which EPA intends to review this preliminary residual designation 
and to decide whether to make any changes to it. It is EPA's intention 
to make a final residual designation following the close of the comment 
period on any associated NPDES permit. Copies of the preliminary 
residual designation are available for inspection online and in 
hardcopy as described elsewhere in this document.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before February 6, 2009.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R01-
OW-2008-0857 by one of the following methods:
     http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line 
instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: [email protected].
     Mail and hand delivery: U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, New England Region, One Congress Street, Suite 1100, Mailcode 
CWN, Boston, MA 02114-2023. Deliveries are only accepted during the 
Regional Office's normal hours of operation (8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, excluding legal holidays), and special arrangements 
should be made for deliveries of boxed information.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R01-OW-
2008-0857. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you 
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov, or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site 
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your 
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of 
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without 
going through http://www.regulations.gov your e-mail address will be 
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is 
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you 
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name 
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any 
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to 
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA 
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid 
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of 
any defects or viruses.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, New England Region, One Congress Street, Suite 1100, 
Boston, Massachusetts. Such deliveries are only accepted during the 
Regional Office's normal hours of operation, and special arrangements 
should be made for deliveries of boxed information. To inspect the hard 
copy materials, please schedule an appointment during normal

[[Page 78791]]

business hours with the contact listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Erik Beck, EPA New England Region, One 
Congress Street, Suite 1100, Mailcode CWN, (617) 918-1606, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    The Regional Administrator of EPA's New England Regional Office is 
providing notice of availability of a preliminary determination that 
certain stormwater discharges in the Charles River watershed located in 
Bellingham, Milford, and Franklin, Massachusetts will be required to 
obtain NPDES permits. Under Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 402(p) (33 
U.S.C. 1342(p)), Congress required the EPA to establish permitting 
requirements for certain stormwater discharges. In addition, CWA 
Sections 402(p)(2)(E) and 402(p)(6) and implementing regulations at 40 
CFR 122.26 (a)(9)(i)(C) and (D) provide that the EPA Regional 
Administrator may designate additional stormwater discharges as 
requiring NPDES permits where he determines that:
    1. Stormwater controls are needed for the discharge based on 
wasteload allocations that are part of ``total maximum daily loads'' 
that address the pollutant of concern (in this case phosphorus), or
    2. The discharge, or category of discharges within a geographic 
area, contributes to a violation of a water quality standard or is a 
significant contributor of pollutants to waters of the United States.
    The EPA Regional Administrator for the New England Region has made 
a preliminary determination pursuant to Section 402(p) of the Clean 
Water Act and 40 CFR 122.26 (9)(i)(C) and (D) that stormwater controls 
and NPDES permits are needed for discharges to waters of the United 
States from impervious surfaces equal to or greater than two acres, 
with certain exceptions, in the Charles River watershed located in 
Bellingham, Milford, and Franklin, Massachusetts. Details on these 
exceptions, as well as other details of the preliminary determination, 
are available in the preliminary residual designation document. This 
document and ancillary materials may be viewed on the EPA New England 
Regional Office's Web page pertaining to excessive nutrients in the 
Charles River, http://www.epa.gov/region1/charles/tmdl.html and at 
http://www.regulations.gov.

    Dated: December 12, 2008.
Robert W. Varney,
Regional Administrator, EPA New England.
 [FR Doc. E8-30540 Filed 12-22-08; 8:45 am]
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