[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 46 (Wednesday, March 11, 2009)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 10488-10489]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-5220]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002; FRL-8776-9]


Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; 
Alabama Visible Emissions Rule; Informational Notice

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of document availability.

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SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to inform the public of the 
availability of documents that were not made available electronically 
to the public through http://www.regulations.gov when EPA's final 
rulemaking was published in the Federal Register . These documents were 
a part of the docket for EPA's final rulemaking approving Alabama's 
state implementation plan (SIP) revision for the Alabama Visible 
Emissions Rule. The complete docket was available in hard copy at 
Region 4. EPA's final rulemaking for this SIP revision was published on 
October 15, 2008.

ADDRESSES: The hard copy docket is available at the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management Division, Air 
Planning Branch, 61 Forsyth Street, SW., Atlanta, Georgia 30303. The 
electronic docket is available at http://www.regulations.gov. Refer to 
EPA docket  ``EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002''.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Joel Huey, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management Division, Air 
Planning Branch; 61 Forsyth Street, SW.; Atlanta, Georgia 30303. Mr. 
Huey can be reached via e-mail at [email protected] or phone at (404) 
562-9104.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA uses http://www.regulations.gov to 
provide the public with access to pertinent documents related to EPA 
actions for SIP revisions. In general, each action has a hard copy 
paper docket and an electronic docket which includes information such 
as: the state's submission and supporting documentation; EPA's 
rulemaking and correspondences related to the SIP revision; public 
comments provided for the SIP revision during the open public comment 
period; and other pertinent documentation related to the rulemaking 
action. The process for generating the electronic docket includes 
uploading pertinent documents into the Federal Docket Management System 
(FDMS), and then taking action to make these documents available 
electronically to the public on http://www.regulations.gov upon 
publication of EPA's rulemaking action in the Federal Register. The 
general public cannot view documents until they are promoted following 
publication of the associated Federal Register document.
    On April 12, 2007, EPA published a proposed rule approving 
Alabama's Visible Emissions Rule. At that time, EPA opened a 60 day 
public comment period, and subsequently extended the comment period an 
additional 30 days. The comment period for the proposed rule ended on 
July 11, 2007. All pertinent documents related to EPA's proposal, 
comments received during the public comment period and the rulemaking 
actions were included in FDMS and promoted to http://www.regulations.gov for public access. Subsequent to the proposal 
phase, EPA received and generated other pertinent documents related to 
EPA's final rulemaking action which was published in the Federal 
Register on October 15, 2008. The other pertinent documents are as 
follows:
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0022: Alabama Visible Emissions 
Final Rule;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0023: Alabama Governor's letter 
to the Administrator;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0024: September 11, 2003, ADEM 
cover letter;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0025: Governor's letter to the 
Administrator;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0026: EPA response to November 6, 
2007, Governor's letter;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0027: EPA response to June 17, 
2008, Governor's letter;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0028: Meeting Notes;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0029: ADEM Letter to EPA R4;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0030: ADEM Letter to Governor;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0031: EPA 2008 prehearing comment 
letter;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0032: EPA response to Alabama 
congressional representatives;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0033: Letter from Alabama 
congressional representatives;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0034: References;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0035: State Implementation Plan 
Consistency Process Record;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0036: Administrator Memorandum;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0037: Alabama Opacity Region 4 
Meeting Notes;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0038: Recording Dust Emission 
Measurements in the Cement Industry with the FM4 Smoke Density Meter 
Made by Messrs. Sick and Staub;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0039: ``Emissions from 
Electrostatic Precipitators,'' In Electrostatic Preciptator Manual, 
332-350;
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0040: Communications with ADEM; 
and
     EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-0002-0041: Region 4 Meeting Notes 
Continued.
    In December 2008, EPA received notification of litigation related 
to EPA's final rule approving the revisions to Alabama's Visible 
Emissions Rule. As EPA prepared the documents needed for the 
administrative record, EPA compared documents listed in FDMS versus 
http://www.regulations.gov and noted some discrepancies. After some 
investigation, it was determined that, while EPA prepared the documents 
for inclusion in the public electronic docket by uploading the 
pertinent documents into FDMS, the necessary action to make these 
documents available to the public through the http://www.regulations.gov Web site was not taken upon publication of EPA's 
final rule on October 15, 2008.
    The documents that were inadvertently not made available 
electronically in the docket included all documents provided subsequent 
to the proposal phase for EPA's action (see list above). The electronic 
docket did include documents related to EPA's proposed rulemaking, 
which were promoted and made available to the public earlier.
    EPA's error related to the promotion of pertinent documents to the 
final rulemaking action became apparent to

[[Page 10489]]

EPA on January 8, 2009, and was corrected on January 9, 2009. The 
electronic docket for this rulemaking action can be accessed at 
regulations.gov with reference to docket number ``EPA-R04-OAR-2005-AL-
0002.'' Since identification of this error, the Region 4 office has 
refined its protocol to clearly identify necessary steps that must be 
taken to ensure the completeness and availability of the electronic 
docket to the public. EPA did generate and maintains a hard copy paper 
docket for this action in addition to the electronic docket. This hard 
copy paper docket contained all the pertinent documents for EPA's final 
rulemaking and continues to be available for inspection by the public 
at the EPA Region 4 office. In EPA's final rulemaking published on 
October 15, 2008, EPA informed the public that the docket materials 
were available both electronically and in hard copy. Additionally, EPA 
provided contact information in that rulemaking for the public to 
request access to material. EPA did not receive any requests for this 
material through the October 15, 2008, rulemaking action.

    Dated: February 9, 2009.
Beverly H. Banister,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. E9-5220 Filed 3-10-09; 8:45 am]
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