[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 145 (Thursday, July 29, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44790-44791]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-18646]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0492; FRL-9182-8]


Second Draft Document Related to the Review of the National 
Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of Extension of Comment Period.

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SUMMARY: The EPA is announcing an extension of the public comment 
period for one chapter of the draft assessment document titled, Policy 
Assessment for the Review of the Particulate Matter National Ambient 
Air Quality Standards--Second External Review Draft. The EPA is 
extending the comment period for chapter 4--Review of the Secondary 
Standards for Visibility-Related Effects. This chapter is based on the 
Particulate Matter Urban-Focused Visibility Assessment (UFVA) which was 
finalized later than originally anticipated. As a result, the Agency is 
extending the comment period by two weeks to provide stakeholders and 
the public with adequate time to conduct appropriate analysis and 
prepare meaningful comments on chapter 4 of the second draft Policy 
Assessment. The original comment period was to end on August 16, 2010. 
The extended comment period for chapter 4 will now close on August 30, 
2010.

DATES: Comments should be submitted on or before August 30, 2010.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2007-0492, by one of the following methods:
     http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line 
instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail) 
to [email protected], Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-
0492.
     Fax: Fax your comments to 202-566-9744, Attention Docket 
ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0492.
     Mail: Send your comments to: Air and Radiation Docket and 
Information Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T, 
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID 
No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0492.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: Deliver your comments to: EPA 
Docket Center, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Room 3334, Washington, DC. 
Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of 
operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of 
boxed information.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2007-0492. The 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 Air Docket in the 
EPA Docket Center, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC. This Docket Facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 
p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The Docket 
telephone number is 202-566-1742; fax 202-566-9744.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions related to this draft 
document, please contact Ms. Beth Hassett-Sipple, Office of Air Quality 
Planning and Standards (Mail code C504-06), U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; e-mail: [email protected]; telephone: 919-541-4605; fax: 919-541-0237.

General Information

A. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for EPA?

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to EPA through 
http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. Clearly mark the part or all of 
the information that you claim to be CBI. For CBI information in a disk 
or CD ROM that you mail to EPA, mark the outside of the disk or CD ROM 
as CBI and then identify electronically within the disk or CD ROM the 
specific information that is claimed as CBI. In addition to one 
complete version of the comment that includes information claimed as 
CBI, a copy of the comment that does not contain the information 
claimed as CBI must be submitted for inclusion in the public docket. 
Information so marked will not be disclosed except in accordance with 
procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2.
    2. Tips for Preparing Your Comments. When submitting comments, 
remember to:
     Identify the rulemaking by docket number and other 
identifying information (subject heading, Federal Register date and 
page number).

[[Page 44791]]

     Follow directions--The agency may ask you to respond to 
specific questions or organize comments by referencing a Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number.
     Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives 
and substitute language for your requested changes.
     Describe any assumptions and provide any technical 
information and/or data that you used.
     If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how 
you arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be 
reproduced.
     Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns, and 
suggest alternatives.
     Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period 
deadline identified.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under section 108(a) of the Clean Air Act 
(CAA), the Administrator identifies and lists certain pollutants which 
``cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be 
anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.'' The EPA then issues 
air quality criteria for these listed pollutants, which are commonly 
referred to as ``criteria pollutants.'' The air quality criteria are to 
``accurately reflect the latest scientific knowledge useful in 
indicating the kind and extent of all identifiable effects on public 
health or welfare which may be expected from the presence of [a] 
pollutant in the ambient air, in varying quantities.'' Under section 
109 of the CAA, EPA establishes primary (health-based) and secondary 
(welfare-based) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for 
pollutants for which air quality criteria are issued. Section 109(d) of 
the CAA requires periodic review and, if appropriate, revision of 
existing air quality criteria. The revised air quality criteria reflect 
advances in scientific knowledge on the effects of the pollutant on 
public health or welfare. The EPA is also required to periodically 
review and revise the NAAQS, if appropriate, based on the revised 
criteria.\1\
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    \1\ See http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/review.html for more 
information on the NAAQS review process.
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    As part of EPA's review of the primary (health-based) and secondary 
(welfare-based) PM NAAQS, the Agency recently released the Policy 
Assessment for the Review of the Particulate Matter National Ambient 
Air Quality Standards--Second External Review Draft \2\ (Policy 
Assessment; 75 FR 39253; July 8, 2010). The second draft Policy 
Assessment builds on the scientific and technical information available 
in this review as assessed in the Integrated Science Assessment for 
Particulate Matter \3\ and two quantitative assessment documents, 
Particulate Matter Urban-Focused Visibility Assessment (UFVA) and 
Quantitative Health Risk Assessment for Particulate Matter.\4\
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    \2\ EPA-452/P-10-007, June 2010; Available: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/pm/s_pm_2007_pa.html.
    \3\ EPA 600/R-08/139F and EPA 600/R-08/139FA, December 2009; 
Available: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/pm/s_pm_2007_isa.html.
    \4\ EPA 452/R-10-004, July 2010 and EPA 452/R-10-005, June 2010; 
Available: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/pm/s_pm_2007_risk.html.
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    The UFVA was scheduled to be finalized on or about June 30, 2010 
(75 FR 39252, July 8, 2010). However, in finalizing this document, EPA 
staff identified a data processing error which caused organic 
carbonaceous material to be over estimated on some days. The 
corrections were quite small and did not affect the conclusions. 
Corrections have been made to the final UFVA. Since the UFVA was 
finalized later than originally anticipated and chapter 4 of the second 
draft Policy Assessment (Review of the Secondary Standards for 
Visibility-Related Effects) builds on the information presented in the 
UFVA, EPA is extending the comment period by two weeks for this chapter 
to provide stakeholders and the public with adequate time to conduct 
appropriate analysis and prepare meaningful comments. The second draft 
Policy Assessment may be accessed online through EPA's TTN website at: 
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/pm/s_pm_2007_pa.html.
    The draft document described above does not represent and should 
not be construed to represent any final EPA policy, viewpoint, or 
determination.

    Dated: July 22, 2010.
Jennifer Noonan Edmonds,
Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. 2010-18646 Filed 7-28-10; 8:45 am]
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