[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 214 (Friday, November 5, 2010)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 68305-68306]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-28034]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 450

[EPA-HQ-OW-2010-0884; FRL-9222-3]


Proposed Rule Staying Numeric Limitation for the Construction and 
Development Point Source Category

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to stay the numeric effluent limitation of 
280 NTU and associated monitoring requirements for the Construction and 
Development Point Source Category. This action is necessary so that EPA 
can reconsider the record basis for calculating the numeric effluent 
limitation. EPA plans to take final action to recalculate the numeric 
effluent limitation by June 29, 2011. EPA proposes to stay the 280 NTU 
limit and associated monitoring requirements until it takes final 
action to recalculate the numeric limitation.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before December 6, 2010.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-
2010-0884, by one of the following methods:
     http://www.regulations.gov: This is EPA's preferred 
approach, although you may use the alternatives presented below. Follow 
the on-line instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: [email protected].
     Mail: USEPA Docket Center, Environmental Protection 
Agency, Docket Number EPA-HQ-OW-2010-0884, Mailcode 2822T, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460.
     Hand Delivery: USEPA Docket Center, Public Reading Room, 
1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Room 3334, EPA West Building, Washington, 
DC 20004. 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-OW-2010-
0884. 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

[[Page 68306]]

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. For additional information about EPA's public 
docket visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
    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 USEPA Docket 
Center, Public Reading Room, Room 3334, EPA West Building, 1301 
Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The 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 Public Reading Room is (202) 
566-1744, and the telephone number for the EPA Docket Center is (202) 
566-2426.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Janet Goodwin, USEPA Office of Water 
by phone at (202) 566-1060 or by e-mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

A. Does this action apply to me?

Regulated Entities
    Entities potentially regulated by this action include:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                        North American
                                                           industry
           Category            Examples of regulated    classification
                                      entities          system (NAICS)
                                                             code
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Industry.....................  Construction                          236
                                activities required
                                to obtain 236 NPDES
                                permit coverage and
                                performing the
                                following
                                activities:
                                Construction of
                                buildings, including
                                building, developing
                                and general
                                contracting.
                               Heavy and civil                       237
                                engineering
                                construction,
                                including land
                                subdivision.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    EPA does not intend the preceding table to be exhaustive, but 
provides it as a guide for readers regarding entities likely to be 
regulated by this action. This table lists the types of entities that 
EPA is now aware could potentially be regulated by this action. Other 
types of entities not listed in the table could also be regulated. To 
determine whether your facility is regulated by this action, you should 
carefully examine the applicability criteria in 40 CFR 450.10 (74 FR 
62995) and the definition of ``storm water discharges associated with 
industrial activity'' and ``storm water discharges associated with 
small construction activity'' in existing EPA regulations at 40 CFR 
122.26(b)(14)(x) and 122.26(b)(15), respectively. If you have questions 
regarding the applicability of this action to a particular site, 
consult the person listed for technical information in the preceding 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.

II. Discussion of Direct Final Rulemaking

    EPA is proposing to stay the provisions of 40 CFR 450.22(a) and (b) 
that contain the numeric limitation and associated monitoring 
requirements for the Construction and Development Point Source 
category. This stay is necessary to reconsider the record underlying 
the calculation of the 280 NTU numeric limitation. After the numeric 
limitation was promulgated, and based on EPA's examination of the 
dataset underlying the 280 NTU limit, EPA concluded that it improperly 
interpreted the data and, as a result, the calculations in the existing 
administrative record are no longer adequate to support the 280 NTU 
effluent limitation. EPA intends to expeditiously conduct a separate 
rulemaking to correct the numeric effluent limitation. Until the new 
rulemaking is effective, it is proposed that the stay will remain in 
place. EPA expects to complete a notice and comment rulemaking to 
correct the data error by May 30, 2011 so that the revised numeric 
limitation will be effective by June 29, 2011. An effective date of 
June 29, 2011 for the corrected numeric limit will enable EPA to 
incorporate the revised numeric limit and associated monitoring 
requirements in EPA's Construction General Permit. In the ``Rules and 
Regulations'' section of today's Federal Register, we are issuing this 
stay as a direct final rule without prior proposal because we view this 
stay as noncontroversial and anticipate no adverse comment. We have 
described the justification for the stay in the direct final rule. If 
EPA receives no adverse comment on either of these two actions, the 
Agency will not take further action on this proposed rule. If EPA 
receives adverse comment on either of these two actions, the Agency 
will publish a timely withdrawal of the direct final rule in the 
Federal Register. We would then address all public comments in a 
subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. We will not 
institute a second comment period on this action. Any parties 
interested in commenting must do so at this time.
    For the various statutes and Executive Orders that require findings 
for each rulemaking, EPA incorporates the findings from the direct 
final rulemaking into this companion notice for the purpose of 
providing public notice and opportunity for comment.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 450

    Environmental protection, Construction industry, Land development, 
Erosion, Sediment, Stormwater, Water pollution control.

    Dated: November 1, 2010.
Lisa P. Jackson,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2010-28034 Filed 11-4-10; 8:45 am]
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