[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 76 (Thursday, April 19, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23480-23481]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-9448]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-New England Region I--EPA-R01-OW-2012-0200; FRL-9661-8]


Massachusetts Marine Sanitation Device Standard--Receipt of 
Petition

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice--Receipt of petition.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that a petition has been received from 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requesting a determination by the 
Regional Administrator, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, that 
adequate facilities for the safe and sanitary removal and treatment of 
sewage from all vessels are reasonably available for the waters of 
Mount Hope Bay.

DATES: ``Comments must be submitted by May 21, 2012.''

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R01-
OW-2012-0200, by one of the following methods:
    www.regulations.gov, Follow the on-line instructions for submitting 
comments.
     Email: [email protected].
     Fax: (617) 918-0538.
    Mail and hand delivery: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency--New 
England Region, Five Post Office Square, Suite 100, OEP06-1, Boston, MA 
02109-3912. Deliveries are only accepted during the Regional Office's 
normal hours of operation (8 a.m.-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-
2012-0200. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at 
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 www.regulations.gov, or email. 
The 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 email 
comment directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov your 
email 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 
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 copy-righted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency--New England Region, Five Post Office Square, Suite 
100, OEP06-01, Boston, MA 02109-3912. 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. The 
Regional Office is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
excluding legal holidays. The telephone number is (617) 918-1538.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ann Rodney, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency--New England Region, Five Post Office Square, Suite 
100, OEP06-01, Boston, MA 02109-3912. Telephone: (617) 918-1538, Fax 
number: (617) 918-0538; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is hereby given that a petition has 
been received from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requesting a 
determination by the Regional Administrator, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, pursuant to Section 312(f)(3) of Public Law 92-500 
as amended by Public Law 95-217 and Public Law 100-4, that adequate 
facilities for the safe and sanitary removal and treatment of sewage 
from all vessels are reasonably available for Mount Hope Bay.

[[Page 23481]]



            The Proposed No Discharge Area for Mount Hope Bay
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   Waterbody/general area           Latitude              Longitude
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The northern edge of the NDA  41[deg]50'5.90'' N    71[deg]6'29.34'' W
 boundary on the Taunton
 River is the Center Street/
 Elm Street bridge at:
The northern edge of the NDA  41[deg]44'24.87'' N   71[deg]11'12.72'' W
 boundary on the Lees River
 is the Route 6 bridge at:
The northern edge of the NDA  41[deg]44'47.03'' N   71[deg]12'7.81'' W
 boundary on the Cole River
 is the Route 6 Bridge at:
The southwestern edge of the  41[deg]42'43.94'' N   71[deg]13'34.27'' W
 NDA boundary is the Rhode
 Island/Massachusetts border
 at Swansea at:
The southeastern edge of the  41[deg]40'30.28'' N   71[deg]11'43.86'' W
 NDA boundary is the Rhode
 Island/Massachusetts border
 at Fall River at:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mount Hope Bay NDA will encompass the tidal waters of Dighton,
  Berkley, Freetown, Somerset, Swansea, and Fall River to the mean high
  tide line.

    There are marinas, yacht clubs and public landings/piers in the 
proposed area with a combination of mooring fields and dock space for 
the recreational and commercial vessels. Mount Hope Bay is a shared 
waterbody between Massachusetts and Rhode Island and in 1998 Rhode 
Island designated all its state waters as no discharge, including its 
portion of Mount Hope Bay. Massachusetts has certified that there are 
three pumpout facilities, within the proposed state waters, available 
to the boating public. A list of the facilities, locations, contact 
information, hours of operation, and water depth is provided at the end 
of this petition.
    Massachusetts has provided documentation indicating that the total 
vessel population is estimated to be 585 in the proposed area. It is 
estimated that 523 of the total vessel population may have a Marine 
Sanitation Device (MSD) of some type. The total number of MSDs 
certified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is an overestimate, 
conservatively, giving the boating public a 1:175 ratio of pumpouts to 
boats, which is much less than the ratio suggested by EPA Region 1 
guidelines (300-600 vessels for every one facility.)

                              Pumpout Facilities Within Proposed No Discharge Area
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                                                                                                          Depth
               Name                          Town           Contact information    Hours of operation     (Ft)
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Fall River Harbormaster Boat......  Fall River...........  774-644-3609, VHF 16.  On Call.............       N/A
Somerset Harbormaster Boat........  Somerset.............  774-319-3126, VHF 9,   8:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m..       N/A
                                                            16.
Somerset Land-based Pumpout         Somerset.............  N/A Self Serve.......  8 a.m.-5 p.m.              3.5
 Station at Town Boat Ramp.                                                        Weekdays; 8 a.m.-6
                                                                                   p.m. Weekends.
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    Dated: April 6, 2012.
H. Curtis Spalding,
Regional Administrator, New England Region.
[FR Doc. 2012-9448 Filed 4-18-12; 8:45 am]
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