[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 56 (Monday, March 24, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15997-15998]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-06381]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-New England Region I--EPA-R01-OW-2014-0202; FRL-9908-62-Region 1]


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 coastal waters of 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

DATES: Comments must be submitted by April 23, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R01-
OW-2014-0202, 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 (8:00 a.m.-5:00 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-
2014-0202. 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 8:00 a.m.-5:00 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 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 all coastal waters of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
    The majority of Massachusetts waters have already been designated 
as ``no discharge'' for boat sewage. This petition covers three areas: 
a strip near the state-federal boundary spanning from Manchester-By-
The-Sea to Marshfield, a corridor in Vineyard Sound, and a corridor in 
Nantucket Sound. The state wide NDA will seamlessly integrate the 20 
smaller NDAs that have been designated in Massachusetts since 1991, 
while also incorporating the remaining undesignated coastal waters into 
the statewide prohibition on boat sewage disposal. The boundaries for 
this statewide NDA encompass all Commonwealth of Massachusetts coastal 
waters: from mean low water along the coast of Massachusetts, seaward 
to the state-federal boundary, north to the border with New Hampshire, 
and south to the border with Rhode Island: http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/czm/program-areas/coastal-water-quality/ndas/).
    Previous NDA designations included estimates of the number of boats 
and number of Marine Sanitation Devices (MSDs) in each region of 
interest. Based upon the figures provided in each of the applications, 
there are an estimated 23,080 vessels with MSDs using Massachusetts 
coastal waters. There are approximately 64 marinas, roughly 25,000 
permitted public slips, and moorings. Massachusetts has certified that 
there are a total of 132 pumpout facilities in coastal Massachusetts: 
http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/czm/program-areas/coastal-water-quality/clean-boating/pumpout-list.html.
    Boat owners spend close to $200 million per year on new boats, 
engines, trailers, and accessories. Massachusetts has over 500 bathing 
beaches covering over 727 miles of sandy coastline. The shellfish 
habitat supports hundreds of commercial shellfishermen with a landings 
value of over $27 million. Coastal tourism and recreation employs over 
125,000 individuals in Massachusetts and generates over $14 billion.
    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

[[Page 15998]]

sanitary removal and treatment of sewage from all vessels are 
reasonably available for the state coastal waters of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts.

    Dated: March 10, 2014.
H. Curtis Spalding,
Regional Administrator, New England Region.
[FR Doc. 2014-06381 Filed 3-21-14; 8:45 am]
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