[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 200 (Wednesday, October 18, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48507-48508]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-22678]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0566; FRL-9969-74-OAR]


Extension of Comment Period on Draft Documents Related to the 
Review of the Primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard for Sulfur 
Oxides

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of extension of public comment period.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 
30-day extension of the comment period on two draft documents titled, 
Risk and Exposure Assessment for the Review of the Primary National 
Ambient Air Quality Standard for Sulfur Oxides, External Review Draft 
(draft REA) and Policy Assessment for the Review of the Primary 
National Ambient Air Quality Standard for Sulfur Oxides, External 
Review Draft (draft PA). The EPA is extending the comment period for an 
additional 30 days to provide stakeholders and the public with 
additional time to review these documents and to prepare meaningful 
comments. The original comment period was to end on October 18, 2017. 
The extended comment period will now close on November 17, 2017.

DATES: The comment period for the document published in the Federal 
Register on September 19, 2017 (82 FR 43756) is extended. Comments must 
be received on or before November 17, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2013-0566, to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or withdrawn. The 
EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not 
submit electronically any information you consider to be Confidential 
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is 
restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must 
be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered 
the official comment and should include discussion of all points you 
wish to make. The EPA will generally not consider comments or comment 
contents located outside of the primary submission (i.e., on the Web, 
Cloud, or other file sharing system). For additional submission 
methods, the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or 
multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective 
comments, please visit http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets. The draft REA and draft PA are available via the Internet at 
https://www.epa.gov/naaqs/sulfur-dioxide-so2-primary-air-quality-standards.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Nicole Hagan, Office of Air 
Quality Planning and Standards (Mail Code C504-06), U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone number: 
(919) 541-3153; fax number: (919) 541-5315; email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information

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

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to EPA through 
http://regulations.gov or email. 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

[[Page 48508]]

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 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 2.
    2. Tips for Preparing your Comments. When submitting comments, 
remember to:
     Identify the notice by docket number and other identifying 
information (subject heading, Federal Register date and page number).
     Follow directions. The agency may ask you to respond to 
specific questions or organize comments by referencing a CFR part or 
section number.
     Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternative and 
substitute language for your requested changes.
     Describe any assumption 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.
     Explain your views as clearly as possible, avoiding the 
use of profanity or personal threats.
     Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period 
deadline identified.

II. Information Specific to the Documents

    Two sections of the Clean Air Act (CAA) govern the establishment 
and revision of the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). 
Section 108 (42 U.S.C. 7408) directs the Administrator to identify and 
list certain air pollutants and then to issue air quality criteria for 
those pollutants. The Administrator is to list those air pollutants 
that in his ``judgment, cause or contribute to air pollution which may 
reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare''; ``the 
presence of which in the ambient air results from numerous or diverse 
mobile or stationary sources''; and ``for which . . . [the 
Administrator] plans to issue air quality criteria . . .'' (42 U.S.C. 
7408(a)(1)(A)-(C)). Air quality criteria are intended 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 . . .'' (42 U.S.C. 7408(a)(2)). Under section 109 (42 U.S.C. 7409), 
the EPA establishes primary (health-based) and secondary (welfare-
based) NAAQS for pollutants for which air quality criteria are issued. 
Section 109(d) 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. Section 109(d)(2) requires that an independent 
scientific review committee ``shall complete a review of the criteria . 
. . and the national primary and secondary ambient air quality 
standards . . . and shall recommend to the Administrator any new . . . 
standards and revisions of the existing criteria and standards as may 
be appropriate . . . .'' Since the early 1980s, this independent review 
function has been performed by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory 
Committee (CASAC).
    Presently, the EPA is reviewing the air quality criteria and 
primary NAAQS for sulfur oxides.\1\ The EPA's overall plan for this 
review is presented in the Integrated Review Plan for the Primary NAAQS 
for Sulfur Dioxide (IRP). The EPA is currently working to finalize the 
Integrated Science Assessment for Sulfur Oxides--Health Criteria (ISA), 
the second draft of which was reviewed by the CASAC at a public meeting 
in March 2017 (82 FR 11449). The Risk and Exposure Assessment Planning 
Document for the Review of the Primary National Ambient Air Quality 
Standards for Sulfur Oxides (REA Planning Document) was also reviewed 
by the CASAC at this meeting (82 FR 11449). The draft REA and draft PA, 
which build on information presented in these documents, were the 
subject of review by the CASAC at a public meeting on September 18-19, 
2017 (82 FR 37213). The EPA will consider comments received from the 
CASAC and the public in preparing revisions to these documents. The 
draft REA and PA documents, and other documents in this review, 
referenced above, are available on the EPA's Technology Transfer 
Network Web site at https://www.epa.gov/naaqs/sulfur-dioxide-so2-primary-air-quality-standards.
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    \1\ The indicator for the current standard is sulfur dioxide.
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    The notice of availability for the draft REA and draft PA was 
originally published on September 19, 2017, with the public comment 
period closing on October 18, 2017 (82 FR 43756). We received a request 
from a member of the public to extend the comment period by 30 days. 
After considering this request, we are extending the comment period 
and, as described above, it will now close on November 17, 2017.

    Dated: October 11, 2017.
Stephen Page,
Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. 2017-22678 Filed 10-17-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P