[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 163 (Wednesday, August 22, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42498-42499]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-18116]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9982-69-OW]
Clean Water Act; Contractor Access to Confidential Business
Information
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of intended transfer of confidential business
information to contractor and its subcontractors and consultants.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to transfer
confidential business information (CBI), collected from numerous
industries, to ICF International (ICF) and its subcontractors and
consultants, under an EPA contract newly awarded to ICF. Transfer of
this information is necessary for ICF to assist the Office of Water in
the preparation of economic analyses and environmental assessment
activities conducted in support of Clean Water Act regulations and
programs, such as effluent guidelines and associated planning and
review activities, and water quality standards. Much of the information
being transferred was or will be collected under the authority of
section 308 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to support effluent guidelines
development in particular. Interested persons may submit comments on
this intended transfer of information to the address noted below.
DATES: Comments on the transfer of data are due August 27, 2018.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document Control
Officer, Engineering and Analysis Division (4303T), U.S. EPA, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document Control
Officer, at (202) 566-1044, or via email at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA has transferred CBI to its contractors
and subcontractors as part of the effluent guidelines program under 40
CFR 2.302(h). EPA determined that this transfer was necessary to enable
the contractors, subcontractors, and consultants to perform their work
in supporting EPA in planning, developing, and reviewing effluent
guidelines and standards for certain industries.
Pursuant to 40 CFR 2.302(h)(2), EPA is giving notice that it has
entered into a new contract with ICF, contract number 68HE0C18D0001,
located in Fairfax, Virginia. The purpose of this contract is to secure
economic and environmental assessment support for EPA in its
development, review, implementation, and defense of water-related
initiatives for a variety of industries or states. To obtain assistance
in responding to this contract, ICF has entered into contracts with the
following subcontractors and consultants: The Cadmus Group, LLC
(located in Waltham, Massachusetts), CognistX (located in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania), Great Lakes Environmental Center, Inc. (located in
Traverse City, Michigan), Horizon Systems Corporation (located in White
Stone, Virginia), Innovate! Inc. (located in Alexandria, Virginia),
LimnoTech Inc. (located in Ann Arbor, Michigan), Resources for the
Future (located in Washington, DC), RTI International (located in
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina), Wayne Gray (located in
Worcester, Massachusetts), Robert Johnston (located in Millville,
Massachusetts), Klaus Moeltner (located in Blacksburg, Virginia), Kerry
Smith (located in Cave Creek, Arizona), and Raghavan Srinivasan
(located in College Station, Texas).
All EPA contractor, subcontractor, and consultant personnel are
bound by the requirements and sanctions contained in their contracts
with EPA and in EPA's CBI regulations found at 40 CFR part 2, subpart
B. ICF will adhere to an EPA-approved security plan which describes
procedures to protect CBI. ICF will apply the procedures in this plan
to CBI previously gathered by EPA and to CBI that may be gathered in
the future. The security plan specifies that contractor personnel are
required to sign non-disclosure agreements and are briefed
[[Page 42499]]
on appropriate security procedures before they are permitted access to
CBI. No person is automatically granted access to CBI: A need to know
must exist.
The information that will be transferred to ICF consists of
information previously collected by EPA to support the development and
review of effluent limitations guidelines and standards under the CWA.
In particular, information, including CBI, collected for the planning,
development, and review of effluent limitations guidelines and
standards for the following industries may be transferred to ICF under
the new contract: Airport deicing; aquaculture; centralized waste
treatment; coal bed methane; concentrated animal feeding operations;
coal mining; construction and development; drinking water treatment;
industrial container and drum cleaning; industrial laundries;
industrial waste combustors; iron and steel manufacturing; landfills;
meat and poultry products; metal finishing; metal products and
machinery; nonferrous metals manufacturing; oil and gas extraction
(including coalbed methane); ore mining and dressing; organic
chemicals, plastics, and synthetic fibers; pesticide chemicals;
petroleum refining; pharmaceutical manufacturing; pulp, paper, and
paperboard manufacturing; shale gas extraction; steam electric power
generation; textile mills; timber products processing; tobacco;
transportation equipment cleaning; and other industrial categories that
EPA has reviewed as part of its CWA required annual review activities.
EPA also intends to transfer to ICF all information listed in this
notice, of the type described above (including CBI) that may be
collected in the future under the authority of section 308 of the CWA
or voluntarily submitted (e.g., in comments in response to a Federal
Register notice), as is necessary to enable ICF to carry out the work
required by its contract to support EPA's effluent guidelines planning
and review process and the development of effluent limitations
guidelines and standards.
Dated: August 10, 2018.
Deborah G. Nagle,
Acting Director, Office of Science and Technology, Office of Water.
[FR Doc. 2018-18116 Filed 8-21-18; 8:45 am]
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