[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 13, 2019)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 8988-8989]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-04645]



[[Page 8988]]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 271

[EPA-R06-RCRA-2017-0324; FRL-9990-04-Region 6]


Oklahoma: Final Authorization of State Hazardous Waste Management 
Program Revision

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: On October 3, 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to approve a revision 
to the State of Oklahoma hazardous waste program under the Resource 
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and provided for a thirty-day 
public comment period. The public comment period closed on November 2, 
2018 and EPA received five comments. Two of the comments were 
irrelevant to the proposed rulemaking. EPA received written adverse 
comments from three sources not to grant the State of Oklahoma the 
authorized program. The EPA has reviewed and analyzed the concerns 
raised by the commenters, and now issues this final rule. After 
consideration of these concerns, EPA is confirming that the program 
revisions to the State of Oklahoma hazardous waste program satisfy all 
requirements needed to qualify for final authorization. No further 
opportunity for comment will be provided.

DATES: This final authorization is effective March 13, 2019.

ADDRESSES: EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID 
No. EPA-R06-RCRA-2017-0324. All documents in the docket are listed in 
www.regulation.gov index. Although listed in the index, some of the 
information is not publicly available. e.g., Confidential Business 
Information 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 through 
www.regulation.gov or in hard copy. You can view and copy Oklahoma's 
application and associated publicly available materials from 8:30 a.m. 
to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, at the following locations: 
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, 707 North Robinson, 
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73101-1677, (405) 702-7180 and EPA, Region 6, 
1445 Ross Avenue, Suite 1200, Dallas, Texas 75202-2733, phone number 
(214) 665-8533.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Alima Patterson, (214) 665-8533, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. What revisions is EPA authorizing with this action?

    On March 31, 2017, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality 
(ODEQ) submitted a final complete program revision application seeking 
authorization of its program revision in accordance with 40 CFR 271.21. 
EPA now makes a final decision that ODEQ's hazardous waste program 
revisions satisfy all of the requirements necessary to qualify for 
final authorization. EPA will continue to implement and enforce 
Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 (HSWA) provisions for 
which the State is not authorized. For a list of rules that become 
effective with this Final Rule, please see the NPRM published in the 
Federal Register at 83 FR 49900, October 3, 2018.

II. What were the comments and responses to EPA's proposal?

    EPA received comments from five individuals regarding EPA's 
proposal to authorize revisions to Oklahoma's hazardous waste 
regulations. In accordance with 40 CFR part 271, EPA provides the 
following responses to comments regarding authorization of Oklahoma's 
requested RCRA subtitle C program revision:
    Two commenters raised issues that are completely unrelated to this 
rulemaking and will not be addressed. An additional two commenters 
raised issues about a separate rulemaking involving a RCRA subtitle D 
program that is separate from this rulemaking and was addressed in our 
rulemaking approving Oklahoma's Coal Combustion Residual State program. 
See, 83 FR 30356; June 28, 2018. See also, Disposal of Coal Combustion 
Residuals from Electric Utilities 80 FR 21302; April 17, 2015. Those 
issues are outside the scope of this rulemaking. In addition, one of 
the commenters stated that EPA should vacate approval of the Oklahoma 
program because Oklahoma has a significant budget crisis and does not 
have adequate funds, staff or expertise to take on the task. While it 
seems that this question is about Oklahoma's Coal Ash program 
referenced above, and not this revision to Oklahoma's RCRA subtitle C 
program, we speak to this concern. We believe Oklahoma has the 
resources and staff expertise to adequately implement the RCRA subtitle 
C program. This is supported by EPA's oversight and the end-of-year 
review conducted on September 26, 2018. Oklahoma's overall progress, 
accomplishment of Performance Partnership Grant (PPG) workplan 
commitments, and achievement of Government Performance and Results Act 
(GPRA) goals were discussed and evaluated by EPA. See the FY 18 RCRA 
Hazardous Waste Program End-of-Year Report, dated October 24, 2018.
    One commenter indicated that states should not be allowed to have 
regulations that are more stringent or broader in scope than those of 
the national government--that the rules should be uniform across the 
country. RCRA directly addresses this issue, under RCRA section 3009 
and 40 CFR 271.1(i), states are not precluded from having requirements 
that are broader in scope or requirements that are more stringent. In 
this rule, we are not making any broader in scope or more stringent 
determinations. See, Section G of the October 3, 2018 proposed rule, 
there are no state requirements that are more stringent or broader in 
scope than the federal requirements for which Oklahoma is seeking 
authorization. This same commenter stated that the proposed rule would 
allow Oklahoma officials to administer and regulate Subtitle C in 
Indian Country and that Native American land is considered sovereign 
land and should absolutely not be under the jurisdiction of state 
governments. EPA responds to this comment as follows: Nothing in this 
rulemaking authorizes Oklahoma to administer RCRA subtitle C programs 
in Indian country. This commenter also raised concerns about Oklahoma's 
proposed change that classifies fossil fuels as nonhazardous waste and 
that this waste needs to be properly disposed of to slow climate 
change. Our response is as follows: We believe the commenter is 
referring to a clarification to 40 CFR 261.4(b)(4) that wastes from the 
combustion of fossil fuels are not hazardous waste. Oklahoma is 
required to revise their State RCRA subtitle C program to conform to 
the Federal rule change. This change has nothing to do with disposal of 
fossil fuel residual, as noted above this is regulated by a separate 
RCRA subtitle D program and is beyond the scope of this rulemaking.

III. Final Action

    Based on the proposal, administrative record and EPA's responses to 
the comments received regarding the

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proposed authorization of the State of Oklahoma hazardous waste 
management program, EPA is granting final authorization of the state's 
program. EPA retains its authority under RCRA sections 3007, 3008, 3013 
and 7003 which include, among others, authority to: (1) Take 
enforcement actions regardless of whether the state has taken its own 
action, (2) enforce RCRA requirements and suspend or revoke permits; 
and (3) perform inspections, and require monitoring, tests, analyses or 
reports.

IV. What is codification and is the EPA codifying Oklahoma's hazardous 
waste program as authorized in this rule?

    Codification is the process of placing the State's statutes and 
regulations that comprise the State's authorized hazardous waste 
program into the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR). We do this by 
referencing the authorized State rules in 40 CFR part 272. We reserve 
the amendment of 40 CFR part 272 subpart LL for this authorization of 
Oklahoma's program changes until a later date. In this authorization 
application, the EPA is not codifying the rules documented in this 
Federal Register action.

V. Administrative Requirements

    This final authorization revises Oklahoma's authorized hazardous 
waste management program pursuant to RCRA section 3006 and imposes no 
requirements other than those currently imposed by state law. For 
further information on how this authorization complies with applicable 
executive orders and statutory provisions, please see the proposed 
rulemaking published in the Federal Register (83 FR 49900, October 3, 
2018).

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 271

    Environmental protection, Administrative practice and procedure, 
Confidential business information, Hazardous waste, Hazardous waste 
transportation, Indian lands, Intergovernmental relations, Penalties, 
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Authority: This action is issued under the authority of sections 
2002(a), 3006, and 7004(b) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act as 
amended 42 U.S.C. 6912(a), 6926, 6974(b).

    Dated: March 7, 2019.
Anne Idsal,
Regional Administrator, Region 6.
[FR Doc. 2019-04645 Filed 3-12-19; 8:45 am]
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