[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 176 (Wednesday, September 11, 2019)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 47882-47884]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-19573]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Parts 51, 60, 61, and 63
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0531; FRL-9999-52-OAR]
Stationary Source Audit Program; Notification of Availability and
Request for Comments
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notification of availability, request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing
notification that one of the two accredited providers
[[Page 47883]]
of audit samples for the stationary source audit program has ceased
manufacturing samples. The general provisions require that the owner or
operator of an affected facility required to conduct performance
testing obtain audit samples if the audit samples are ``commercially
available'' and have defined ``commercially available'' to mean that
two or more independent accredited audit sample providers have blind
audit samples available for purchase. Since there are no longer two
providers, the requirement to obtain these audit samples is no longer
in effect until such time as another independent accredited audit
sample provider has audit samples available for purchase. The EPA is
providing a 90-day comment period during which interested persons may
provide comments on the suspension of the stationary source audit
program and the effectiveness of the program prior to its suspension.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before December 10, 2019.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2008-0531, to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://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 Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or withdrawn.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 https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
For additional information about the EPA's public docket, visit the
EPA Docket Center homepage at https://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
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 copyrighted 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 Air and
Radiation Docket and Information Center, EPA/DC, WJC West Building,
Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC. The Public
Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through
Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public
Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Air
Docket is (202) 566-1742.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Ned Shappley, Air Quality
Assessment Division, Environmental Protection Agency, Mail code: E143-
02, 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709;
telephone number: (919) 541-7903; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
On September 13, 2010 (75 FR 55636), EPA promulgated amendments to
the General Provisions of parts 51, 60, 61, and 63 to allow accredited
audit sample providers to supply stationary source audit samples and to
require sources to obtain and use these samples from the accredited
providers instead of from EPA, as was the practice prior to the
promulgation date.
These amendments included minimum requirements for the audit
samples, the accredited audit sample providers (AASP), and the audit
sample provider accreditor (ASPA). The AASP are the companies that
prepare and distribute the audit samples and the ASPA is a third-party
organization that accredits and monitors the performance of the AASP.
These organizations were required to work through a Voluntary Consensus
Standard Body (VCSB) \1\ using the consensus process to develop
criteria documents that describe how they will function and meet the
EPA regulatory criteria listed in this rule. The AASPs were required to
be accredited by an ASPA according to a technical criteria document
developed by a VCSB and these technical criteria document had to meet
EPA regulations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The Federal Office of Management and Budget Circular A-119
defines a VCSB as one having the following attributes: (i) Openness;
(ii) balance of interest; (iii) due process; (iv) an appeals
process; and (v) consensus, which is general agreement, but not
necessarily unanimity, and includes a process for attempting to
resolve objections by interested parties.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
These amendments also included language that outlined the
responsibilities of the regulated source owner or operator to acquire
and use an audit sample for all testing conducted to determine
compliance with an air emission limit under the subject parts and
specified that the requirement applies only if there are commercially
available audit samples for the test method used during the compliance
testing. By clarifying the audit sample requirement and expanding audit
sample availability through multiple providers, EPA believed that more
audits would be conducted for compliance tests and the overall quality
of the data used for determining compliance would improve.
II. Public Comment on the Suspension of the SSAP Program
The EPA suspended the SSAP program effective May 28, 2019, when we
were notified by one of the two AASP that they would no longer be
supplying audit samples. Since we require that audit samples are
``commercially available'' and have defined ``commercially available''
to mean that two or more independent AASP have blind audit samples
available for purchase, EPA was obligated to suspend the program and
provide notification on our website (https://www.epa.gov/emc). The EPA
is seeking comment on whether we should continue the SSAP as currently
defined in the General Provisions to 40 CFR parts 51, 60, 61, and 63.
EPA is also seeking comment regarding if we should redefine
``commercially available'' as it applies to the number of AASPs which
have audit samples available for purchase. The comment period for this
action is 90 days from September 11, 2019.
III. Public Comment on the Effectiveness of the SSAP Program
Since the privatization of the EPA SSAP, approximately 20,000 audit
samples have been ordered and analyzed with an effective passing rate
of 97 percent for all methods in which audit samples are available. EPA
is requesting comment on effectiveness of the SSAP and whether it has
improved the quality of data produced by performance testing. In
addition, EPA is seeking comment on whether EPA should consider
revisions to the SSAP program to make it a more effective tool for
evaluating quality of a performance test. As indicated previously, the
comment period for this action is 90 days from September 11, 2019.
[[Page 47884]]
Dated: August 20, 2019.
Richard A. Wayland,
Director, Air Quality Assessment Division.
[FR Doc. 2019-19573 Filed 9-10-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P