[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 190 (Tuesday, October 1, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 52055-52057]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-20927]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 60
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0960; FRL-10000-43-OAR]
Call for Information: Information Related to the Development of
Emission Estimating Methodologies for Animal Feeding Operations
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Call for information.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting
quality-assured emissions and process data, and calculation models and
methodologies that are relevant to developing emission estimating
methodologies (EEMs) for emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC)
from animal feeding operations (AFOs). The EPA may use the data to
supplement the emissions and process data collected under the National
Air Emission Monitoring Study (NAEMS) for AFOs.
DATES: Information must be received on or before December 2, 2019.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2010-0960, by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/
(our preferred method). Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Email: [email protected]. Include Docket ID No. EPA-
HQ-OAR-
[[Page 52056]]
2010-0960 in the subject line of the message.
Fax: (202) 566-9744. Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2010-0960.
Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket
Center, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0960, Mail Code 28221T, 1200
Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460.
Hand/Courier Delivery: EPA Docket Center, WJC West
Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004.
The Docket Center's hours of operation are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-
Friday (except federal holidays).
Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket ID
No. for this rulemaking. Comments received may be posted without change
to https://www.regulations.gov/, including any personal information
provided. For detailed instructions on sending comments and additional
information on the rulemaking process, see the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions about this Call for
Information, contact Mr. William Schrock, Sector Policies and Programs
Division (E143-03), Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
27711; telephone number: (919) 541-5032; fax number: (919) 541-0516;
and email address: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Docket. The EPA has established a docket for this rulemaking under
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0960. All documents in the docket are
listed in Regulations.gov. Although listed, some information is not
publicly available, e.g., Confidential Business Information (CBI) or
other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain
other material, such as copyrighted material, is not placed on the
internet and will be publicly available only in hard copy. Publicly
available docket materials are available either electronically in
Regulations.gov or in hard copy at the EPA Docket Center, Room 3334,
WJC West Building, 1301 Constitution Avenue 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 EPA
Docket Center is (202) 566-1742.
Instructions. Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2010-0960. The EPA's policy is that all comments received will be
included in the public docket without change and may be made available
online at https://www.regulations.gov/, including any personal
information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed
to be CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by
statute. Do not submit information that you consider to be CBI or
otherwise protected through https://www.regulations.gov/ or email. This
type of information should be submitted by mail as discussed below.
The EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket.
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.
The https://www.regulations.gov/ website allows you to submit your
comment anonymously, which means the 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 the EPA without going through
https://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, the EPA recommends that you include your name and
other contact information in the body of your comment and with any
digital storage media you submit. If the EPA cannot read your comment
due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification,
the EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files
should not include special characters or any form of encryption and be
free of any defects or viruses. For additional information about the
EPA's public docket, visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
Submitting CBI. Do not submit information containing CBI to the EPA
through https://www.regulations.gov/ or email. Clearly mark the part or
all of the information that you claim to be CBI. For CBI information on
any digital storage media that you mail to the EPA, mark the outside of
the digital storage media as CBI and then identify electronically
within the digital storage media the specific information that is
claimed as CBI. In addition to one complete version of the comments
that includes information claimed as CBI, you must submit a copy of the
comments that does not contain the information claimed as CBI directly
to the public docket through the procedures outlined in Instructions
above. If you submit any digital storage media that does not contain
CBI, mark the outside of the digital storage media clearly that it does
not contain CBI. Information not marked as CBI will be included in the
public docket and the EPA's electronic public docket without prior
notice. Information marked as CBI will not be disclosed except in
accordance with procedures set forth in 40 Code of Federal Regulations
(CFR) part 2. Send or deliver information identified as CBI only to the
following address: OAQPS Document Control Officer (C404-02), OAQPS,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North
Carolina 27711, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0960.
Call for Information acronyms and abbreviations. We use multiple
acronyms and terms in this Call for Information. While this list may
not be exhaustive, to ease the reading of this Call for Information and
for reference purposes, the EPA defines the following terms and
acronyms here:
AFOs animal feeding operations
CBI Confidential Business Information
EEMs emission estimating methodologies
NAEMS National Air Emission Monitoring Study
SAB Science Advisory Board
VOC volatile organic compounds
I. General Information
A. What is the purpose of this action?
In 2005, the EPA offered AFOs an opportunity to participate in a
voluntary consent agreement (70 FR 4958, January 31, 2005) referred to
as the Air Compliance Agreement. Under the Air Compliance Agreement,
participating AFOs were responsible for, among other things, the
funding for NAEMS--a 2-year, nationwide industry-run emissions
monitoring study of the broiler, egg-layer, swine, and dairy
industries. Monitoring under NAEMS began in the summer of 2007 and it
occurred at 25 monitoring sites located in 10 states. The study
collected process and emissions data for ammonia, hydrogen sulfide,
particle pollution, and VOC from a representative sample of animal
[[Page 52057]]
housing structures and manure storage and treatment units across the
country.
The EPA plans to use these data to develop EEMs for AFOs, which
will help AFOs determine and comply with any applicable regulatory
responsibilities under the Clean Air Act. Additional information
regarding NAEMS can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/afos-air/national-air-emissions-monitoring-study.
In the January 2005 Federal Register document, the EPA committed to
using data generated from NAEMS and all other available, relevant data
to develop EEMs. On January 19, 2011, the EPA published a call for
information to obtain emissions and process data for animal confinement
and manure storage and treatment processes at beef, broiler, dairy,
egg-layer, swine, and turkey AFOs (76 FR 3060). Using the NAEMS data
and the data obtained through the 2011 call for information, the EPA
developed draft EEMs for broiler confinement operations and for open
lagoons and basins at swine and dairy operations. In 2013, the EPA
requested that the Science Advisory Board (SAB) conduct a review of
these draft EEMs and provide feedback regarding the development of the
methodologies. As noted by the SAB in their March 19, 2013, review
summary, and reaffirmed by recent EPA data reviews, peer-reviewed data
regarding VOC emissions from AFOs are limited.\1\ Through the Call for
Information in this document, the EPA is requesting that interested
parties submit VOC emissions and process data available since 2011 that
are relevant to the EPA's effort to develop EEMs for animal confinement
and manure storage and treatment processes at broiler, dairy, egg-
layer, and swine AFOs, particularly for open sources at dairy and swine
operations (e.g., lagoons and basins).
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\1\ See https://www.epa.gov/afos-air/national-air-emissions-monitoring-study#naems-sab.
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B. What specific information is the EPA seeking?
The EPA is requesting data for VOC emissions from animal
confinement and manure storage and treatment processes at broiler, egg-
layer, swine, and dairy AFOs and related process information.
Consistent with the Air Compliance Agreement, the EPA is focusing in
the near term on developing EEMs for AFOs using statistical models.
However, we acknowledge the recommendation that the EPA develop a
process-based modeling approach that incorporates ``mass balance''
constraints to determine emissions from AFOs, made by the National
Academy of Sciences in its December 2002 final report titled Air
Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future
Needs. In their 2013 review, the SAB also recommended that the EPA
develop process-based models for estimating emissions from AFOs. As
noted in the EPA's 2013 response to the SAB review, we will carefully
consider its recommendations and we will review all of the information
available to us in developing the AFO EEMs. To ensure compatibility
with the NAEMS data, the emissions and related process data provided to
the EPA should be accompanied, if possible, by documentation that
contains detailed descriptions of the following parameters, as
applicable.
1. General information:
Description of AFO process measured (e.g., animal
confinement structure; manure storage and treatment unit; land
application site).
Location of AFO process measured (e.g., physical address,
latitude/longitude coordinates of facility).
Beginning and ending dates of the monitoring period.
2. Monitoring data:
Quality assurance and quality control plan.
Site monitoring plan.
Test methods, instrumentation, and standard operating
procedures used to collect emissions and process data measurements.
Results of audits conducted on instruments and procedures.
Field notes and associated documentation collected during
the monitoring.
Emissions data (unanalyzed or analyzed) and associated
process data.
Meteorological data, including average ambient
temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wind speed, wind direction,
and insolation (solar radiation) for each day that the study was
conducted.
Production data (e.g., number of eggs produced per day or
quantity of milk produced per day).
Calculations and assumptions used to convert concentration
data (e.g., parts per million by volume) into mass emissions (e.g.,
pounds per hour).
3. Animal confinement structures:
Dimensions of structures monitored.
Designed and permitted animal capacity.
Type, age, number, and weight of animals contained in the
confinement structure over the duration of the monitoring period.
Manure management system (e.g., pull-plug pit, scrape).
Dates of production and manure management activities over
the duration of the monitoring period.
Ventilation method (i.e., natural or mechanical).
Calculations and assumptions used to estimate the
ventilation rate of the monitored confinement structure.
Calibration procedures for instruments (e.g., flow meters,
fan relays) used to collect data for calculating ventilation rate of
the monitored confinement structure.
Data on air temperature and relative humidity within the
structure for each day that the study was conducted.
Organics content of process inputs and outputs (e.g.,
feed, water, bedding, eggs, milk).
Organics content of manure excreted.
Description of any control device or work practice used in
the monitored structure to reduce emissions.
4. Manure storage and treatment processes:
Type, age, number, and weight of animals contributing
manure to the storage and treatment process over the monitoring period.
Dimensions of storage/treatment unit monitored (e.g.,
storage pile, tank, lagoon).
Depth of settled solids in storage/treatment unit.
Temperature, pH, and reduction/oxidation potential of
manure contained in the storage/treatment unit.
Moisture, total solids, volatile solids, organic content,
total Kjeldahl nitrogen, and ammoniacal nitrogen content and pH of
manure entering storage and treatment process over the monitoring
period.
With regard to the format of the information, we request that
emissions, process, and production data be submitted to the EPA in
Microsoft[supreg] Excel[supreg] spreadsheet or Access[supreg] database
format. In cases where the emissions, process, and production data
correspond to time increments shorter than 1 hour, please provide
sufficient information and supporting documentation with the data to
allow the EPA to develop emission estimates on a per-hour and per-day
basis. For all formats, please clearly label the units of measure of
emissions, process, and production data submitted.
Dated: September 18, 2019.
Anne L. Idsal,
Acting Assistant Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2019-20927 Filed 9-30-19; 8:45 am]
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