[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 121 (Tuesday, June 23, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 37619-37621]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-12538]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 300

[EPA-HQ-SFUND-1999-0013; FRL-10010-38-Region 5]


National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan; 
National Priorities List: Deletion of the Fridley Commons Park Well 
Field Superfund Site

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule; notification of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 is issuing 
a Notice of Intent to Delete the Fridley Commons Park Well Field 
Superfund Site (Fridley Well Field Site or Site) located in Fridley, 
Minnesota, from the National Priorities List (NPL) and

[[Page 37620]]

requests public comments on this proposed action. The NPL, promulgated 
pursuant to Section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, 
Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is an 
appendix of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution 
Contingency Plan (NCP). The EPA and the State of Minnesota, through the 
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), have determined that all 
appropriate response actions under CERCLA have been completed. However, 
this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund.

DATES: Comments must be received by July 23, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
SFUND-1999-0013, by one of the following methods:
    https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for 
submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or 
removed from Regulations.gov. 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. 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.
    Email: [email protected].
    Written comments submitted by mail are temporarily suspended and no 
hand deliveries will be accepted. We encourage the public to submit 
comments via email or at https://www.regulations.gov.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-
1999-0013. 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 
Confidential Business Information (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. The https://www.regulations.gov website 
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means 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 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, EPA recommends that you include your name 
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any 
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to 
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA 
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid 
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of 
any defects or viruses.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the https://www.regulations.gov index, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-1999-0013. 
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 electronically at https://www.regulations.gov, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-1999-0013 and at https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.docdata&id=0506449 or you may contact the 
person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section for 
additional availability information.
    The EPA is temporarily suspending its Docket Center and Regional 
Records Centers for public visitors to reduce the risk of transmitting 
COVID-19. In addition, many site information repositories are closed 
and information in these repositories, including the deletion docket, 
has not been updated with hardcopy or electronic media. For further 
information and updates on EPA Docket Center services, please visit us 
online at https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
    The EPA continues to carefully and continuously monitor information 
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local area 
health departments, and our Federal partners so that we can respond 
rapidly as conditions change regarding COVID-19.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karen Cibulskis, NPL Deletion 
Coordinator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 at (312) 
886-1843 or via email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. NPL Deletion Criteria
III. Deletion Procedures
IV. Basis for Site Deletion

I. Introduction

    EPA Region 5 announces its intent to delete the Fridley Well Field 
Site from the NPL and requests public comment on this proposed action. 
The NPL constitutes Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300, which is the NCP, 
which EPA promulgated pursuant to Section 105 of CERCLA of 1980, as 
amended. EPA maintains the NPL as the list of sites that appear to 
present a significant risk to public health, welfare, or the 
environment. Sites on the NPL may be the subject of remedial actions 
financed by the Hazardous Substance Superfund (Fund). As described in 
40 CFR 300.425(e)(3) of the NCP, sites deleted from the NPL remain 
eligible for Fund-financed remedial actions if future conditions 
warrant such actions.
    EPA will accept comments on the proposal to delete this site for 
thirty (30) days after publication of this document in the Federal 
Register.
    Section II of this document explains the criteria for deleting 
sites from the NPL. Section III of this document discusses the 
procedures that EPA is using for this action. Section IV of this 
document discusses where to access and review information that 
demonstrates how the deletion criteria have been met at the Fridley 
Well Field Site.

II. NPL Deletion Criteria

    The NCP establishes the criteria that EPA uses to delete sites from 
the NPL. In accordance with 40 CFR 300.425(e), sites may be deleted 
from the NPL where no further response is appropriate. In making such a 
determination pursuant to 40 CFR 300.425(e), EPA will consider, in 
consultation with the State, whether any of the following criteria have 
been met:
    i. Responsible parties or other persons have implemented all 
appropriate response actions required;
    ii. All appropriate Fund-financed response under CERCLA has been 
implemented, and no further response

[[Page 37621]]

action by responsible parties is appropriate; or
    iii. The remedial investigation has shown that the release poses no 
significant threat to public health or the environment and, therefore, 
the taking of remedial measures is not appropriate.
    Pursuant to CERCLA Section 121(c) and the NCP, EPA may initiate 
further action to ensure continued protectiveness at a deleted site if 
new information becomes available that indicates it is appropriate. 
Whenever there is a significant release from a site deleted from the 
NPL, the deleted site may be restored to the NPL without application of 
the hazard ranking system.

III. Deletion Procedures

    The following procedures apply to deletion of the Fridley Well 
Field Site:
    (1) EPA consulted with the State of Minnesota prior to developing 
this Notice of Intent to Delete.
    (2) EPA has provided the State thirty (30) working days for review 
of this notice prior to publication of it today.
    (3) In accordance with the criteria discussed above, EPA has 
determined that no further response is appropriate.
    (4) The State of Minnesota, through the MPCA, has concurred with 
deletion of the Fridley Well Field Site from the NPL.
    (5) Concurrently with the publication of this Notice of Intent to 
Delete in the Federal Register, an announcement of the availability of 
the Notice of Intent to Delete is being published in a major local 
newspaper, the Blaine/Spring Lake Park/Columbia Heights/Fridley Life. 
The newspaper notice announces the 30-day public comment period 
concerning the Notice of Intent to Delete the Fridley Well Field Site 
from the NPL.
    (6) EPA placed copies of documents supporting the proposed deletion 
in the deletion docket and made these items available for public 
inspection and copying at https://www.regulations.gov, Docket ID No. 
EPA-HQ-SFUND-1999-0013 and at https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.docdata&id=0506449.
    If comments are received within the 30-day public comment period on 
this document, EPA will evaluate and respond appropriately to the 
comments before making a final decision to delete. If necessary, EPA 
will prepare a Responsiveness Summary to address any significant public 
comments received. After the public comment period, if EPA determines 
it is still appropriate to delete the Site from the NPL, the EPA will 
publish a final Notice of Deletion in the Federal Register. Public 
notices, public submissions, and copies of the Responsiveness Summary, 
if prepared, will be made available to interested parties and in the 
docket listed above.
    Deletion of a site from the NPL does not itself create, alter, or 
revoke any individual's rights or obligations. Deletion of a site from 
the NPL does not in any way alter EPA's right to take enforcement 
actions, as appropriate. The NPL is designed primarily for 
informational purposes and to assist EPA management. Section 
300.425(e)(3) of the NCP states that the deletion of a site from the 
NPL does not preclude eligibility for future response actions, should 
future conditions warrant such actions.

IV. Basis for Site Deletion

    The EPA placed copies of EPA's Final Close Out Report for the Site 
and other documents supporting the proposed deletion in the deletion 
docket. The material provides explanation of EPA's rationale for the 
deletion and demonstrates how the Fridley Well Field Site meets the 
deletion criteria. This information is made available for public 
inspection in the docket identified above.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 300:

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Chemicals, 
Hazardous waste, Hazardous substances, Intergovernmental relations, 
Penalties, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Superfund, Water 
pollution control, Water supply.

    Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.; 42 U.S.C. 9601-9657; E.O. 
13626, 77 FR 56749, 3 CFR, 2013 Comp., p. 306; E.O. 12777, 56 FR 
54757, 3 CFR, 1991 Comp., p. 351; E.O. 12580, 52 FR 2923, 3 CFR, 
1987 Comp., p. 193.

    Dated: June 4, 2020.
Kurt Thiede,
Regional Administrator, Region 5.
[FR Doc. 2020-12538 Filed 6-22-20; 8:45 am]
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