[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 122 (Wednesday, June 24, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 37808-37809]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-13301]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 300

[EPA-HQ-SFUND-1983-0002; FRL-10010-66-Region 5]


National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan; 
National Priorities List: Partial Deletion of the Allied Chemical & 
Ironton Coke 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 soil (land), lagoon, and sediment portions 
of the Allied Chemical & Ironton Coke Superfund Site (Site) in Ironton, 
Ohio, from the National Priorities List (NPL) and 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 Ohio, through the Ohio Environmental 
Protection Agency (OEPA), have determined that all appropriate response 
actions identified for these Site media, other than operation and 
maintenance, monitoring, and five-year reviews, have been completed. 
However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under 
Superfund.

DATES: Comments must be received by July 24, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
SFUND-1983-0002, by one of the following methods:
    https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line 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

[[Page 37809]]

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-
1983-0002. 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. 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 and at https://www.epa.gov/superfund/allied-chemical-ironton 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 Deletions 
Coordinator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, at (312) 
886-1843 or via email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This partial deletion pertains to the soil 
(land) portion of the Goldcamp Disposal Area (Operable Unit 1, or OU1); 
the soil (land) and lagoon portion of the Coke Plant/Lagoon Area (OU2), 
except for the OU2 ROD Soils Area 2 located within the bermed area of 
the East Tank Farm (see Figure 3 in the Docket); and all of the Tar 
Plant area (OU3), which addresses contaminated soil and sediment at the 
Tar Plant and in the adjacent Ohio River.
    The OU2 ROD Soils Area 2 located within the bermed area of the East 
Tank Farm contains components of the groundwater treatment system and 
will not be remediated until after the groundwater cleanup is complete.
    Therefore, the OU2 ROD Soils Area 2 is not being considered for 
deletion as part of this action. The contaminated groundwater at the 
Site, which is present below all three OUs but is being addressed as 
part of the OU1 and OU2 cleanup remedies, is undergoing a long-term 
cleanup and is also not being considered for deletion as part of this 
action. The OU2 ROD Soils Area 2 and the groundwater portions of the 
Allied Chemical Site (i.e., the groundwater portion of OU1 and OU2, 
which includes the contaminated groundwater below OU3) will remain on 
the NPL.
    In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of today's Federal 
Register, we are publishing a direct final Notice of Partial Deletion 
of the Allied Chemical & Ironton Coke Superfund Site without prior 
Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion because EPA views this as a 
noncontroversial revision and anticipates no adverse comment. We have 
explained our reasons for this deletion in the preamble to the direct 
final Notice of Partial Deletion, and those reasons are incorporated 
herein. If we receive no adverse comment(s) on this partial deletion 
action, we will not take further action on this Notice of Intent for 
Partial Deletion. If we receive adverse comment(s), we will withdraw 
the direct final Notice of Partial Deletion, and it will not take 
effect. We will, as appropriate, address all public comments in a 
subsequent final Notice of Partial Deletion based on this Notice of 
Intent for Partial Deletion. We will not institute a second comment 
period on this Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion. Any parties 
interested in commenting must do so at this time.
    For additional information, see the direct final Notice of Partial 
Deletion which is located in the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of 
this Federal Register.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 300

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Chemicals, 
Hazardous substances, Hazardous waste, 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 11, 2020.
Kurt Thiede,
Regional Administrator, Region 5.
[FR Doc. 2020-13301 Filed 6-23-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P