[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 24, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11292-11293]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-03757]



[[Page 11292]]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OW-2016-0404; FRL-10020-61-OW]


Proposed Information Collection Request for the National Study of 
Nutrient Removal and Secondary Technologies: Publicly Owned Treatment 
Works (POTW) Screener Questionnaire

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to submit an 
information collection request (ICR), ``Information Collection Request 
for the National Study of Nutrient Removal and Secondary Technologies: 
Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) Screener Questionnaire 
(Renewal)'' (EPA ICR No. 2553.01, OMB Control No. 2040 0294) to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). Before doing so, EPA 
is soliciting public comments on specific aspects of the proposed 
information collection as described below. This is a proposed extension 
of the ICR, which is currently approved through July 31, 2021. An 
Agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to 
respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently 
valid OMB control number.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before April 26, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-
2016-0404 online using www.regulations.gov (our preferred method), by 
email to [email protected], Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2016-
0404, or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental Protection 
Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 
20460.
    EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the 
public docket without change including any personal information 
provided, unless the comment includes profanity, threats, information 
claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other 
information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Paul Shriner, Engineering and 
Analysis Division (4303T), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: 202-566-
1076; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supporting documents are available in the 
public docket for this ICR that explain in detail the information that 
the EPA will be collecting. The docket can be viewed online at 
www.regulations.gov or in person at the EPA Docket Center, WJC West, 
Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC. The telephone 
number for the Docket Center is 202-566-1744. For additional 
information about EPA's public docket, visit http://www.epa.gov/dockets.
    Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, EPA is soliciting 
comments and information to: (i) Evaluate whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
the functions of the Agency, including whether the information will 
have practical utility; (ii) evaluate the accuracy of the Agency's 
estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, 
including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (iii) 
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be 
collected; and (iv) minimize the burden of the collection of 
information on those who are to respond, including through the use of 
appropriate automated electronic, mechanical, or other technological 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., 
permitting electronic submission of responses. EPA will consider the 
comments received and amend the ICR as appropriate. The final ICR 
package will then be submitted to OMB for review and approval. At that 
time, EPA will issue another Federal Register notice to announce the 
submission of the ICR to OMB and the opportunity to submit additional 
comments to OMB.
    Abstract:
    Nutrient pollution remains the single greatest challenge to our 
Nation's water quality and presents a growing threat to public health 
and local economies--contributing to toxic harmful algal blooms, 
contamination of drinking water sources, and costly impacts on 
recreation, tourism and fisheries. The multi-phase study described 
here, when completed, will provide a rich database of nutrient removal 
performance at secondary treatment POTWs nationwide, and will help 
POTWs understand the range of nutrient removal performance and identify 
opportunities to optimize nutrient removals based on data from their 
peers. It will also serve as a major new resource for POTWs, states and 
other stakeholders to evaluate the most cost-effective approaches to 
nutrient reduction at the watershed scale. With these objectives in 
mind, EPA's Office of Water is collecting data to evaluate the nutrient 
removals and related technology performance of POTWs with conventional 
secondary treatment. For the purposes of this study ``conventional 
secondary treatment'' are those processes used by industry to meet the 
regulatory requirements for secondary treatment.
    The goals of this study are to establish a baseline of nutrient 
performance nationally for secondary treatment facilities and to 
document the capability of POTWs to reduce nutrient discharges by 
implementing changes to operations and maintenance, without making 
extensive capital investments. The full study would be conducted in 
multiple phases, allowing for interactions with stakeholders and 
experts in each phase. The first phase of the study is a screener 
questionnaire, the renewal of which is the focus of this ICR.
    Due to multiple delays, most notably postponements in fielding the 
screener questionnaire due to circumstances associated with the 
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, EPA is proposing to renew the ICR for 
the screener questionnaire. EPA seeks to continue to update existing 
information on the universe of POTWs in the U.S., including tribally 
owned facilities, and collect basic information on the characteristics 
of these POTWs. The conventional secondary plants would be the focus of 
the second phase of study to determine how efficiently these plants 
remove nutrients and how enhancements to operation and maintenance have 
improved their performance. EPA expects to conduct future surveys of a 
statistically representative sample of the population of secondary 
treatment plants, but the exact format of these collections will be 
informed by the data received from this screener questionnaire.
    There are no currently available datasets that identify every POTW 
in the country, or that identify which POTWs are conventional secondary 
treatment plants. Presently there are multiple, disparate databases 
that contain information concerning various subsets of treatment 
facilities; however, each of these databases is incomplete with respect 
to identifying all facilities. In addition, each database has missing 
or incomplete data fields. EPA intends to create a database of the full 
population of POTWs in the U.S. and use that database for further 
statistical study of nutrient removal performance. EPA plans to make 
this database publicly

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available, subject to confidentiality concerns that may arise.
    Currently only case studies are available documenting how secondary 
treatment plants can reduce nutrient discharges through enhanced 
operation and maintenance procedures. This study would provide 
statistically representative data on improved nutrient removal by 
secondary treatment plants resulting from changes in operation and 
maintenance. This study would help States and POTWs agree to and set 
well-informed and realistic nutrient load reduction targets for 
wastewater treatment facilities, where appropriate, and provide 
information on the time and costs needed to make enhancements in 
operation and maintenance procedures.
    EPA's Office of Water is administering the screener questionnaire, 
which solicits basic facility identification, characterization, and 
technical information necessary to develop the future detailed 
questionnaire, to select the sample of secondary treatment plants 
planned for subsequent phases of the study, and to select POTWs where 
future influent and effluent sampling could be conducted to document 
performance. The screener questionnaire is a one-time data collection. 
EPA would prepare a separate ICR for the subsequent phases of the study 
after the screener questionnaire data collection is completed and the 
sample frame for the subsequent phases is developed.
    EPA is limiting the information requested by the screener 
questionnaire to that which is necessary to identify the complete 
population of POTWs and to identify basic information about that 
population. Questions include those necessary to identify and stratify 
the universe of POTWs and, within that population, the secondary 
treatment POTWs not designed specifically to remove nitrogen and 
phosphorus. The screener is user-friendly and makes use of multiple 
choice, yes/no questions, drop down menus, and checkboxes from which 
respondents will choose the best answer. EPA did not include open-ended 
questions to minimize burden on respondents and to assist in compiling 
the data. A copy of the screener questionnaire is available at Docket 
ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2016-0404 as part of this request for comments (see 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document for further 
information).
    EPA designed the screener questionnaire as a web-based survey that 
POTWs can fill out and submit online. Accordingly, a separate signed 
certification form is not required. A hard copy of the screener 
questionnaire was mailed to POTWs upon request. A hard copy was also 
provided to POTWs in small communities where they cannot readily access 
the internet.
    In this renewal EPA proposes three revisions to the currently 
approved screener questionnaire ICR and supporting statement. First, 
EPA has reduced the maximum number of respondents from 16,500 to 
15,000. This reflects the 1,500 survey responses already received as of 
October 30, 2020. Second, EPA has made minor clarifying edits to the 
survey questions such as providing additional examples of certain 
technology classifications. Third, EPA is revising the respondent 
burden estimates. The original average burden estimate assumed it would 
take one hour to complete the registration process and three hours to 
complete the full questionnaire. EPA reviewed start and end dates and 
times associated with questionnaires submitted online and found that 
the average time to complete the long version of the online 
questionnaire was 1.1 hours and the time to complete the short version 
was 26 minutes. EPA revised the average burden to 2.25 hours for the 
questionnaire and 15 minutes for registration (Questionnaire Section A) 
based on this information. EPA solicits comment on these proposed 
changes. EPA is also soliciting comments on EPA's approach to refining 
the mailing list of POTWs, and has made a draft list available in the 
Docket (see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document for 
further information).
    Form Numbers: None.
    Respondents/affected entities: Entities potentially affected by 
this action are approximately 15,000 POTWs that meet the definition 
under 40 CFR 403.3(q), 50 POTWs for site visits, and 100 state and/or 
small municipal association contacts.
    Respondent's obligation to respond: Voluntary.
    Estimated number of respondents: 12,000 (total).
    Frequency of response: One-time data collection.
    Total estimated burden: 29,980 hours (over 3 years). Burden is 
defined at 5 CFR 1320.03(b).
    Total estimated cost: $1,496,981 (over 3 years), includes zero 
annualized capital or operation & maintenance costs.
    Changes in Estimates: There is decrease of 37,180 hours in the 
total estimated respondent burden compared with the ICR currently 
approved by OMB. This decrease is due to screener questionnaire 
responses already received, reduced number of total respondents, and 
replacement of EPA's estimated respondent burdens with the actual time 
respondents took to complete the screener questionnaire.

Deborah Nagle,
Director, Office of Science and Technology, Office of Water.
[FR Doc. 2021-03757 Filed 2-23-21; 8:45 am]
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