[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 81 (Thursday, April 27, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25635-25636]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-08840]



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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OW-2015-0641; FRL-10930-01-OMS]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; BEACH Act Grant Program (Renewal)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has submitted an 
information collection request (ICR), Beaches Environmental Assessment 
and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act Grant Program (EPA ICR Number 2048.07, 
OMB Control Number 2040-0244) to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act. This is a proposed extension of the ICR, which is 
currently approved through April 30, 2023. Public comments were 
previously requested via the Federal Register on July 11, 2022 during a 
60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for 
public comments.

DATES: Comments may be submitted on or before May 30, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-
OW-2015-0641, to EPA online using www.regulations.gov (our preferred 
method), by email to [email protected], 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.
    Submit written comments and recommendations to OMB for the proposed 
information collection within 30 days of publication of this notice to 
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular information 
collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--Open for 
Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lisa Larimer, Office of Water, Office 
of Science and Technology, Standards and Health Protection Division, 
(4305T), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 
Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 566-1017; fax number: 
(202) 566-0409; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a proposed extension of the ICR, 
which is currently approved through April 30, 2023. 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.
    Public comments were previously requested via the Federal Register 
on July 11, 2022 during a 60-day comment period (87 FR 41124). This 
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments. Supporting 
documents, which explain in detail the information that the EPA will be 
collecting, are available in the public docket for this ICR. 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.
    Abstract: The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health 
(BEACH) Act amends the Clean Water Act (CWA) in part and authorizes the 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to award BEACH Act Grants to 
coastal and Great Lakes states, tribes, and territories (collectively 
referred to as jurisdictions) to develop and implement beach monitoring 
and notification programs. The grants assist those jurisdictions to 
develop and implement a consistent approach to monitor coastal 
recreational water quality; assess, manage, and communicate health 
risks from waterborne microbial contamination; notify the public of 
pollution occurrences; and post beach advisories and closures to 
prevent public exposure to microbial pathogens.
    Per CWA section 406 (33 U.S.C. 1346), to qualify for a BEACH Act 
grant a jurisdiction must submit information to EPA documenting that 
its beach monitoring and notification program is consistent with 
performance criteria outlined in the National Beach Guidance and 
Required Performance Criteria for Grants, 2014 Edition. In addition, 
recipients of BEACH Act grants must submit water quality monitoring 
data and information on public notification actions to EPA. All beach 
program information will be collected by EPA's Office of Science and 
Technology, stored in the Beach Advisory and Closing On-line 
Notification (BEACON) system, and accessible via EPA's Beaches website 
for use by the public; state, tribal, territorial, and local 
environmental and public health agencies; and EPA.
    Form Numbers: None.
    Respondents/affected entities: Potential respondents to this ICR 
are recipients of BEACH Act grants, including 29 coastal and Great 
Lakes states, 4 tribes, 5 U.S. territories, and Erie County, 
Pennsylvania.
    Respondent's obligation to respond: Required to obtain or retain a 
benefit (Section 406 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1346).
    Estimated number of respondents: 40 (total).
    Frequency of response: Annual; however, the Agency encourages more 
frequent reporting to provide more up-to-date information to the 
public.
    Total estimated burden: 322,954 hours (per year). Burden is defined 
at 5 CFR 1320.03(b)
    Total estimated cost: $22,976,864 (per year), includes $9,955,800 
annualized capital or operation & maintenance costs.
    Changes in the estimates: There is an increase of 230,953 hours in 
the total estimated respondent burden compared with the ICR currently 
approved by OMB. This increase adjusts estimates in response to 
feedback to better account for labor costs and to structure the ICR to 
better align with the burden associated with the present program. 
Specifically, the increase is due to three main reasons: (1) the 
existing ICR does not fully capture the respondent labor associated 
with collecting water quality samples, (2) the restructuring of actions 
into developmental and annual grant activities and subsequent 
recalculation of the associated burden, and (3) the anticipated 
addition of one tribal respondent. The total respondent cost increased 
by $7.459M due to the changes described above, an increase in the cost 
to analyze water samples, and slight increases in the salary rates. 
However, this increase is offset by a $1.5M decrease in respondent O&M 
cost resulting from using actual respondent sampling frequency data 
rather than previous estimates that overcounted sampling. Agency burden 
and cost increased by 117 hours because the existing ICR did not 
capture some of the labor associated with the administration of beach 
grants or the Agency O&M cost for contractor assistance to 
jurisdictions

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with data submission and maintaining the statutorily required database.

Courtney Kerwin,
Director, Regulatory Support Division.
[FR Doc. 2023-08840 Filed 4-26-23; 8:45 am]
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