[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 5, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48163-48164]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-12302]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0465; FRL-12012-01-OW]


Proposed Information Collection Request for Water Quality 
Standards Regulation (Renewal)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to 
submit an information collection request (ICR), ``Water Quality 
Standards Regulation (Renewal)'' (EPA ICR No. 0988.16, OMB Control No. 
2040-0049) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. Before doing 
so, the EPA is soliciting public comments on specific aspects of the 
proposed information collection as described below. This ICR renews the 
Water Quality Standards (WQS) Regulation ICR, which is currently 
approved through February 28, 2025. 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 August 5, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-
2011-0465, 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kendall Scarlett, 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: 202-564-1465; email 
address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supporting documents which explain in detail 
the information that the EPA would be collecting are available in the 
public docket for this Information Collection Request (ICR) (Docket ID 
No. EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0465). 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 the EPA's public docket, visit http://www.epa.gov/dockets.
    Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act 
(PRA), the EPA is soliciting comments and information to enable it 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. The EPA will consider the comments received and amend the 
proposed WQS Regulation ICR as appropriate. The final WQS Regulation 
ICR package will then be submitted to OMB for review and approval. At 
that time, the EPA will issue another Federal Register notice to 
announce the submission of the WQS Regulation ICR to OMB and the 
opportunity to submit additional comments to OMB.
    Abstract: Water quality standards (WQS) under the Clean Water Act 
(hereafter referred to as ``the Act'') are provisions of State,\1\ 
Tribal,\2\ or Federal law which consist of designated uses for waters 
of the United States, water quality criteria to protect those uses, and 
antidegradation requirements. WQS are established to protect public 
health or welfare, protect and enhance the quality of water, and serve 
the purposes of the Act. Such standards serve the dual purposes of 
establishing the water quality goals for water bodies and serving as 
the regulatory basis for the establishment of water quality-based 
treatment controls and strategies beyond technology-based levels of 
treatment required by sections 301(b) and 306 of the Act. The WQS 
regulation, consisting of 40 CFR part 131, establishes the framework 
for states and authorized Tribes to adopt standards, and for the EPA to 
review and approve or disapprove them.
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    \1\ ``States'' in the EPA's WQS Regulation and in this document 
includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and 
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
    \2\ ``Tribes'' in this document refers to federally recognized 
Tribes and ``authorized Tribes'' refers to those federally 
recognized Indian Tribes with authority to administer a CWA WQS 
program.
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    This ICR renews the WQS Regulation ICR, OMB control no. 2040-0049, 
expiration date February 28, 2025. This ICR renewal describes the 
estimated burden for states and authorized Tribes associated with the 
information collections to implement the requirements of 40 CFR part 
131 (Water Quality Standards) and required to obtain or retain benefits 
(e.g., relaxed regulatory requirements) under the WQS regulation. This 
WQS Regulation ICR also covers periodic requests for voluntary WQS 
information from states and Tribes to ensure efficient and effective 
administration of the WQS

[[Page 48164]]

program and further cooperative federalism.
    At this time, the EPA is working to consolidate the two burden 
estimates of the activities that were previously split 50/50 between 
this WQS Regulation ICR and a separate NPDES Program ICR, OMB Control 
Number 2040-0004. These activities are the Great Lakes Antidegradation 
Demonstrations and Great Lakes Regulatory Relief Requests. The EPA 
anticipates that by the time this WQS Regulation ICR renewal is 
finalized, the full reporting burden for both activities would have 
been transferred and consolidated within the NPDES Program ICR. 
Therefore, the EPA is not reporting burden estimates for these two 
activities in this WQS Regulation ICR renewal.
    Furthermore, this WQS Regulation ICR does not include estimates for 
the burden and costs of activities related to the changes to protect 
Tribal Reserved Rights the EPA made to the Water Quality Standards 
Regulation, 40 CFR part 131, effective on June 3, 2024 (see 89 FR 
35717, May 2, 2024). There is a separate ICR covering those additional 
activities to protect Tribal Reserved Rights, see OMB control number 
2040-0309, EPA ICR 2700.02.Given the uncertainties in the burden and 
costs estimates in that separate ICR, the EPA expects to revise the 
estimates based on experience gained from implementing the regulation 
changes to protect Tribal Reserved Rights. The EPA then expects to 
consolidate that revision of the burden and costs related to the 
additional activities to protect Tribal Reserved Rights into a future 
renewal of the WQS Regulation ICR. Therefore, in the future, the EPA 
anticipates having one WQS Regulation ICR that includes the current 
separate ICR for the additional activities to protect Tribal Reserved 
Rights.
    Form Numbers: None.
    Respondents/affected entities: Potential respondents to this ICR 
include: the 50 States, the District of Columbia, five territories, 
authorized Tribes with the EPA-approved water quality standards (49 
Tribes as of May 2024), and a total of 18 additional Tribal respondents 
over the three-year duration of the ICR. The total number of potential 
respondents is thus 123.
    Respondent's obligation to respond: Some collections in this ICR 
are mandatory, some are required to obtain or retain benefits pursuant 
to the WQS Regulation, and some are voluntary.
    Estimated number of respondents: 123.
    Frequency of response: Variable (once every three years, on 
occasion or as necessary, or only once) depending on type of 
information collected.
    Total estimated burden: 484,322 hours per year. Burden is defined 
at 5 CFR 1320.03(b).
    Total estimated cost: $24,773,070 in labor costs and $345,180 in 
operations and maintenance costs per year. There are no annualized 
capital costs.
    Change in estimates: An increase in 13,560 hours in estimated 
respondent burden compared with the currently approved ICR. The 
increase reflects the burden hours associated with the addition of 
three Tribal respondents for the information collections on 
``Administering State and Tribal WQS'' and ``Voluntary WQS Program 
Information''. See Supporting Statement in the docket for more 
information.

Deborah G. Nagle,
Director, Office of Science and Technology, Office of Water.
[FR Doc. 2024-12302 Filed 6-4-24; 8:45 am]
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