[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 167 (Wednesday, August 28, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68896-68897]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-19345]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-12180-01-OW]


Clean Water Act; Contractor Access to Confidential Business 
Information

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of intended transfer of confidential business 
information to contractor and its subcontractors.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to transfer 
confidential business information (CBI) collected from numerous 
industries under a newly awarded blanket purchase agreement (BPA), 
effective July 19, 2024, to ICF International, LLC (ICF) and its 
subcontractors. In addition, the EPA intends to transfer CBI collected 
from the meat and poultry products (MPP) industry to ICF and its 
subcontractors under a task order on a different contract, effective 
July 3, 2024. Transfer of this information is necessary for ICF to 
assist the Office of Water in the preparation of effluent guidelines 
and standards and with its effluent guidelines planning and review 
activities. Much of the information being transferred was or will be 
collected under the authority of section 308 of the Clean Water Act 
(CWA). Interested persons may submit comments on this intended transfer 
of information to the address noted below.

DATES: Comments on the transfer of data are due September 5, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document Control 
Officer, Engineering and Analysis Division (4303T), U.S. EPA, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460, or via email at 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document Control 
Officer, at (202) 566-1044, or via email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The EPA has transferred CBI to various 
contractors and subcontractors over the history of the effluent 
guidelines program under 40 CFR 2.302(h). The EPA determined that this 
transfer was necessary to enable the contractors and subcontractors to 
perform their work in supporting EPA in planning, developing, and 
reviewing effluent guidelines and standards for certain industries.
    In this document, pursuant to 40 CFR 2.302(h)(2), the EPA is giving 
notice that, effective July 19, 2024, it has entered into a new BPA 
with ICF, BPA number 68HERC24A0011, located in

[[Page 68897]]

Reston, Virginia. The purpose of this BPA is to secure economic and 
environmental assessment support for the EPA in its development, 
review, implementation, and defense of water-related initiatives for a 
variety of industries. To obtain assistance in responding to this BPA, 
ICF has entered into contracts with the following subcontractors and 
consultants: Cognistic LLC (located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Dr. 
Dennis Guignet (located in Blowing Rock, North Carolina), Dr. Robert 
Johnston (located in Millville, Massachusetts), Dr. David Andrew Keiser 
(located in Pelham, Massachusetts), Dr. Klaus Moeltner (located in 
Blacksburg, Virginia), Ebony Marketing Systems (located in New York, 
New York), Elena Besedin Consulting (located in Middletown, Rhode 
Island), Great Lakes Environmental Center (located in Traverse City, 
Michigan), Hawk Consulting LLC (located in Oak Island, North Carolina), 
Hellerworx, Inc. (located in Chevy Chase, Maryland), Innovate! Inc. 
(located in Alexandria, Virginia), Research Triangle Institute (located 
in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina), Resources for the Future 
(located in Washington, District of Columbia), Shadbegian Economic 
Consulting (located in Worcester, Massachusetts), Dr. Raghavan 
Srinivasan (located in Temple, Texas), and Texas A&M AgriLife Research 
(located in College Station, Texas).
    In addition to the BPA, the EPA is giving notice that it will be 
transferring CBI to ICF, located in Reston, VA, under contract number 
68HERC23D0003. The purpose of this transfer is to support economic and 
environmental analysis support for the EPA in its development of 
effluent guidelines and standards for the MPP industry. To support this 
contract, ICF has entered into contracts with the following 
subcontractors and consultants: Neptune and Company (located in 
Lakewood, Colorado), Avanti Corporation (located in Alexandria, 
Virginia), Cadmus (located in Waltham, Massachusetts), Gibb 
Epidemiology Consulting (located in Washington, District of Columbia), 
Great Lakes Environmental Center (located in Traverse City, Michigan), 
Inotiv (located in Morrisville, North Carolina), Mote Marine Laboratory 
(located in Sarasota, Florida), Pradeep Rajan, LLC (located in Chapel 
Hill, North Carolina), Soller Environmental (located in Berkeley, 
California), Vireo Advisers, LLC (located in Boston, Massachusetts), 
Dr. Alexandria Boehm (located in Stanford, California), Dr. Erica 
McKenzie (located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Dr. Kara Nelson 
(located in Berkeley, California), Dr. Ian Pepper (located in Tucson, 
Arizona), and Dr. Jill Stewart (located in Carrboro, North Carolina).
    All EPA contractor, subcontractor, and consultant personnel are 
bound by the requirements and sanctions contained in their contracts 
with the EPA and in the EPA's confidentiality regulations found at 40 
CFR part 2, subpart B. ICF will adhere to EPA-approved security plans 
which describe procedures to protect CBI. ICF will apply the procedures 
in these plans to CBI previously gathered by the EPA and to CBI that 
may be gathered in the future. The security plans specify that 
contractor personnel are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and 
are briefed on appropriate security procedures before they are 
permitted access to CBI. No person is automatically granted access to 
CBI: a need to know must exist.
    The information that will be transferred to ICF consists of 
information previously collected by the EPA to support the development 
and review of effluent limitations guidelines and standards under the 
CWA and that the EPA had transferred to ICF under a previous contract 
with them. In particular, information, including CBI, collected for the 
planning, development, and review of effluent limitations guidelines 
and standards for the following industries may be transferred to ICF 
under the new contract: airport deicing; aquaculture; centralized waste 
treatment; coal bed methane; concentrated animal feeding operations; 
coal mining; construction and development; drinking water treatment; 
industrial container and drum cleaning; industrial laundries; 
industrial waste combustors; iron and steel manufacturing; landfills; 
meat and poultry products; metal finishing; metal products and 
machinery; nonferrous metals manufacturing; oil and gas extraction 
(including coalbed methane); ore mining and dressing; organic 
chemicals, plastics, and synthetic fibers; pesticide chemicals; 
petroleum refining; pharmaceutical manufacturing; pulp, paper, and 
paperboard manufacturing; shale gas extraction; steam electric power 
generation; textile mills; timber products processing; tobacco; 
transportation equipment cleaning; and other industrial categories that 
the EPA has reviewed or may review as part of its CWA required annual 
review activities.
    The EPA also intends to transfer to ICF all information listed in 
this document, of the type described above (including CBI) that may be 
collected in the future under the authority of section 308 of the CWA 
or voluntarily submitted (e.g., in comments in response to a Federal 
Register notice), as is necessary to enable ICF to carry out the work 
required by its BPA and contract to support EPA's effluent guidelines 
planning and review process and the development of effluent limitations 
guidelines and standards.

Deborah Nagle,
Director, Office of Science and Technology, Office of Water.
[FR Doc. 2024-19345 Filed 8-27-24; 8:45 am]
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