[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 3, 2025)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 23505-23506]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-10022]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300
[EPA-HQ-OLEM-2024-0376; 12162-03-OLEM]
National Priorities List; Addition of Exide Technologies-Vernon
Site; Notification of Data Availability and Request for Comment
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notification of data availability.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the
availability of and soliciting public comment on additional data
related to the proposed addition of the Exide Technologies-Vernon site
in Vernon, California to the National Priorities List (NPL). The EPA
proposed to list the site on the NPL on September 5, 2024. These
additional data pertain to the lines of evidence of aquifer
interconnection and contaminant attribution and may be used by the EPA
in a future
[[Page 23506]]
determination on whether to list the site on the NPL.
DATES: Comments must be submitted (postmarked) on or before July 3,
2025.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OLEM-2024-0376, by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/
(our preferred method). Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Agency Website: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/current-npl-updates-new-proposed-npl-sites-and-new-npl-sites; scroll down to the
site for which you would like to submit comments and click the
``Comment Now'' link.
Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket
Center, Superfund Docket, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW, Washington, DC 20460.
Hand Delivery or Courier (by scheduled appointment only):
EPA Docket Center, WJC West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004. The Docket Center's hours of
operations are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday (except Federal
holidays).
Instructions: All submissions received must include the appropriate
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2024-0376. Comments received may be posted
without change to https://www.regulations.gov/, including any personal
information provided. For additional information on the contents of the
addition of this reference documentation to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-
2024-0376 and details on the docket contents open for public comment
submissions, see the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this
document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Vanessa Van Note, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Site Assessment and Remedy Decisions Branch,
Assessment and Remediation Division, Office of Superfund Remediation
and Technology Innovation (Mail Code 5203T), 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW, Washington, DC 20460, telephone number: (202) 564-4830, email
address: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
A. Proposed Listing of Exide Technologies-Vernon
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act (``CERCLA'' or ``the Act''), as amended, requires that
the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan
(``NCP'') include a list of national priorities among the known
releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants or
contaminants throughout the United States. The National Priorities List
(``NPL'') constitutes this list. In the Federal Register of September
5, 2024 (89 FR 72356), the EPA proposed to add four sites to the
General Superfund section of the NPL, one of which is Exide
Technologies-Vernon.
B. Public Comments on the Proposed Listing
The comment period for the proposed rule closed on December 4, 2024
(In response to commenters' request, EPA provided a 30-day extension
from November 4, 2024, which was the comment period identified in the
proposed rule). The EPA received thirty-five comments regarding the
proposed listing of Exide Technologies-Vernon.
One commenter (EPA-HQ-OLEM-2024-0376-0042) (Ref. 1) questioned the
EPA's discussion of the geologic conditions local to the site in the
Hazard Ranking System (HRS) documentation record (Ref. 2). The
commenter, Clarios, LLC, stated that the HRS documentation did not
discuss ``the approximately 35-foot aquitard between the Exposition and
the Gage-Gardena aquifers and the approximately 35-foot aquitard
located between the Gage-Gardena and Hollydale aquifers,'' and that
these aquitards had the potential to greatly inhibit the vertical
migration of one of the contaminants of concern, trichloroethylene
(TCE) (Ref. 1). This commenter also stated that the HRS documentation
did not provide an explanation for ``how TCE would migrate from the
Perched Zone to the Exposition Aquifer given the absence of water
permeating through the Bellflower Aquiclude'' (Ref. 1).
After consideration of public comments, the EPA is providing the
documentation used to develop the content presented in the reference
(Ref. 3). This information includes a technical memorandum and related
data source documents providing an explanation of the analytical
approach, the findings from the application of diverse analytical
techniques, and a summary of conclusions based on multiple lines of
evidence. This data will be included as one reference to the HRS
documentation record, and the EPA is providing this additional document
for public review and comment. The additional document, a technical
memorandum, will be posted to the site Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2024-
0376-004 on https://regulations.gov. Materials referenced in this
additional document are available on request from regional docket. The
contact information for the region docket is as follows:
Leslie Ramirez, Region 9 (AZ, CA, HI, NV, AS, GU, MP),
U.S. EPA, 75 Hawthorne Street, Mail code SFD-8-4, San Francisco, CA
94105; telephone number: (415) 972-3978.
II. Public Comments
Anyone wishing to comment on the information in the reference or
the impact this data may have on the HRS score for the proposed Exide
Technologies-Vernon site should do so within the next 30 calendar days
(see DATES section at the beginning of this document). Additional
comments will not be accepted on other HRS scoring issues which could
have appropriately been raised during the original comment period
(closed December 4, 2024) and that are not based on information
provided in this additional reference. In other words, comments should
be focused on the subject of this document.
Comments should be submitted pursuant to instructions in the
ADDRESSEES section of this document; they may be submitted
electronically, by mail or by express mail. The Docket ID No. for this
site is EPA-HQ-OLEM-2024-0376 and should be identified in any
correspondence/electronic submission.
III. References
The following is a listing of the documents that are specifically
referenced in this document. The docket includes these documents and
other information considered by EPA, including documents that are
referenced within the documents that are included in the docket, even
if the referenced document is not physically located in the docket. For
assistance in locating these other documents, please consult the person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
1. Public Comment submitted by Clarios, LLC. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2024-0376-
0042.
2. EPA. HRS documentation Record for Exide Technologies-Vernon. EPA-
HQ-OLEM-2024-0376-0003.
3. EPA. Exide Technologies-Vernon NPL Listing RTCs Technical Memo.
Dated: May 5, 2025.
Brigid Lowery,
Deputy Director, Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology
Innovation.
[FR Doc. 2025-10022 Filed 6-2-25; 8:45 am]
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