Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 10 / Friday, January 14, 2011 / Notices 2683 

(possibly on EPA’s Web site). Would 

you find this approach more or less 

useful than the current process? 

2. Do you foresee any problems/issues 

with reviewing EISs that are made 

available only on the Internet? 

3. In your opinion, how long should 

EISs remain accessible to the public? 

Please submit your responses to the 

above questions to: Robert Hargrove, 

Director, NEPA Compliance Division, 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. 

(2252A), Washington, DC 20460; or 

hargrove.robert@epa.gov, by COB 

February 28, 2011. 

Dated: January 11, 2011. 

Susan E. Bromm, 

Director, Office of Federal Activities. 

[FR Doc. 2011–758 Filed 1–13–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–9252–9] 

Notice of a Project Waiver of Section 

1605: (Buy American Requirement) of 

the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to 

the Inland Empire Utilities Agency 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The EPA is hereby granting a 

project waiver of the Buy American 

requirements of ARRA Section 1605(a) 

under the authority of Section 

1605(b)(2) (manufactured goods are not 

produced in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities and of a satisfactory quality) 

to the Inland Empire Utilities Agency 

(IEUA), a Clean Water State Revolving 

Fund (CWSRF)/ARRA loan recipient, 

for the purchase of Air Release Vacuum 

(ARV) Valves manufactured by A.R.I. in 

Israel, for Project #5176–140 funded by 

the California CWSRF/ARRA Loan #08– 

851. This is a different project than 

Project #5176–110/5176–130 which was 

previously issued a waiver for this same 

product. The IEUA indicates that the 

design for the Church Street lateral 

project includes A.R.I. valves, which are 

the standard air relief structures used 

within the regional pipeline system, and 

that currently there is not a comparable 

domestic equivalent that meets the 

IEUA specifications. This is a projectspecific waiver and only applies to the 

use of the specified product for the 

ARRA funded project being proposed. 

Any other ARRA project that may wish 

to use the same product must apply for 

a separate waiver based on projectspecific circumstances. The Assistant 

Administrator of the Office of 

Administration and Resources 

Management has concurred with this 

decision to make an exception under 

section 1605(b)(2) of ARRA. 

DATES: Effective Date: November 30, 

2010. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Abimbola Odusoga, Environmental 

Engineer, Water Division, Infrastructure 

Office (WTR–4), (415) 972–3437, U.S. 

EPA Region 9. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 

accordance with ARRA Sections 1605(c) 

and 1605(b)(2), EPA hereby provides 

notice it is granting a project waiver of 

the requirements of Section 1605(a) of 

Public Law 111–5, Buy American 

requirements, to the IEUA for the 

acquisition of the ARV valves 

manufactured in Israel by A.R.I. The 

head of each federal agency is 

authorized to issue project waivers 

pursuant to Section 1605(b) of ARRA. 

Section 1605(a) of the ARRA requires 

that none of the funds appropriated or 

otherwise made available by the ARRA 

may be used for the construction, 

alteration, maintenance, or repair of a 

public building or public work unless 

all of the iron, steel, and manufactured 

goods used in the project are produced 

in the United States. Pursuant to Section 

1605(b), a waiver from this requirement 

may be provided if EPA determines: (1) 

Applying these requirements would be 

inconsistent with the public interest; (2) 

iron, steel, and the relevant 

manufactured goods are not produced in 

the United States in sufficient and 

reasonably available quantities and of a 

satisfactory quality; or (3) inclusion of 

iron, steel, and the relevant 

manufactured goods produced in the 

United States will increase the cost of 

the overall project by more than 25 

percent. 

A Delegation of Authority 

Memorandum was issued by the EPA 

Administrator on March 31, 2009 which 

provided EPA Regional Administrators 

with the authority to issue waivers to 

Section 1605(a) of ARRA within the 

geographic boundaries of their 

respective regions and with respect to 

requests by individual recipients of 

ARRA financial assistance. 

The IEUA provides drinking water 

and waste water treatment services to 

municipalities in the Chino Basin. The 

Church Street lateral project consists of 

approximately 4,200 linear feet of 12- 

inch diameter recycled water pipeline 

that will convey recycled water to serve 

customers in the 1430 and 1630 

pressure zones. Project specifications 

provided by the applicant state that 

acceptable products are A.R.I. Flow 

Control Accessories, Ltd. (Model D–060) 

or an approved equal. 

The functional justification for these 

specifications advanced by the IEUA 

was that the IEUA had, in years prior to 

the enactment of ARRA, made the ARI 

valves their standard air relief structures 

used within the regional pipeline 

system based on the IEUA’s 

determination that these valves had a 

superior design, functionality, and ease 

of maintenance. Specifically: 

• ARI combination valves (D–060’s) 

have the air release on the top of the 

valve, whereas alternative valves have 

the air release on the side. A side release 

creates an internal air pocket on the 

valve, which allows the rubber seal for 

the vacuum component to dry out and 

leak over time. 

• The 316SS float for the ARI vacuum 

component stops against a 316SS ring. 

The alternative valves have a float that 

stops against a flat rubber seal on the 

top of the valve, and constant pounding 

during closure tends to crack the seal 

and cause leaks. 

• The ARI valves are half the weight 

and size of the alternative valves, which 

makes installation and maintenance 

easier. Also, as the valves are smaller, 

the enclosures for the valves are less 

expensive. 

The consequences of finding the 

IEUA’s specifications not justified 

would include the following: 

• Additional design costs would be 

incurred to change all ARV valves, 

including re-calculating the size of the 

valves based on the competitors design 

criteria, modifying valve and enclosure 

details, and modifying the pipeline 

profiles to accommodate larger valves. 

Alternative ARV valves that must be 

buried would require lowering the 

pipeline depth several feet on each side 

of the valves to accommodate a deeper 

valve vault. 

• Construction costs would be higher 

due to the increase in valve sizes, larger 

enclosures, and a deeper pipeline. The 

pricing through the change order 

process would be significantly higher 

than prices for a competitive bid. The 

cost for the material and installation of 

the valves is approximately $198,708. If 

the ARI valves are replaced with 

alternative valves, the estimated cost for 

the material and installation would be 

approximately $100,000 more. 

• IEUA staff would have to be trained 

on the different types of valves installed 

and additional spare parts would need 

to be ordered and stocked. Since the 

IEUA has moved forward with 

implementing the ARI valves as the 

mstockstill on DSKH9S0YB1PROD with NOTICES

2684 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 10 / Friday, January 14, 2011 / Notices 

standard air relief structure, all valves 

that do not meet this standard would 

need to be replaced. 

Use of alternative valves that do not 

meet the IEUA’s specifications would 

thus require a substantial redesign of, 

delay in, and higher costs for the 

project. Because of the IEUA’s current, 

extensive installations of ARI valves, the 

use of alternative, incompatible valves 

would impose continuing high costs 

into the future to change spare parts and 

staff training in operations and 

maintenance, as well as in inferior 

performance of the alternative valves. 

Procurement of alternative valves would 

be inconsistent with basic principles of 

sustainable infrastructure and effective 

asset management that EPA has 

consistently promoted. For all these 

reasons, EPA finds that the IEUA’s 

specifications for these ARV valves were 

justified. 

EPA also conducted research to find 

potential domestic manufacturers who 

can supply ARV valves that meet 

IEUA’s technical specifications. Five 

domestic manufacturers of ARV valves 

were identified by the applicant. EPA’s 

national contractor contacted the 

domestic manufacturers and inquired as 

to whether their products could meet 

the IEUA’s specifications. All five 

manufacturers indicated that they could 

provide similar products, but could not 

meet all of the IEUA’s specifications, 

particularly with regard to 

manufacturing materials and product 

design. 

Based on these findings, EPA 

concludes the IEUA’s claim that there 

are no known American manufacturers 

of ARV valves meeting the IEUA’s 

specifications is supported by the 

available information. 

The April 28, 2009 EPA 

Memorandum for implementation of the 

ARRA Buy American provisions of P.L. 

111–5, states the quantity of iron, steel, 

or relevant manufactured good is 

‘‘reasonably available’’ if it is available at 

the time and place needed, and in the 

proper form or specification as specified 

in the project plans and design. The 

IEUA’s waiver request articulates a 

reasonable and appropriate basis for 

choosing the type of technology it chose 

for this project in environmental 

objectives and performance 

specifications. Further, it provides 

sufficient documentation to conclude 

the relevant manufactured goods are not 

produced in the United States of a 

satisfactory quality to meet its technical 

specifications. The IEUA has 

incorporated specific technical design 

specifications for the proposed project 

based on their needs and provided 

information to the EPA indicating there 

are currently no ARV valves 

manufactured in the United States that 

have equivalent product specifications. 

The IEUA has also provided 

certification indicating there are no 

systems of comparable quality available 

from a domestic manufacturer to meet 

its specifications. Based on additional 

inquiry by EPA’s national contractor, 

there do not appear to be other ARV 

valves available to meet the IEUA’s 

specifications. 

EPA has also evaluated IEUA’s 

request to determine if its submission is 

considered late or if it could be 

considered timely, as per the OMB 

Guidance at 2 CFR 176.120. EPA will 

generally regard waiver requests with 

respect to components that were 

specified in the bid solicitation or in a 

general/primary construction contract as 

‘‘late’’ if submitted after the contract 

date. However, EPA could also 

determine that a request be evaluated as 

timely, though made after the date that 

the contract was signed, if the need for 

a waiver was not reasonably foreseeable. 

If the need for a waiver is reasonably 

foreseeable, then EPA could still apply 

discretion in these late cases as per the 

OMB Guidance, which says ‘‘the award 

official may deny the request.’’ For those 

waiver requests that do not have a 

reasonably unforeseeable basis for 

lateness, but for which the waiver basis 

is valid and there is no apparent gain by 

the ARRA recipient or loss on behalf of 

the government, then EPA will still 

consider granting a waiver. 

In this case, there are no U.S. 

manufacturers that meet IEUA’s project 

specification for these ARV valves. The 

waiver request was submitted after the 

contract date due to a realignment of a 

portion of the project which was 

discovered in April, 2010. This 

realignment led to a project redesign 

which wasn’t completed until May 26, 

2010, thus leading to the waiver request 

on July 15, 2010. Although it was 

known that ARV valves would be 

needed for this project, it was unknown 

how many would be needed and the 

associated cost until after the 

realignment. There is no indication that 

IEUA failed to request a waiver in order 

to avoid the requirements of the ARRA, 

particularly since there are no 

domestically manufactured products 

available that meet the project 

specifications. EPA will consider 

IEUA’s waiver request, a foreseeable late 

request, as though it had been timely 

made since there is no gain by IEUA and 

no loss to the government due to the late 

request. 

Furthermore, the purpose of the 

ARRA is to stimulate economic recovery 

by funding current infrastructure 

construction, not to delay shovel ready 

projects by requiring entities, like the 

IEUA, to revise their design and 

potentially choose a more costly and 

less efficient project. The imposition of 

ARRA Buy American requirements on 

such projects eligible for CWSRF 

assistance would result in unreasonable 

delay and thus displace the ‘‘shovel 

ready’’ status for this project. Further 

delay of this project would contravene 

the most fundamental economic 

purposes of the ARRA: To create or 

preserve jobs in the United States. 

The EPA Region 9 Water Division, 

Office of Regional Counsel, EPA’s Buy 

American consultant, and EPA’s Office 

of Administration and Resource 

Management have reviewed this waiver 

request and have determined the 

supporting documentation provided by 

the IEUA is sufficient to meet the 

criteria listed under ARRA Section 

1605(b) (2) and the EPA April 28, 2009, 

memorandum for implementation of 

ARRA Buy American provisions of 

Public Law 111–5. 

Having established both a proper 

basis to specify the particular good 

required for this project, and that this 

manufactured good was not available 

from a producer in the United States, 

the IEUA is hereby granted a waiver 

from the Buy American requirements of 

Sections 1605(a) of Public Law 111–5, 

for the purchase of the A.R.I. valves, 

specified in the IEUA’s request of July 

21, 2010. This supplementary 

information constitutes the detailed 

written justification required by Section 

1605(c) for waivers based on a finding 

under Section 1605(b)(2). 

Authority: Public Law 111–5, Section 

1605. 

Dated: November 30, 2010. 

Jared Blumenfeld, 

Regional Administrator, EPA Pacific 

Southwest, Region 9. 

[FR Doc. 2011–754 Filed 1–13–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–9252–8] 

Notice of a Project Waiver of Section 

1605 (Buy American Requirement) of 

the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to 

the Lake County Special Districts 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The EPA is hereby granting a 

project waiver of the Buy American 

mstockstill on DSKH9S0YB1PROD with NOTICES