Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 26 / Tuesday, February 9, 2010 / Notices 6389 

establishes both a proper basis to 

specify a particular manufactured good, 

and that the domestic manufactured 

good that is currently available cannot 

be delivered in the necessary timeframe 

for the proposed project. The 

information provided is sufficient to 

meet the following criteria listed under 

Section 1605(b) of the ARRA and in the 

April 28, 2009 Memorandum: Iron, 

steel, and the manufactured goods are 

not produced in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities and of a satisfactory quality. 

The March 31, 2009 Delegation of 

Authority Memorandum provided 

Regional Administrators with the 

temporary authority to issue exceptions 

to Section 1605 of the ARRA within the 

geographic boundaries of their 

respective regions and with respect to 

requests by individual grant recipients. 

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 in 

the necessary timeframe, the Town of 

Troy, Vermont is hereby granted a 

waiver from the Buy American 

requirements of Section 1605(a) of 

Public Law 111–5. This waiver permits 

use of ARRA funds for the purchase of 

non-domestic manufactured butterfly 

valves and actuators documented in 

Town’s waiver request submitted to the 

EPA on November 19, 2009. This 

supplementary information constitutes 

the detailed written justification 

required by Section 1605(c) for waivers 

based on a finding under subsection (b). 

Authority: Pub. L. 111–5, section 1605. 

Dated: January 29, 2010. 

Ira Leighton, 

Acting Regional Administrator, EPA Region 

1—New England. 

[FR Doc. 2010–2810 Filed 2–8–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–9112–5] 

Notice of a Regional Project Waiver of 

Section 1605 (Buy American) of the 

American Recovery and Reinvestment 

Act of 2009 (ARRA) to the City of 

Gloucester, MA 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The EPA is hereby granting a 

waiver of the Buy American 

requirements of ARRA Section 1605 

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 City of Gloucester, Massachusetts 

(‘‘City’’) for the purchase of foreign 

manufactured rotary sludge dewatering 

presses. This is a project specific waiver 

and only applies to the use of the 

specified product for the ARRA project 

being proposed. Any other ARRA 

recipient that wishes to use the same 

product must apply for a separate 

waiver based on project specific 

circumstances. The City’s proposed 

wastewater treatment facility 

improvements will include replacement 

of the existing belt filter press for sludge 

generated at the plant. Based upon 

information submitted by the City and 

its consultants, it was determined that 

two 6-channel rotary press sludge 

dewatering units, manufactured by 

Fournier Industries of Quebec, Canada, 

will meet the City’s design and 

performance specifications. The 

Regional Administrator is making this 

determination based on the review and 

recommendations of the Municipal 

Assistance Unit. The City, through its 

consulting engineers, has provided 

sufficient documentation to support 

their request. The Assistant 

Administrator of the Office of 

Administration and Resources 

Management has concurred on this 

decision to make an exception to 

Section 1605 of ARRA. This action 

permits the purchase of two, six channel 

rotary press sludge dewatering units, 

manufactured by Fournier Industries, by 

the City, as specified in its September 

28, 2009 request, as part of the 

improvements to the wastewater 

treatment facility. 

DATES: Effective Date: January 29, 2010. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mark Spinale, Environmental Engineer, 

(617) 918–1547, or Katie Connors, 

Environmental Engineer, (617) 918– 

1658, Municipal Assistance Unit (CMU), 

Office of Ecosystem Protection (OEP), 

U.S. EPA, One Congress Street, CMU, 

Boston, MA 02114. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 

accordance with ARRA Sections 1605(c) 

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

notice that it is granting a project waiver 

of the requirements of Sections 1605(a) 

of Public Law 111–5, Buy American 

requirements, to the City of Gloucester, 

(‘‘City’’), Massachusetts for the purchase 

of two, six channel rotary press sludge 

dewatering units, manufactured by 

Fournier Industries of Quebec, Canada. 

It has been determined that these rotary 

presses meet the City’s technical 

specifications for design and 

performance of a sludge dewatering unit 

as part of its wastewater treatment plant 

improvement project. Based on the 

information provided by the applicant, 

there are no domestically manufactured 

rotary sludge presses that at this time 

meet the specific design criteria 

established for this unit in the City’s 

project. 

Section 1605 of the ARRA requires 

that none of the appropriated funds 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 is produced in the 

United States, or unless a waiver is 

provided to the recipient by the head of 

the appropriate agency, here the EPA. A 

waiver may be provided if EPA 

determines that (1) Applying these 

requirements would be inconsistent 

with public the 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. 

The wastewater treatment facility for 

the City is a primary treatment plant 

designed to handle an annual average 

flow of 7.24 million gallons per day. 

The plant began operations in 1984, and 

in the early 1990’s the facility was 

modified to provide an ocean outfall 

extension as well as odor control and 

disinfection improvements. Plant 

improvements again occurred in the 

mid-2000’s with the replacement of 

various pumps and sludge removal 

mechanisms. However, no other 

significant expansions or upgrades have 

occurred during the 25 years of 

operations. 

Most of the equipment at the 

treatment facility is original equipment 

that has largely reached or exceeded its 

expected service life. The City is now 

replacing major components of the 

facility through a phased program of 

equipment replacement and facility 

refurbishment. Included in the first 

phase of the facility-wide improvements 

is the installation of a new rotary sludge 

dewatering unit to replace the existing 

belt filter press. The City is requesting 

a waiver from the Buy American 

Provisions for the purchase of two 

foreign made rotary press sludge 

dewatering units manufactured by 

Fournier Industries (Quebec, Canada). 

The key selection criteria established 

by the City and its consulting engineers 

for the sludge dewatering equipment 

include: 


Cprice-sewell on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with NOTICES
6390 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 26 / Tuesday, February 9, 2010 / Notices 

• Maintain or improve the dewatered 

dry solids concentration of 24% or 

greater. 

• Minimize service water 

consumption during operation. 

• Minimize long term operations and 

maintenance costs. 

• Reduce odors and improve working 

conditions for operators by minimizing 

exposure to odorous and hazardous 

gases released from the sludge as well 

as exposure to bio-aerosols and 

pathogens. To achieve this goal, 

enclosed dewatering equipment is 

required. 

• Allow for automatic adjustment for 

variation in feed solids concentrations 

and sludge mix ratios to provide 

consistent and optimum cake solids. 

• Allow for unattended, automatic 

operation. 

• Allow for backup capacity during 

periods of equipment failure and 

routine maintenance. 

As part of the review of potentially 

viable sludge dewatering units, four 

technologies were evaluated by the City 

and their consultants: (1) Belt filter 

press, (2) centrifuge system; (3) screw 

press and (4) rotary press. Of the four 

technologies, it was determined that the 

rotary sludge press is the preferred 

technology because it ranked the highest 

in terms of meeting the key criteria 

highlighted above. In particular, the 

rotary presses manufactured by Fournier 

Industries were identified as a 

technically and economically feasible 

unit meeting all of the selection criteria 

established as part of the design 

requirements. The Fournier Rotary 

Presses are the preferred technology for 

installation at the City’s wastewater 

treatment plant because of the following 

advantages: 

• High cake solids concentration. 

• Low odor emissions due to the 

enclosed design. 

• Provides for continuous operation 

and has the flexibility to increase 

capacity based on influent flow. 

• Low maintenance due to the slow 

rotational speed, requiring minimal 

operator attention. 

• Low energy requirements resulting 

in low operation and maintenance costs. 

• Each channel is an independent 

self-contained modular unit which can 

be interchanged with other same model 

rotary presses. 

• Low noise and vibration output due 

to low operations speeds. 

• Compact size resulting in smaller 

building and room footprint 

requirements. 

• Filtration elements within each 

channel are of a non-clogging design 

which does not require washwater 

during operation. 

The project specifications stipulate 

that the rotary press equipment be 

capable of meeting the following design 

and performance criteria: 

• Type of Unit: six channel rotary 

press 

• Blended Sludge Fraction (% 

Solids): 

60–90% Primary Sludge 

5–10% Scum 

5–30% Septage 

• Sludge Feed Concentration (% 

Solids): 2–8% 

• Dry Solids Feed Rate: 200–400 dry 

lbs/hr/channel 

• Hydraulic Sludge Feed Rate: 35– 

160 gpm 

• Dewatered Sludge Solids 

Concentration (% Solids): 

test condition (I)—30% minimum 

test condition (II)—25% minimum 

The project specifications also 

expressly require that the manufacturer 

of the rotary press have a minimum of 

10 years demonstrated experience in the 

design, application, fabrication and 

supply of rotary press equipment for 

wastewater treatment plants. The 

specifications go on to further require 

that demonstration of experience shall 

take the form of a list of not less than 

10 operating sludge dewatering 

installations of similar service and size 

including process performance data. 

Based on the review of available 

information, there is only one domestic 

manufacturer of similar rotary type 

presses for municipal sludge. However, 

this manufacturer only produces one 

and two channel rotary fan presses and 

currently cannot meet the design 

specifications calling for a six channel 

rotary press, or the experience 

requirements specified for this proposed 

project. The domestic manufacturer has 

only been manufacturing and installing 

its rotary fan press since 2004, which is 

less than the 10 year experience 

requirement specified for the project. 

For these reasons, the Fournier 

Industries Rotary Sludge Press is the 

only unit at the present time that is 

acceptable in terms of meeting the 

design and experience specifications of 

this project. 

The April 28, 2009 EPA HQ 

Memorandum, ‘‘Implementation of Buy 

American provisions of Public Law 

111–5, the ‘American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009’ ’’ 

(‘‘Memorandum’’), defines reasonably 

available quantity as ‘‘the quantity of 

iron, steel, or relevant manufactured 

good is available or will be available at 

the time needed and place needed, and 

in the proper form or specification as 

specified in the project plans and 

design.’’ The same Memorandum 

defines ‘‘satisfactory quality’’ as ‘‘the 

quality of steel, iron or manufactured 

good specified in the project plans and 

designs.’’ 

The City has requested a waiver of the 

ARRA Buy American provisions on the 

basis of unavailability of a U.S. 

manufactured product that will meet the 

design and performance criteria 

specified for the sludge dewatering unit. 

The evaluation of all of the submitted 

documentation by EPA’s technical 

review team supports the City’s claim 

that at this time no domestic 

manufacturer can provide a suitable 

rotary sludge dewatering press which 

meets the specifications for this unit. 

Based on the information available, and 

to the best of our knowledge, there do 

not appear to be other rotary press 

sludge dewatering units manufactured 

in the United States that are available at 

this time to meet the City’s design 

specifications and performance 

requirements for this unit. 

Furthermore, the purpose of the 

ARRA is to stimulate economic recovery 

by funding current infrastructure 

construction, not to delay projects that 

are ‘‘shovel ready’’ by requiring SRF 

eligible recipients such as the City to 

revise their design standards and 

specifications. The imposition of ARRA 

Buy American requirements in this case 

would result in unreasonable delay for 

this project. To delay this construction 

would directly conflict with a 

fundamental economic purpose of 

ARRA, which is to create or retain jobs. 

The Municipal Assistance Unit (CMU) 

has reviewed this waiver request and 

has determined that the supporting 

documentation provided by the City 

established both a proper basis to 

specify the particular good required and 

that this manufactured good was not 

available from a producer in the United 

States able to meet the design 

specifications for the proposed project. 

The information provided is sufficient 

to meet the following criteria listed 

under Section 1605(b) of the ARRA and 

in the April 28, 2009 Memorandum: 

Iron, steel, and the manufactured goods 

are not produced in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities and of a satisfactory quality. 

The March 31, 2009 Delegation of 

Authority Memorandum provided 

Regional Administrators with the 

authority to issue exceptions to Section 

1605 of ARRA within the geographic 

boundaries of their respective regions 

and with respect to requests by 

individual grant recipients. 

Having established both a proper 

basis to specify the particular good 

required for this project and that this 

manufactured good was not available 


Cprice-sewell on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 26 / Tuesday, February 9, 2010 / Notices 6391 

from a producer in the United States, 

the City is hereby granted a waiver from 

the Buy American requirements of 

Section 1605(a) of Public Law 111–5. 

This waiver permits use of ARRA funds 

for the purchase of the two specified 

Fournier Industries 6-channel rotary 

press sludge dewatering units 

documented in City’s waiver request 

submittal dated September 28, 2009 as 

part of its wastewater treatment plant 

improvements. This supplementary 

information constitutes the detailed 

written justification required by Section 

1605(c) for waivers based on a finding 

under subsection (b). 

Authority: Pub. L. 111–5, section 1605. 

Dated: January 29, 2010. 

Ira Leighton, 

Acting Regional Administrator, EPA Region 

1—New England. 

[FR Doc. 2010–2817 Filed 2–8–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY 

COMMISSION 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Existing Collection; 

Emergency Extension 

AGENCY: Equal Employment 

Opportunity Commission. 

ACTION: Notice of information 

collection—Emergency extension 

without change: Employer Information 

Report (EEO–1). 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act, the Equal 

Employment Opportunity Commission 

(EEOC or Commission) announces that 

it submitted to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) a 

request for an emergency extension of 

the Employer Information Report (EEO– 

1) on January 20, 2010, to be effective 

after the January 31, 2010 expiration 

date. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Ronald Edwards, Director, Program 

Research and Surveys Division, 131 M 

Street, NE., Room 4SW30F, Washington, 

DC 20507; (202) 663–4958 (voice) or 

(202) 663–7063 (TTY). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The EEOC 

has collected information from certain 

private employers on the EEO–1 Report 

form since 1966. 

Overview of Information Collection 

Collection Title: Employer 

Information Report (EEO–1). 

OMB Number: 3046–0007. 

Frequency of Report: Annual. 

Type of Respondent: Private 

employers with 100 or more employees 

and certain Federal Government 

contractors and first-tier subcontractors 

with 50 or more employees. 

Description of Affected Public: Private 

employers with 100 or more employees 

and certain Federal Government 

contractors and first-tier subcontractors 

with 50 or more employees. 

Reporting Hours: 599,000. 

Respondent Cost: $11.4 million. 

Federal Cost: $2.1 million. 

Number of Forms: 1. 

Abstract: Section 709(c) of Title VII of 

the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as 

amended, 42 U.S.C. 2000e–8(c), requires 

employers to make and keep records 

relevant to a determination of whether 

unlawful employment practices have 

been or are being committed, to preserve 

such records and to produce reports as 

the Commission prescribes by 

regulation or order. Accordingly, the 

EEOC issued regulations prescribing the 

EEO–1 reporting requirement. 

Employers in the private sector with 100 

or more employees and some Federal 

contractors with 50 or more employees 

have been required to submit EEO–1 

reports annually since 1966. The 

individual reports are confidential. 

EEO–1 data is used by EEOC to 

investigate charges of employment 

discrimination against employers in 

private industry and to provide 

information about the employment 

status of minorities and women. The 

data is shared with the Office of Federal 

Contract Compliance Programs 

(OFCCP), U.S. Department of Labor, and 

several other Federal agencies. Pursuant 

to § 709(d) of Title VII of the Civil Rights 

Act of 1964, as amended, EEO–1 data is 

also shared with State and local Fair 

Employment Practices Agencies 

(FEPAs). 

Burden Statement: The estimated 

number of respondents included in the 

annual EEO–1 survey is 45,000 private 

employers. The estimated number of 

establishment-based responses per 

reporting company is between three and 

four EEO–1 reports annually. The 

annual number of responses is 

approximately 170,000. The form is 

estimated to impose 599,000 burden 

hours annually. In order to help reduce 

survey burden, respondents are 

encouraged to report data electronically 

whenever possible. 

Dated: January 29, 2010. 

Stuart J. Ishimaru, 

Acting Chairman, for the Commission. 

[FR Doc. 2010–2767 Filed 2–8–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6570–01–P 

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY 

COMMISSION 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Existing Collection; 

Emergency Extension 

AGENCY: Equal Employment 

Opportunity Commission. 

ACTION: Notice of information 

collection—Emergency extension 

without change: State and Local 

Government Information Report (EEO– 

4). 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act, the Equal 

Employment Opportunity Commission 

(EEOC or Commission) announces that 

it submitted to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) a 

request for an emergency extension of 

the State and Local Government 

Information Report (EEO–4), on January 

20, 2010, to be effective after the January 

31, 2010 expiration date. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Ronald Edwards, Director, Program 

Research and Surveys Division, 131 M 

Street, NE., Room 4SW30F, Washington, 

DC 20507; (202) 663–4958 (voice) or 

(202) 663–7063 (TTY). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The EEOC 

has collected information from State 

and local governments with 100 or more 

full-time employees since 1974. 

Overview of Information Collection 

Collection Title: State and Local 

Government Information Report (EEO– 

4). 

OMB Number: 3046–0008. 

Frequency of Report: Biennial. 

Type of Respondent: State and local 

government jurisdictions with 100 or 

more Employees. 

Description of Affected Public: State 

and local governments excluding 

elementary and secondary public school 

districts. 

Number of Responses: 13,456. 

Reporting Hours: 44,719. 

Cost to Respondents: $1,045,000. 

Number of Forms: 1. 

Form Number: EEOC Form 164. 

Federal Cost: $187,500. 

Abstract: Section 709(c) of Title VII of 

the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as 

amended, 42 U.S.C. 2000e–8(c), requires 

employers to make and keep records 

relevant to a determination of whether 

unlawful employment practices have 

been or are being committed, to preserve 

such records and to produce reports as 

the Commission prescribes by 

regulation or order. Accordingly, the 

EEOC issued regulations prescribing the 

reporting requirements for State and 

local governments. State and local 


Cprice-sewell on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with NOTICES