76728 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 236 / Thursday, December 9, 2010 / Notices 

888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 

20426. 

The filings in the above-referenced 

proceeding are accessible in the 

Commission’s eLibrary system by 

clicking on the appropriate link in the 

above list. They are also available for 

review in the Commission’s Public 

Reference Room in Washington, DC. 

There is an eSubscription link on the 

Web site that enables subscribers to 

receive e-mail notification when a 

document is added to a subscribed 

docket(s). For assistance with any FERC 

Online service, please e-mail 

FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov. or call 

(866) 208–3676 (toll free). For TTY, call 

(202) 502–8659. 

Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr., 

Deputy Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2010–30936 Filed 12–8–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–R07–OW–2010–0898; FRL–9236–7] 

Notice of a Regional Project Waiver of 

Section 1605 (Buy American) of the 

American Recovery and Reinvestment 

Act of 2009 (ARRA) to the Central Iowa 

Water Association 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: 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 Central Iowa Water Association 

(CIWA) for the purchase of ORION 

Water Meter Monitor with Leak 

Detection Indicator in-home water meter 

monitors manufactured in Malaysia by 

Eastech, Inc., under license from Badger 

Meter, Inc., located in Milwaukee, 

Wisconsin. 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 waiver applicant 

states that the Badger in-home water 

meter monitors are the only devices that 

are compatible with the water meter 

heads installed by the CIWA. The 

Regional Administrator is making this 

determination based on the review and 

recommendations of the Drinking Water 

State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) staff. 

CIWA has provided sufficient 

documentation to support their waiver 

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. 

DATES: Effective Date: November 30, 

2010. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Christopher Simmons, Environmental 

Engineer, Water Wetlands and 

Pesticides Division (WWPD), 

Environmental Protection Agency, 

Region 7, 901 N. 5th Street, Kansas City, 

KS 66101, telephone number (913) 551– 

7237; e-mail address: 

simmons.christopher@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 

accordance with ARRA Section 1605(c), 

EPA hereby provides notice that we are 

granting a project waiver of the 

requirements of Section 1605(a) of 

Public Law 111–5, Buy American 

requirements, to the Central Iowa Water 

Association for the purchase of a nondomestically manufactured ORION 

Water Meter Monitor with Leak 

Detection Indicator in-home water meter 

monitors manufactured in Malaysia by 

Eastech, Inc., under license from Badger 

Meter, Inc., located in Milwaukee, 

Wisconsin, to meet CIWA’s project 

specifications. 

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 a public works project 

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 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. 

The CIWA drinking water 

improvement project is proposing the 

use of a non-domestically manufactured 

water meter monitor. This project will 

improve efficiency and promote water 

conservation by providing customers 

with a single meter reading platform 

and in-home monitoring devices. 

Residential water meters have been 

supplied and utilized by Sensus since 

the late 1970’s. The current Sensus 

water meters are now aged and obsolete. 

The Sensus meter technology has been 

discontinued and an in home 

monitoring unit is not available for the 

North American market. 

The Drinking Water State Revolving 

Fund (DWSRF) staff has reviewed this 

waiver request and has determined that 

the supporting documentation provided 

by the CIWA establishes both a proper 

basis to specify a particular 

manufactured good, and that there is no 

domestic manufactured good currently 

available. 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. 

EPA has also evaluated CIWA’s 

request to determine if its submission is 

considered late or if it could be 

considered timely, as per the OMB 

Guidance at 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, CIWA’s waiver request 

indicates that the Badger in-home water 

meter monitors are the only devices 

compatible with the Badger meter 

transmitter system and that no other 

water meter monitors are capable of 

meeting satisfactory quality to meet the 

technical specifications. The existing 

installed Sensus meter technology has 

been discontinued and Sensus has 

indicated that an equivalent in home 

monitoring unit is not available from 

Sensus for the North American market 

at this time. CIWA was not informed 

that the water meter monitor was not 

American made until the point of 

signing a final purchase agreement, after 

the contract was signed. There is no 


erowe on DSK5CLS3C1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 236 / Thursday, December 9, 2010 / Notices 76729 

indication that CIWA 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. 

Therefore, EPA will consider CIWA’s 

waiver request, a foreseeable late 

request, as though it had been timely 

made since there is no gain by CIWA 

and no loss by 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 projects that 

are ‘‘shovel ready’’ by requiring potential 

SRF eligible recipients, such as the 

Central Iowa Water Association to revise 

their design standards and 

specifications as well as their 

construction schedule. There are no 

domestic manufacturers that can 

provide a compatible water meter 

monitor that meets the specifications of 

this drinking water improvement 

project. To delay this construction 

would directly conflict with a 

fundamental economic purpose of 

ARRA, which is to create or retain jobs. 

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 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, 

the CIWA 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 a non-domestic 

manufactured ORION Water Meter 

Monitors with Leak Detection Indicator 

documented in the CIWA’s waiver 

request submittal dated June 24, 2010. 

This supplementary information 

constitutes the detailed written 

justification required by Section 1605(c) 

for waivers based on a finding under 

subsection (b). 

Authority: Public Law 111–5, section 

1605. 

Dated: November 30, 2010. 

Karl Brooks, 

Regional Administrator, Region 7. 

[FR Doc. 2010–30971 Filed 12–8–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION 

Market Access Agreement 

AGENCY: Farm Credit Administration. 

ACTION: Notice of approval of the draft 

amendment to the amended and 

restated market access agreement. 

SUMMARY: The Farm Credit 

Administration (FCA or we) announces 

its approval of the draft amendment to 

the Amended and Restated Market 

Access Agreement (MAA) proposed to 

be entered into by all of the banks of the 

Farm Credit System (System) and the 

Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding 

Corporation (Funding Corporation). The 

MAA sets forth the rights and 

responsibilities of each of the parties 

when the condition of a bank falls 

below pre-established financial 

performance thresholds. The draft 

amendment (MAA Amendment) is 

intended to conform the MAA to the 

Joint and Several Liability Reallocation 

Agreement (Reallocation Agreement). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Chris Wilson, Financial Analyst, Office 

of Regulatory Policy, Farm Credit 

Administration, McLean, VA 22102– 

5090, (703) 883–4204, TTY (703) 883– 

4434, or Rebecca S. Orlich, Senior 

Counsel, Office of General Counsel, 

Farm Credit Administration, McLean, 

VA 22102–5090, (703) 883–4020, TTY 

(703) 883–4020. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On August 

18, 2010, the FCA published for 

comment a proposed Reallocation 

Agreement to be entered into by all of 

the banks of the System and the 

Funding Corporation (75 FR 51061). The 

Reallocation Agreement is designed to 

establish a procedure for non-defaulting 

banks to pay maturing System-wide 

debt on behalf of defaulting banks prior 

to a statutory joint and several call by 

the FCA. We received no comments on 

the proposal and approved it without 

modifications. The FCA’s approval was 

published in the Federal Register on 

October 20, 2010 (75 FR 64727). 

In the supplementary information we 

provided when we published the 

proposal for public comment, the FCA 

stated that the System banks and the 

Funding Corporation intended also to 

make conforming changes to the MAA 

to ensure that the MAA provisions did 

not impede operation of the 

Reallocation Agreement. The FCA stated 

further that, should the Agency approve 

the Reallocation Agreement, it expected 

also to approve the conforming MAA 

Amendment and would publish it in the 

Federal Register. 

The FCA published the current MAA 

in its entirety in the Federal Register on 

January 15, 2003 (68 FR 2037). The 

current MAA establishes certain 

financial thresholds at which conditions 

are placed on the activities of a bank or 

a bank’s access to participation in 

System-wide and consolidated 

obligations is restricted. The MAA 

establishes three categories, which are 

based on each bank’s net collateral ratio, 

permanent capital ratio, and scores 

under the Contractual Inter-bank 

Performance Agreement, which is an 

agreement among the System banks and 

the Funding Corporation that 

establishes certain financial 

performance criteria. 

Under the MAA, as a bank’s financial 

condition declines, the bank moves into 

Category I, then Category II, and finally 

Category III. When a bank reaches 

Category I, it is required to provide 

certain additional information, 

including information as to how it will 

improve its financial condition, to the 

Monitoring and Advisory Committee, a 

committee of bank and Funding 

Corporation representatives established 

under the MAA. When a bank reaches 

Category II, in addition to being 

required to provide additional 

information, the bank is limited to 

joining in the issuance of System-wide 

and consolidated obligations only in 

those amounts necessary for the bank to 

be able to roll over its maturing debt. 

When the bank reaches Category III, the 

bank is precluded from joining in the 

issuance of System-wide and 

consolidated obligations. 

The MAA includes provisions that 

enable a bank in Category II or III to 

request the opportunity to continue its 

access to the market. The MAA also 

provides that the FCA may override a 

decision to impose Category III 

prohibitions on access to the market for 

a period of 60 days, which may be 

renewed for an additional 60-day 

period. 

The MAA Amendment adds new 

sections 4.05, 5.05, and 7.23 to the 

MAA. The MAA Amendment provides 

that, in a circumstance where the joint 


erowe on DSK5CLS3C1PROD with NOTICES