Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 38 / Friday, February 26, 2010 / Notices 8943 

end-use products until such stocks are 

exhausted. 

2. Persons other than the registrant 

may continue to sell or distribute 

existing stocks of maneb products 

identified in Table 1 with previously 

approved labeling until such stocks are 

exhausted. 

3. Persons other than the registrant 

may use the maneb end use products 

identified in Table 1 until exhausted. 

Any use of existing stocks must be in a 

manner consistent with the previously 

approved labeling for that product. 

List of Subjects 

Environmental protection, Pesticides 

and pests. 

Dated: February 18, 2010. 

Richard P. Keigwin, Jr. 

Director, Pesticide Re-evaluation Division, 

Office of Pesticide Programs. 

[FR Doc. 2010–4083 Filed 2–25–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–S 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–9119–1] 

Notice of a Regional Project Waiver of 

Section 1605 (Buy American) of the 

American Recovery and Reinvestment 

Act of 2009 (ARRA) to the Inland 

Empire Utilities Agency, California. 

Project # C–06–5332–110 Funded by 

the California CWSRF ARRA Loan # 

08–823–550 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is hereby granting a 

waiver of the Buy American 

requirements of ARRA Section 1605 

under the authority of Section 

1605(b)(1) [applying the Buy American 

provision would be inconsistent with 

the public interest] to the Inland Empire 

Utilities Agency (‘‘IEUA’’) for the 

purchase of foreign data collection 

transducers. 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 IEUA’s Rancho 

Cucamonga groundwater recharge 

project will include the purchase of 

three transducers with associated 

hardware manufactured by Solinst in 

Canada, for monitoring in two recharge 

basins. Beginning in about 2005 (prior 

to the enactment of ARRA), the IEUA 

started procuring Solinst transducers, 

and they developed standard training 

and maintenance procedures for using 

the Solinst transducers. They currently 

use approximately 20 Solinst 

transducers at eight recharge basins. The 

IEUA submitted a memorandum dated 

January 21, 2010, explaining the basis in 

performance characteristics for the preARRA selection of Solinst transducers, 

and explaining the IEUA’s prior 

decision to make Solinst transducers 

their standard transducer for this type of 

application. This pre-ARRA selection of 

a product on which to standardize was 

undertaken to best enable the IEUA to 

comply with water quality permit 

requirements for recharged water 

imposed by State regulatory agencies. 

The procurement of transducers for the 

IEUA’s ARRA project is subject to 

ARRA section 1605 requirements, but 

IEUA has requested a waiver of these 

requirements as they pertain to the 

transducers, because the use of nonstandard transducers would 

detrimentally affect performance, 

operation and maintenance of the 

recharge project. Based on review of the 

information provided, EPA has 

concluded a waiver of the Buy 

American provision is justified pursuant 

to Section 1605(b)(1) [applying the Buy 

American provision would be 

inconsistent with the public interest]. 

The Assistant Administrator of the 

Office of Administration and Resources 

Management has concurred with this 

decision to make an exception to 

Section 1605 of ARRA. This action 

permits the IEUA to purchase three 

transducers manufactured by Solinst, a 

Canadian company, as specified in its 

November 3, 2009 request, as amended 

by its January 21, 2010 memorandum. 

DATES: Effective Date: February 10, 

2010. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Abimbola Odusoga, Environmental 

Engineer, Water Division (WTR–4), 

USEPA Region 9, (415) 972–3437, 75 

Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 

94105. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 

accordance with ARRA Sections 1605(c) 

and 1605(b)(1), the EPA is hereby 

granting a project waiver of the 

requirements of Sections 1605(a) of 

Public Law 111–5, Buy American 

requirements, to the IEUA, Chino, 

California, for the purchase of 

transducers manufactured by Solinst, a 

Canadian company. EPA has evaluated 

the IEUA’s basis for standardizing to the 

Solinst transducers. Based on the 

information provided by the applicant, 

EPA has determined it is inconsistent 

with the public interest for the IEUA to 

pursue the purchase of incompatible 

domestically manufactured transducers. 

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 are 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 (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 IEUA has requested a waiver 

from the Buy American Provision for 

the purchase of the foreign made 

transducers as part of its project to meet 

the permit and other regulatory 

requirements of the Santa Ana Regional 

Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) 

and the State Department of Health. 

According to the IEUA, to recharge 

recycled water into the Chino 

Groundwater Basin through the Victoria 

Basin and San Sevaine Basin No. 5 in 

Rancho Cucamonga, California, IEUA 

must comply with discharge 

requirements issued by the Santa Ana 

Regional Water Quality Control Board 

(RWQCB) for recharge. As part of the 

regulatory requirements set by the 

RWQCB and the State Department of 

Public Health, monitoring devices are to 

be installed to ensure recharged water 

meets the water quality requirements 

specified in the permit. In compliance 

with the permit, the Agency is installing 

three local monitoring wells and two 

lysimeter clusters. 

Once the monitoring wells are 

constructed, a device—which is called a 

transducer—is installed to measure the 

water level. The IEUA now uses 

approximately twenty transducers 

manufactured by Solinst, a Canadian 

company, to support the data collection 

for the monitoring wells at eight of the 

current recharge basins, to meet 

regulatory requirements and discharge 

permit conditions. 

Beginning in April 2005, the IEUA 

purchased Solinst transducers a few at 

a time as ground water recharge 

monitoring wells were contracted to be 

built, and were individually installed in 

the monitoring wells over the past 

several years as the wells were 


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8944 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 38 / Friday, February 26, 2010 / Notices 

constructed. Thus, over this time period 

prior to the enactment of ARRA, the 

IEUA standardized its use of the Solinst 

transducers. At the time of the initial 

transducer procurements, the IEUA 

concluded the Solinst transducers had 

superior durability and more efficient 

data output compared to the 

domestically-manufactured transducers. 

Solinst transducers have metal 

connections that the IEUA determined 

at that time to be more robust and 

durable than the plastic connections of 

the U.S.-made product, because the 

plastic connections tend to strip if sand 

or grit gets inside the threading. The 

IEUA also determined the Solinst 

product provides a consistent data file 

so that data reduction will not have 

different formats, and require different 

steps and different software. Thus, data 

manipulation can be streamlined and 

semi-automated. Fewer components are 

required for installation of the Solinst 

transducers, which reduces the costs for 

labor and equipment. Also, since this 

transducer has become the IEUA’s 

standard, staff has been trained on how 

to use and maintain this particular 

equipment and software. If another type 

of transducer was utilized for the three 

monitoring wells being installed for this 

project, there would be approximately 

$10,000 a year in additional costs for 

labor and training, as well as additional 

capital costs for equipment due to the 

much higher cost of the domestic-made 

product. 

EPA finds these considerations as 

stated by IEUA provide ample 

functional justification for 

standardization, particularly because 

the use of a functionally effective and 

reliable set of transducers is integral to 

compliance with State-imposed 

regulatory requirements. Furthermore, 

as the IEUA’s decision to standardize on 

the Solinst transducers took place years 

before ARRA was enacted, that decision 

was clearly not an attempt to avoid 

application of the Buy American 

provisions of ARRA. If the mandate of 

section 1605(a) was applied here to 

require the IEUA to use the 

domestically-manufactured good under 

these circumstances, it would either 

force the IEUA to use two different and 

incompatible types of equipment for the 

same purpose, or alternatively to resolve 

the incompatibility by in effect 

requiring them to buy only the 

American-made product for their entire 

system. It is not in the public interest to 

require the IEUA either to bear the 

duplicative (or more) life-cycle costs for 

two incompatible types of goods, or to 

replace their twenty pre-ARRA Solinst 

transducers with the domestic product, 

and thereby to extend the scope of the 

ARRA Buy American provision far 

beyond the procurement of three 

transducers for an ARRA-funded 

project. 

The purpose of the ARRA is to 

stimulate economic recovery by funding 

current infrastructure construction, not 

to delay projects that are already ‘‘shovel 

ready’’ by requiring SRF eligible 

recipients such as the IEUA to revise 

their design standards and 

specifications, or to impair the efficient 

operation of project facilities thereafter. 

The imposition of ARRA Buy American 

requirements in this case would result 

in unreasonable delay for this project, 

and an unjustifiable burden to the IEUA, 

in the form of wasteful and duplicative 

life-cycle costs in the future, as well as 

problematic performance of its recharge 

well monitoring system due to 

incompatible transducers. Both results 

would directly conflict with 

fundamental economic purposes of 

ARRA, to create or retain jobs, and to 

build recovery by investments in 

effective infrastructure. 

The information provided is sufficient 

to meet the following criteria listed 

under Section 1605(b)(1) of the ARRA, 

OMB’s regulations at 2 CFR 176.60– 

176.170, and in the April 28, 2009 EPA 

memorandum for implementation of 

ARRA Buy American provisions of 

Public Law 111–5. Applying the Buy 

American requirements of ARRA would 

be inconsistent with the public interest. 

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 

application of the Buy American 

requirements would be inconsistent 

with the public interest, the IEUA 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 specified Solinst 

transducers as documented in the 

IEUA’s waiver request submittal dated 

January 21, 2010. This supplementary 

information constitutes the detailed 

written justification required by Section 

1605(c) for waivers based on a finding 

under subsection (b)(1). 

Authority: Public Law 111–5, section 1605. 

Dated: February 10, 2010. 

Jared Blumenfeld, 

Regional Administrator, EPA Pacific 

Southwest Region. 

[FR Doc. 2010–4073 Filed 2–25–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM 

Formations of, Acquisitions by, and 

Mergers of Bank Holding Companies 

The companies listed in this notice 

have applied to the Board for approval, 

pursuant to the Bank Holding Company 

Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.) 

(BHC Act), Regulation Y (12 CFR Part 

225), and all other applicable statutes 

and regulations to become a bank 

holding company and/or to acquire the 

assets or the ownership of, control of, or 

the power to vote shares of a bank or 

bank holding company and all of the 

banks and nonbanking companies 

owned by the bank holding company, 

including the companies listed below. 

The applications listed below, as well 

as other related filings required by the 

Board, are available for immediate 

inspection at the Federal Reserve Bank 

indicated. The applications also will be 

available for inspection at the offices of 

the Board of Governors. Interested 

persons may express their views in 

writing on the standards enumerated in 

the BHC Act (12 U.S.C. 1842(c)). If the 

proposal also involves the acquisition of 

a nonbanking company, the review also 

includes whether the acquisition of the 

nonbanking company complies with the 

standards in section 4 of the BHC Act 

(12 U.S.C. 1843). Unless otherwise 

noted, nonbanking activities will be 

conducted throughout the United States. 

Additional information on all bank 

holding companies may be obtained 

from the National Information Center 

website at www.ffiec.gov/nic/. 

Unless otherwise noted, comments 

regarding each of these applications 

must be received at the Reserve Bank 

indicated or the offices of the Board of 

Governors not later than March 25, 

2010. 

A. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago 

(Colette A. Fried, Assistant Vice 

President) 230 South LaSalle Street, 

Chicago, Illinois 60690–1414: 

1. Premier Commerce Bancorp, Inc., 

Palos Hills, Illinois; to become a bank 

holding company by acquiring 100 

percent of the voting shares of G.R. 

Bancorp, Ltd., Grand Ridge, Illinois, and 

thereby indirectly acquire voting shares 

of The First National Bank of Grand 

Ridge, Grand Ridge, Illinois. 


sroberts on DSKD5P82C1PROD with NOTICES