3230 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 13 / Thursday, January 20, 2000 / Notices

Agency Comments—Federal, state,

and local agencies are invited to file

comments on the described application.

A copy of the application may be

obtained by agencies directly from the

Applicant. If an agency does not file

comments within the time specified for

filling comments, it will be presumed to

have no comments. One copy of an

agency’s comments must also be sent to

the Applicant’s representatives.

David P. Boergers,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 00–1275 Filed 1–19–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–M

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[FRL–6526–9]

Adequacy Status of Submitted State

Implementation Plans for

Transportation Conformity Purposes;

Pennsylvania; SIP for Rate of Progress

and for Attainment of the NAAQS for

Ozone of the Philadelphia-WilmingtonTrenton Ozone Nonattainment Area

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of Adequacy Status.

SUMMARY: EPA is announcing that the

attainment motor vehicle emissions

budgets (hereafter referred to as

‘‘budgets’’) contained in the State

Implementation Plan (SIP) for the

Attainment of the NAAQS for Ozone

Meeting the Requirements of the

Alternative Ozone Attainment

Demonstration Policy—Phase II for the

Pennsylvania Portion of the

Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton

Ozone Nonattainment Area, submitted

on April 30, 1998, are not adequate for

transportation conformity purposes. We

are concurrently announcing that the

Rate of Progress (ROP) motor vehicle

emission budgets contained in this same

SIP submittal are adequate for

transportation conformity purposes. On

November 16, 1999, EPA announced the

same decision in a Federal Register

publication entitled ‘‘Adequacy Status

of Submitted State Implementation

Plans for Transportation Conformity

Purposes: State Implementation Plan for

Attainment and Maintenance of the

NAAQS for Ozone—Southeastern

Pennsylvania.’’ We are, therefore, also

announcing that in a letter to the

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania dated

December 22, 1999, we withdrew our

findings regarding the adequacy of these

budgets originally made in an October

26, 1999 letter and announced in the

Federal Register on November 16, 1999.

In the same December 22, letter, we

made new findings regarding the

adequacy of these budgets. Therefore,

this announcement regarding the

findings made on December 22, 1999

supersedes and renders moot the

announcement published on November

16, 1999 regarding the findings made on

October 26, 1999.

DATES: These findings regarding the

adequacy of the budgets, made in a

letter dated December 22, 1999 to the

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, are

effective on February 4, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Larry Budney, U.S. EPA, Region III,

1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA

19103 at (215) 814–2184 or by e-mail at:

budney.larry@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Throughout this document the terms

‘‘we,’’ ‘‘us,’’ or ‘‘our’’ refer to EPA. The

word ‘‘budgets’’ refers to the motor

vehicle emission budgets for volatile

organic compounds (VOCs) and

nitrogen oxides (NOx). The word ‘‘SIP’’

in this document refers to the Phase II

State Implementation Plan submitted by

the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on

April 30, 1998. This plan was submitted

to demonstrate ROP in the Pennsylvania

portion of the Philadelphia-WilmingtonTrenton ozone nonattainment area and

to demonstrate attainment of the onehour National Ambient Air Quality

Standard (NAAQS) for ozone

throughout the nonattainment area.

On March 2, 1999, the D.C. Circuit

Court ruled that the budgets contained

in submitted SIPs cannot be used for

transportation conformity

determinations until EPA has

affirmatively found them adequate. As a

result of our finding, the attainment

budgets contained in the submitted

Phase II Ozone Attainment Plan may not

be used for future conformity

determinations, but the ROP motor

vehicle emission budgets contained in

the same submittal may be used for

future conformity determinations in the

Pennsylvania portion of the

Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton

ozone nonattainment area.

On April 30, 1998, the Pennsylvania

Department of Environmental Protection

(PADEP) submitted its State

Implementation Plan for the Attainment

and Maintenance of the NAAQS for

Ozone Meeting the Requirements of the

Alternative Ozone Attainment

Demonstration Policy—Phase II. The

SIP contained mobile source vehicle

emissions budgets both for ROP and for

attainment. On August 2, 1999, the

availability of the SIP and the motor

vehicle emission budgets was posted on

EPA’s conformity WEB site for the

purpose of soliciting public comment.

The comment period closed on August

31, 1999, and no comments were

received.

On October 26, 1999, we sent a letter

to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

which constituted final Agency actions

on the adequacy of the budgets

contained in the Phase II SIP submitted

by Pennsylvania on April 30, 1998.

Those actions were EPA’s findings that

the attainment budgets were not

adequate and that the ROP budgets were

adequate. On November 16, 1999, we

published our findings that the

attainment budgets were not adequate

and that the ROP budgets were adequate

in a Federal Register announcement

entitled ‘‘Adequacy Status of Submitted

State Implementation Plans for

Transportation Conformity Purposes:

State Implementation Plan for

Attainment and Maintenance of the

NAAQS for Ozone—Southeastern

Pennsylvania’’ (64 FR 62198). As

indicated in that notice, the effective

date of the Agency’s October 26, 1999

findings was December 1, 1999.

In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

(NPR) published on December 16, 1999

(64 FR 70428), we proposed that

additional measures are needed to

support the attainment test for the

Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton

ozone nonattainment area. Pennsylvania

has raised concerns that the text found

in the NPR at section II.B.3, entitled

Motor Vehicle Emissions Budget, may

be interpreted to conclude that EPA

took final Agency action in its October

26, 1999 letter to determine that

additional measures to reduce emissions

are required in the PhiladelphiaWilmington-Trenton area to support the

attainment test. This is not the case. The

action published by EPA on December

16, 1999 regarding the attainment

demonstration contained in the Phase II

SIP submitted by the Commonwealth on

April 30, 1998 and supplemented on

August 21, 1998, is a proposed action.

EPA has invited comment on all matters

raised in the NPR, including the need

for additional measures.

We wished to clarify its intent and to

address the Commonwealth’s concerns.

Therefore, in a letter to the

Commonwealth dated December 22,

1999, we withdrew the October 26, 1999

final actions as to the adequacy of the

motor vehicle emission budgets

submitted by the Commonwealth in its

April 30, 1998 Phase II SIP for the

Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton

nonattainment area. In the same

December 22, 1999 letter, we took

Agency actions on the adequacy of the

budgets in Pennsylvania’s Phase II SIP

by finding that the attainment budgets

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 13 / Thursday, January 20, 2000 / Notices 3231

were not adequate and that the ROP

budgets were adequate. The December

22, 1999 letter also clearly indicated

that it superseded any final actions

which had occurred on October 26,

1999, and that the withdrawal of the

findings made on October 26, 1999 was

effective immediately (December 22,

1999).

As stated above, on December 22,

1999, we informed the Commonwealth

of our finding that the motor vehicle

emission budgets in the Phase II SIP

submitted by the Commonwealth are

not adequate for the purposes of

transportation conformity. Among other

things, the attainment budgets, when

considered together with all other

emission reductions, must be consistent

with applicable requirements for

attainment as required in 40 CFR Part

93, § 93.118(e)(4)(iv). In making our

finding that the attainment budgets are

not adequate, we have preliminarily

determined that the submitted Phase II

attainment SIP does not fully provide

for attainment. This preliminary

determination is not a final agency

action and is rather one of the issues in

our December 16, 1999 Notice of

Proposed Rulemaking (64 FR 70428).

On December 22, 1999, we also

informed the Commonwealth that we

found the motor vehicle emission

budgets in the 1999, 2002, and 2005

ROP plan adequate since they met the

review criteria in 40 CFR Part 93,

§ 93.118(e)(4)(i) through (e)(4)(vi) of the

conformity rule.

This is an announcement of adequacy

findings that we already made on

December 22, 1999. The effective date of

these findings is February 4, 2000.

These findings will also be announced

on EPA’s website: http://www.epa.gov/

oms/traq (once there, click on the

‘‘Conformity’’ button, then look for

‘‘Adequacy Review of SIP Submissions

for Conformity’’). Transportation

conformity is required by section 176(c)

of the Clean Air Act. EPA’s conformity

rule requires that transportation plans,

programs, and projects conform to SIPs

and establishes the criteria and

procedures for determining whether or

not they do so. Conformity to a SIP

means that transportation activities will

not produce new air quality violations,

worsen existing violations, or delay

timely attainment of the NAAQS.

The criteria by which we determine

whether a SIP’s budgets are adequate for

conformity purposes are outlined in 40

CFR 93.118(e)(4). Please note that an

adequacy finding is separate from EPA’s

completeness finding, and separate from

EPA’s finding whether or not the SIP is

approvable. Even if we find a budget

adequate, the SIP could later be

disapproved. We described our process

for determining the adequacy of

submitted SIP budgets in a guidance

memorandum dated May 14, 1999 titled

‘‘Conformity Guidance on

Implementation of March 2, 1999

Conformity Court Decision’’. We

followed this guidance in making our

adequacy findings for the budgets

contained in the ‘‘SIP for Rate of

Progress Emission Reductions and for

Attainment of the NAAQS for Ozone

Meeting the Requirements of the

Alternative Ozone Attainment

Demonstration Policy—Phase II’’

submitted on April 30, 1998 by PADEP.

You may obtain a copy of this guidance

from EPA’s conformity web site referred

to above or by calling the contact name

listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT section of this notice.

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401–7671q.

Dated: January 10, 2000.

Bradley M. Campbell,

Regional Administrator, Region III.

[FR Doc. 00–1362 Filed 1–19–00; 8:45 am]

BILLIING CODE 6560–50–P

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[FRL–6526–7]

Contractor Access to Confidential

Business Information Under the Clean

Air Act

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The EPA has authorized the

following contractor and subcontractors

for access to information that has been,

or will be, submitted to EPA under

sections 108–112, 114, 129 and 183 of

the Clean Air Act (CAA) as amended:

Research Triangle Institute, 3040

Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle

Park, North Carolina 27709; PechanAvanti Group, 5537–C Hempstead Way,

Springfield, Virginia 22151; Stratus

Consulting, Inc., Suite 201, 1881 Ninth

Street, Boulder, Colorado 80302;

Mathtech, Inc., Suite 111, 202 Carnegie

Center, Princeton, New Jersey 08540;

The Kevric Company, Inc., Suite 610,

8401 Colesville Road, Silver Spring,

Maryland 20910 under contract number

68–D–99–024.

Some of the information may be

claimed to be confidential business

information (CBI) by the submitter.

DATES: Access to confidential data

submitted to EPA under the CAA will

occur no sooner than 10 days after

issuance of this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Melva Toomer, Document Control

Officer, Office of Air Quality Planning

and Standards (MD–11), U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency,

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

27711, (919) 541–0880.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The EPA

is issuing this notice to inform all

submitters of information under

sections 108–112, 114, 129 and 183 of

the CAA that EPA may provide the

above mentioned contractor and

subcontractors access to these materials

on a need-to-know basis. This contractor

and subcontractors will provide

technical support to the Office of Air

Quality Planning and Standards

(OAQPS) in the analyses of cost and

benefits of actual or potential EPA

action taken under the CAA.

In accordance with 40 CFR, part 2.

subparts B and other EPA regulations

and policies, EPA has determined that

this contractor and subcontractors

require access to CBI, submitted to EPA

under sections 108–112, 114, 129 and

183 of the CAA, in order to perform

work satisfactorily under the above

noted contract. The contractor and

subcontractor personnel will be given

access to information submitted under

the above mentioned section of the

CAA. Some of the information may be

claimed or determined to be CBI. The

contractor and subcontractor personnel

will be required to sign nondisclosure

agreements and will be briefed on

appropriate security procedures before

they are permitted access to CAA CBI.

All access to CAA CBI will take place

at the prime contractor’s facility. This

prime contractor has appropriate

procedures and facilities in place to

safeguard the CAA CBI to which the

contractor has access.

Clearance for access to CAA CBI is

scheduled to expire on September 30,

2004 under contract 68–D–99–024.

Dated: January 11, 2000.

Robert Brenner,

Acting Assistant Administrator for Air and

Radiation.

[FR Doc. 00–1363 Filed 1–19–00; 8:45 am]

BILLIING CODE 6560–50–P

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[OPP–34217; FRL–6489–2]

Acephate, Disulfoton, and

Methamidophos, Revised Pesticide

Risk Assessment; Notice of Public

Meeting

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).