72856 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 235 / Thursday, December 6, 2012 / Notices 

provisions are within the scope of its 

previous authorizations. 

My decision will affect not only 

persons in California, but also entities 

outside the State who must comply with 

California’s requirements. For this 

reason, I determine and find that this is 

a final action of national applicability 

for purposes of section 307(b)(1) of the 

Act. Pursuant to section 307(b)(1) of the 

Act, judicial review of this final action 

may be sought only in the United States 

Court of Appeals for the District of 

Columbia Circuit. Petitions for review 

must be filed by February 4, 2013. 

Judicial review of this final action may 

not be obtained in subsequent 

enforcement proceedings, pursuant to 

section 307(b)(2) of the Act. 

IV. Statutory and Executive Order 

Reviews 

As with past authorization and waiver 

decisions, this action is not a rule as 

defined by Executive Order 12866. 

Therefore, it is exempt from review by 

the Office of Management and Budget as 

required for rules and regulations by 

Executive Order 12866. 

In addition, this action is not a rule 

as defined in the Regulatory Flexibility 

Act, 5 U.S.C. 601(2). Therefore, EPA has 

not prepared a supporting regulatory 

flexibility analysis addressing the 

impact of this action on small business 

entities. 

Further, the Congressional Review 

Act, 5 U.S.C. 801, et seq., as added by 

the Small Business Regulatory 

Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, does 

not apply because this action is not a 

rule for purposes of 5 U.S.C. 804(3). 

Dated: November 29, 2012. 

Gina McCarthy, 

Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and 

Radiation. 

[FR Doc. 2012–29513 Filed 12–5–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–9758–3] 

New York State Prohibition of 

Discharges of Vessel Sewage; Receipt 

of Petition and Tentative Affirmative 

Determination 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice—receipt of petition and 

tentative affirmative determination. 

SUMMARY: Notice is given that, pursuant 

to Clean Water Act Section 312(f)(3), the 

State of New York has determined that 

the protection and enhancement of the 

quality of the New York State (NYS or 

the State) portion of Lake Erie requires 

greater environmental protection, and 

has petitioned the United States 

Environmental Protection Agency, 

Region 2, for a determination that 

adequate facilities for the safe and 

sanitary removal and treatment of 

sewage from all vessels are reasonably 

available for those waters, so that the 

State may completely prohibit the 

discharge from all vessels of any 

sewage, whether treated or not, into 

such waters. 

New York State has proposed to 

establish a ‘‘Vessel Waste No Discharge 

Zone’’ for the State’s portion of Lake 

Erie stretching from the PennsylvaniaNew York State boundary to include the 

upper Niagara River to Niagara Falls. 

The proposed No Discharge Zone 

encompasses approximately 593 square 

miles and 84 linear shoreline miles, 

including the navigable portions of the 

Upper Niagara River and numerous 

other tributaries and harbors, and 

embayments of the Lake, including 

Barcelona Harbor, Dunkirk Harbor and 

Buffalo Outer Harbor, and other 

formally designated habitats and 

waterways of local, state, and national 

significance. 

DATES: Comments regarding this 

tentative determination are due by 

January 7, 2013. 

Petition: You may view Lake Erie No 

Discharge Zone Petition by clicking the 

link below: http://www.epa.gov/ 

region02/water/permits.html. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by any of the following methods: 

• Email: chang.moses@epa.gov. 

Include ‘‘Comments on Tentative 

Affirmative Decision for NYS Lake Erie 

NDZ’’ in the subject line of the message. 

• Fax: 212–637–3891. 

• Mail and Hand Delivery/Courier: 

Moses Chang, U.S. EPA Region 2, 290 

Broadway, 24th Floor, New York, NY 

10007–1866. Deliveries are only 

accepted during the Regional Office’s 

normal hours of operation (8 a.m. to 5 

p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding 

federal holidays), and special 

arrangements should be made for 

deliveries of boxed information. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Moses Chang, (212) 637–3867, email 

address: chang.moses@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is 

given that the State of New York has 

petitioned the United States 

Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA), Region 2, pursuant to section 

312(f)(3) of Public Law 92–500 as 

amended by Public Law 95–217 and 

Public Law 100–4, that adequate 

facilities for the safe and sanitary 

removal and treatment of sewage from 

all vessels are reasonably available for 

the NYS portion of Lake Erie. Adequate 

pumpout facilities are defined as one 

pumpout station for every 300–600 

boats under the Clean Vessel Act: 

Pumpout Station and Dump Station 

Technical Guidelines (Federal Register, 

Vol. 59, No. 47, March 10, 1994). 

The Great Lakes are the largest group 

of freshwater lakes on Earth, containing 

95% of the fresh surface water in the 

United States and serving as the largest 

single reservoir on Earth. The glacial 

history and the influence of the Lakes 

themselves create unique conditions 

that support a wealth of biological 

diversity, including over 200 globally 

rare plants and animals and more than 

40 species that are found nowhere else 

in the world. 

Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great 

Lakes. It is also the shallowest, with 

depths that range from an approximate 

average of 24 feet in the western basin, 

to 82 feet in the deeper eastern basin. As 

the shallowest of the Great Lakes, it 

warms quickly in the spring and 

summer, and cools quickly in the fall. 

This shallowness and the warmer 

temperatures result in making Lake Erie 

the most biologically productive of the 

Great Lakes. 

The New York State Department of 

Environmental Conservation (DEC) 

developed the New York State petition 

in collaboration with New York State 

Department of State (DOS) and the New 

York State Environmental Facilities 

Corporation (EFC) to establish a vessel 

waste No Discharge Zone (NDZ) on the 

open waters, tributaries, harbors and 

embayments of New York State’s 

portion of Lake Erie. 

A Clean Water Act Section 

312(f)(4)(B) NDZ designation for 

drinking water intake zones might be 

appropriate for the vast majority of the 

Lake Erie waters included in this 

petition. However, to address the few 

areas that are not Class A (including 

Barcelona Harbor, Dunkirk Harbor and 

the Black Rock Canal), the State is 

seeking a determination by EPA, under 

Section 312(f)(3), that adequate facilities 

exist for the safe and sanitary removal 

and treatment of sewage from all vessels 

using this area of the Lake, and has 

provided information on Lake resources, 

vessel traffic, and vessel pumpout 

facilities in support of such a 

determination. In support of its petition, 

the state also submitted a Certification 

of the Need for Greater Protection and 

Enhancement of Lake Erie waters. 

The Lake Erie watershed is home to 

approximately one-third of the total 

human population of the Great Lakes 

basin: 11.6 million people (10 million 

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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 235 / Thursday, December 6, 2012 / Notices 72857 

U.S. and 1.6 million Canadian), 

including 17 metropolitan areas, each 

with more than 50,000 residents. The 

majority, 11 million people, receive 

their drinking water from the Lake. Of 

all the Great Lakes, Lake Erie is exposed 

to the greatest stress from urbanization, 

industrialization and agriculture. 

Because the Lake Erie basin supports 

such a large human population, it 

surpasses all the other Great Lakes in 

the amount of effluent received from 

sewage treatment plants. 

There are 18 designated Significant 

Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitats in the 

two counties that comprise New York’s 

Lake Erie shoreline, including 

Cataraugus Creek, Dunkirk Harbor, 

Buckhorn Island Wetlands and Grand 

Island Tributaries. These habitats are 

essential to the survival of a large 

portion of lake fish and wildlife 

populations, and they support 

populations of species of special 

concern as well as those having 

significant commercial, recreational, 

and educational values. 

The New York State shoreline and 

waters of Lake Erie also host a variety 

of swimming, boating and other 

recreational activities. These 

recreational activities are a source of 

revenue to the regional economy, 

bringing people to the shoreline, where 

they patronize local businesses. 

Virtually all of Lake Erie is classified 

by New York State as Class A waters. 

This classification means that the best 

uses of these waters are for drinking, 

culinary or food processing purposes, 

recreation and fishing. Class A waters 

shall be suitable for fish, shellfish, and 

wildlife propagation and survival, and, 

when subject to accepted treatment for 

drinking water supplies, must comply 

with New York State Department of 

Health (DOH) drinking water safety 

standards. Currently, six New York 

municipal and community water 

supplies, including Buffalo and Erie 

County, draw water from Lake Erie, and 

serve approximately 275,000 people. 

In summary, as one of the nation’s 

premier waterbodies, Lake Erie supports 

several important uses, including 

drinking water supplies, valuable 

habitats, commercial and recreational 

boating and other recreational activities. 

The Lake serves as an economic engine 

for the region, heavily used and enjoyed 

by the citizens of the many lakeshore 

communities and throughout the 

watershed. The protection and 

enhancement of the open waters, 

tributaries, harbors and embayments of 

the New York State portion of Lake Erie 

require greater protection than is 

afforded by the current federal vessel 

sewage discharge standards. And, an 

NDZ designation covering the waters of 

the Lake represents one component of a 

comprehensive approach to water 

quality management. This wider effort 

includes initiatives to control point and 

non-point source pollution, including 

pollution associated with municipal 

discharges, Combined Sewer Overflows, 

and storm water runoff. 

For EPA to determine that adequate 

facilities for the safe and sanitary 

removal and treatment of sewage from 

all vessels are reasonably available for 

the New York State portion of Lake Erie, 

the State must demonstrate that the 

pumpout-to-vessel ratio does not exceed 

1:600. In its petition, the State described 

the recreational and commercial vessels 

that use Lake Erie and the pumpout 

facilities that are available for their use. 

To develop a reasonable estimate of 

recreational vessel use of the NYS 

portion of Lake Erie, the State utilized 

two major sources of information. The 

first was DOS’s Clean Vessel Act Plan 

(Statewide Plan), released in1996. Using 

data from the Statewide Plan, the 

estimated number of recreational vessels 

in each of the New York State counties 

bordering Lake Erie is 2,029. The second 

information source for recreational 

boater usage was boater registrations, 

obtained through the New York State 

Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic 

Preservation’s 2010 Boating Report 

(OPRHP Report) for the counties of Erie 

and Chautauqua (the two New York 

State counties on Lake Erie). The data in 

the OPRHP Report yields an estimate of 

2,204 vessels with MSDs in the 

respective counties, which are assumed 

to operate in Lake Erie. 

The State provided sufficient 

information about 15 pumpout facilities 

that are publicly available for use by 

recreational and small commercial 

vessels on the New York State shore of 

Lake Erie. These facilities either 

discharge to a holding tank, to a 

municipal wastewater treatment plant, 

or to an on-site septic system. All fifteen 

(15) were created through funding 

provided by the Clean Vessel Assistance 

Program (CVAP), and are thus required 

to be open to the public. Nine additional 

marinas are located along Lake Erie in 

New York State. Four of these do not 

receive CVAP funding, so specific 

information is not available. The other 

five marinas represent locations where 

CVAP funding could support future 

pumpout facilities. However, for 

purposes of this adequacy 

determination, EPA only considered the 

15 CVAP funded facilities. Therefore, 

the most conservative estimate of the 

ratio of pumpout facilities to 

recreational vessels is 15:2,204 or 1:147. 

Because this exceeds the minimum ratio 

of 1:600, EPA proposes to determine 

that adequate pumpout facilities for the 

safe and sanitary removal and treatment 

of sewage for recreational vessels are 

reasonably available for the New York 

State portion of Lake Erie shoreline. 

Lake Erie is also used by large 

commercial vessels. The commercial 

vessel population was estimated using 

data from the National Ballast 

Information Clearinghouse (NBIC), 

which records ballast water discharge 

reports for arriving ships at the two 

main commercial ports on Lake Erie: 

Buffalo and Lackawanna. In 2010, 

ballast manifests showed that 62 vessels 

arrived in Buffalo, and one arrived in 

Lackawanna. The majority (58) of these 

vessels were bulk ships, with two 

passenger ships and one more listed as 

‘‘other.’’ The single arrival in 

Lackawanna was also a bulk ship. Based 

on these sources, New York State 

conservatively estimates that the 

commercial boat traffic docking in the 

New York State portion of Lake Erie is 

approximately one vessel per week. 

Although there are no fixed commercial 

vessel pumpout facilities at the Ports of 

Buffalo or Lackawanna, information 

gathered from the petition indicated that 

mobile pumpout services are available 

for hire, including septic waste haulers 

or pumpout trucks, which can service 

the vessels while they are docked in 

either port. 

To supplement the State’s 

submissions regarding commercial 

vessel traffic in the NYS section of Lake 

Erie, DEC published a data call on its 

Web site seeking any additional relevant 

information, and also sent an informal 

request for information to commercial 

boating organizations that had 

commented on previous New York State 

NDZ petitions. Through that data call or 

request for information exercise DEC 

did not obtain any additional 

information. Therefore, based on the 

low level of commercial vessel traffic at 

Lake Erie ports in New York, and the 

availability of septic hauler pumpout 

trucks, EPA proposes to determine that 

adequate pumpout facilities for the safe 

and sanitary removal and treatment of 

sewage for commercial vessels are 

reasonably available for the New York 

State portion of Lake Erie shoreline. 

A list of pumpout facilities, phone 

numbers, locations, hours of operation, 

water depth and fees is provided below: 

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72858 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 235 / Thursday, December 6, 2012 / Notices 

LIST OF PUMPOUTS IN THE LAKE ERIE NDZ PROPOSED AREA

No. Name Location Contact 

information Days and hours of operation 

Water 

depth 

(feet) 

Fee 

1 .......... City of Dunkirk—Municipal 

Dock.

Dunkirk Harbor .................... 716–366–9882 April 1–November 15, 6 

a.m.–6 p.m.

6′–7′ $5.00 

2 .......... Niagara Frontier Trans. Authority.Buffalo Harbor and Buffalo 

River.

716–855–7230 May 5–October 15, 7:00 

a.m.–10:30 p.m.

6′–8′ 5.00 

3 .......... RCR Yachts Skyway Marina Buffalo Harbor and Buffalo 

River.

716–856–6314 April 1–November 30, 8:30 

a.m.–5:30 p.m.

12′ 5.00 

4 .......... City of Buffalo—Erie Basin 

Marina.

Buffalo Harbor and Buffalo 

River.

716–851–5389 May 1–October 15, 7:00 

a.m.–7:00 p.m.

10′ 6.50 

5 .......... Rich Marine Sales, Inc ........ Buffalo Harbor and Buffalo 

River.

716–873–4060 May 1–November 1, 9:00 

a.m.–5:00 p.m.

6′ 5.00 

6 .......... Harbour Place Marine 

Sales, Inc.

Buffalo Harbor and Buffalo 

River.

716–876–5944 April 15–October 31, 24 

Hours.

12′ 5.00 

7 .......... NYSOPRHP—Beaver Island 

State Park Transient M.

Grand Island ........................ 716–278–1775 May 15–October 15, 24 

Hours.

10′ 5.00 

8 .......... Blue Water Marine ............... Grand Island ........................ 716–773–7884 May 1–November 1, 9:00 

a.m.–7:00 p.m.

5′ 0.00 

9 .......... Mid River Marina Inc ........... Tonawanda Creek ............... 716–875–7447 April 1–September 30, 9:00 

a.m.–6:00 p.m.

5′ 5.00 

10 ........ Collins Marine Inc ................ Tonawanda Creek ............... 716–875–6000 April 1–November 1, 24 

Hours.

6′ 5.00 

11 ........ The Shores/Placid Harbor 

Marine—Tonawanda Marine Develop Corp.

Tonawanda Creek ............... 716–625–8235 April 15–October 15, 9:00 

a.m.–9:00 p.m.

12′ 5.00 

12 ........ Niagara River Yacht Club .... Tonawanda Creek ............... 716–693–2882 May 1–November 1, Dusk– 

Dawn.

NA 3.00 

13 ........ Smith Boys of North Tonawanda—Upgrade.Tonawanda Creek ............... 716–693–3472 April 1–November, 24 Hours 8′ 0.00 

14 ........ East Pier Marine, Inc ........... Tonawanda Creek ............... 716–693–6604 May 1–November 15, 9:00 

a.m.–8:00 p.m.

5′ 5.00 

15 ........ NYSOPRHP—Big Six Mile 

Creek State Marina.

Grand Island ........................ 315–483–9111 May 1–November 1, 24 

Hours.

10′ 5.00 

Based on the above, EPA proposes to 

make an affirmative determination that 

adequate facilities for the safe and 

sanitary removal and treatment of 

sewage from all vessels are available for 

the waters of the New York State 

portion of Lake Erie. A 30-day period for 

public comment has been opened on 

this matter, and EPA invites any 

comments relevant to its proposed 

determination. If, after the public 

comment period ends, EPA makes a 

final affirmative determination that 

adequate facilities for the safe and 

sanitary removal and treatment of 

sewage from all vessels are reasonably 

available for the New York State areas 

of Lake Erie, the State may completely 

prohibit the discharge from all vessels of 

any sewage, whether treated or not, into 

those waters. 

Dated: November 16, 2012. 

Judith A. Enck, 

Regional Administrator, Region 2. 

[FR Doc. 2012–29509 Filed 12–5–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–9758–4; Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–ORD– 

2012–0830] 

Toxicological Review of Inorganic 

Arsenic (Cancer and Noncancer 

Effects): In Support of Summary 

Information on the Integrated Risk 

Information System (IRIS) 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of a public stakeholder 

workshop to inform the development of 

a state of the science toxicological 

review of inorganic arsenic (cancer and 

noncancer effects) in support of the IRIS 

program. 

SUMMARY: The inorganic arsenic (iAs) 

public stakeholder workshop is 

designed to inform the planning for 

EPA’s toxicological review of chronic 

exposure to iAs (cancer and noncancer 

effects), which EPA intends to post in 

the IRIS database. Workshop 

participants will be asked to highlight 

significant new and emerging research, 

discuss methods for evaluating 

literature, identify critical research 

issues (including mode of action) that 

may impact the toxicological review, 

and discuss approaches for doseresponse. The ultimate goals of the 

workshop are to ensure that while 

developing the toxicological review, 

EPA provides public stakeholders an 

opportunity to inform the toxicological 

review and transparently communicates 

how EPA will produce a toxicological 

review that meets the needs of Agency 

stakeholders and partners. 

DATES: The public stakeholder 

workshop will begin at 8:00 a.m. on 

January 8, 2013, and end at 5:00 p.m. on 

January 9, 2013. 

ADDRESSES: The iAs public stakeholder 

workshop will be held at the U.S. EPA, 

109 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research 

Triangle Park, North Carolina 27711. To 

attend the workshop in person, register 

no later than 12:00 p.m. on January 2, 

2013, by contacting Susan Blaine via 

email: EPA_Arsenic@icfi.com or by 

telephone: 703–225–2471 (reference the 

iAs Public Stakeholder Workshop and 

include your name, title, affiliation, full 

address, and contact information). You 

can also register via the Internet at 

http://tinyurl.com/EPA-Arsenic-2013. 

Space is limited, and reservations will 

be accepted on a first-come, first-served 

basis. 

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