United States Environmental Protection Agency


# User Guide to the Docket for the Proposed Eff luent Limitation Guidelines & Standards for the Oil & Gas Extraction Point Source Category (40 CFR 435)

EPA Docket Number EPA

- HQ

- OW

- 2014 -0 598 (www.regulations.gov)

April 2015

DCN SGE 01 0321 1.0 O VERVIEW
Under the Clean Water Act (CWA), EPA establishes technology

- based national regulations, termed “effluent limitations guidelines and standards,” to reduce pollutant discharges from categories of industrial facilities to waters of the United States. Under the CWA, EPA similarly establishes technology

- based regulations, termed “pretreatment standards,” to reduc e pollutant discharges from industrial facilities to waters of the United States

. This document provides information on the docket supporting the Proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category . S ee the Federal Register Notice presenting EPA’s proposed regulations for the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category

, 80 Federal Register 18557 ( 7 April 201 5 ). EPA has prepared a subject outline of the documents included in this docket to help you locate documents that address related topics or subjects. The subject outline for the docket is provided in Attachment 1. Attachment 2 is a complete record index listing for all of the documents supporting the proposed rulemaking for the Oil and Gas Extrac tion Point Source Categor y sorted by subject outline number . Attachment 3 is a crosswalk b etween DCN, citation , and EPA d ocket n umber for all documents supporting the Proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Oil and Gas Extraction Poi nt Source Category

. Attachment 4 lists the references cited in the Federal Register Notice for this proposed rulemaking by DCN and EPA Docket Number

.
2.0 B ACKGROUND I NFORMATION ON THE D OCKET

What is the Docket and How Can I Gain to Access It?

Docket ID No. EPA

- HQ

- OW

- 2014

- 0 598 is the official docket for EPA’s Proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category . The official docket consists of the documents specifically referenced, any public
comments rec eived, and other related information supporting this action.

The official public docket is the collection of electronic and hard copy materials that is available for public viewing at the Water Docket in the EPA Docket Center, (EPA/DC), located in the EPA Headquarters Library, EPA West, Room Number 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC. An electronic version of the public docket is available through a federal

- wide electronic docket management system located at www.regulations.gov (Regulations.gov ). You may use the Regulations.gov website to view public comments, access a listing of the contents of the official docket, and access those documents in the public docket that are available electronically.

What Materials are Included in the Docket?

EP A’s dockets, specific to regulatory action s , contain items that are collected and developed during the development of a rulemaking effort. For the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category proposed rule, the docket includes information collected on the oil and gas industry, unconventional oil and gas wastewater characterization , and unconventional oil and gas wastewater management practices ; correspondence and meeting summaries with industry (e.g., site visit s ), vendors, and other stakeholders; and analy ses conducted to support the proposed rule

.2 Certain documents are not available in the electronic version of the public docket. These documents include but are not limited to copyright

- protected material; physical objects such as maps, aerial photographs, colored charts; and information that have been claimed as confidential. Although not all docket materials may be available electronically, you may still access any of the

non

- confidential publicly

- available docket materials at the EPA Docket Center.

Alth ough it is a part of the official docket, Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute is not included in the publ icly

available docket materials . Some documents are classified as CBI because entiti es providing the information specifically claimed certain information (e.g., operating or financial data) as CBI. Other documents are classified as CBI because release of these documents could indirectly reveal information claimed as confidential.

In suppo rt of this proposed rule, EPA conducted site visits, conference calls, and meetings with industry representatives, UOG operators, CWT facilities, and Native American tribal groups . Information in the site visit reports , conference call notes, and meeting n otes may be claimed as CBI. The CBI documents are not available for public viewing. However, in an effort to make as much information available as possible, EPA has prepared “sanitized” versions of the reports. These sanitized versions, which are available for public viewing, have all CBI redacted from the text. This allows the public to view the non

- CBI information within the reports.

3.0 A CCESSING I NFORMATION IN THE D OCKET

How do I Find Documents in the Docket?

Water Docket in the EPA Docket Center

The offici al public docket is the collection of electronic and hard copy materials that is available for public viewing at the Water Docket in the EPA Docket Center, (EPA/DC), located in the EPA Headquarters Library, EPA West, Room Number 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave ., NW, Washington, DC. The Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566

– 1744, and the telephone number for the Water Docket is (202) 566

– 2426. You can also contact the Water Docket via e

- mail: OW

- Docket@epa.gov.

Regulations.gov

You will find instructions for using Regulations.gov on its Internet home page ( http://www.regulations.gov/#!home )

. Regulations.gov provides limited electronic search capabilities. If you know the Document ID Number (e.g., EPA

- HQ

- OW

- 2014

- 0 598

- 0001) of the document you wish to view, you can type that number directly into the field bene ath the

“ SEARCH for: Rules, Comments, Adjudi cations or Supporting Documents ” heading and click Search

. If you do not know the specific Document ID Number, you can input the docket identification number (EPA

- HQ

- OW

- 2014

- 0 598 ) in the field beneath the “ SEARCH for: Rules, Comments, Adjudi cations or Supporting Documents ” heading and click Search. You will now3 see a listing of the contents of the official docket in the public record. The listing includes the Document Title (e.g., “ Technical Development Document f or Proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for Oil and Gas Extraction – DCN SGE00704 ”), Document ID Number (e.g., EPA- HQ

- OW -2014-0598-0683), Date Posted (e.g., “04/07/2015”), Document Type (e.g., “ Supporting & Related Material ”), and other information.

You have several options to narrow your search within the docket listing by using the filters under the “ Filter Results By... ” heading. For example, you can specify the Document Type (e.g., Proposed Rule; Supporting & Related Material; Public Submission ).

How are Documents Organized in the EPA- HQ

- OW -2014-0598 Docket?

Each document in the docket has two document identification numbers. One is the Regulations.gov Document ID Number (e.g., EPA- HQ

- OW -2014-0598-0683 ) that was assigned when EPA added the document to the official docket. The last four digits are the unique consecutively assigned Regulations.gov Document ID. The second is EPA’s internal document control number (DCN) that was assigned during the development of the proposed rulemaking (e.g., DCN SGE00704). In documents prepared for the docket, EPA typically identified references by their DCN. The DCN appears at the end of the document titles in the Document Title field listed in Regulations.gov (e.g., “Technical Development Document for Proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for Oil and Gas Extraction – DCN SGE00704 ”).

What is the Docket EPA

- HQ

- OW -2014-0598 Subject Outline?

EPA prepared a subject outline of the documents included in EPA- HQ

- OW -2014-0598 tohelp you locate documents that address related topics or subjects. The subject outline for EPAHQ

- OW -2014-0598 is provided in Attachment 1.

What is the Docket EPA

- HQ

- OW -2014-0598 Record Index?

The docket EPA- HQ

- OW -2014-0598 record index is a list of documents in the docket, sorted by subject outline section, available as Attachment 2 to this document. The record index summarizes certain information for each document, including the subject outline section, Regulations.gov Document ID Number, EPA DCN, document title, author, and abstract. EPA assigned each document to a subject outline section during the development of the proposed rulemaking.

The record index for the docket includes the fields shown in Table 1:

T a b l e 1

. D e f in it io n s o f F ie ld s in t h e D o c k e t R e co rd I nde x

F ie ld N a m e D es cri p t i o n S u b j e c t O u tli n e S e c tio n S e c t i on num be r f r o m d o ck et s u b j ect o u tlin e

. E P A D o ck et N u m b er ( R e gu l a t i ons

. g o v D oc um e n t I D N u m b e r) U n i qu e doc um e n t num be r a s s i g n e d w he n E P A a dde d t h e do c um e n t t o t h e of

f i c i a l doc k e t

. T h e D oc um e n t I D N um be r i n c l u de s t h e D oc k e t N um be r f ol l o w e d by a c ons e c ut i v e doc um e n t n um be r

. T itle T itle o f d o c u m e nt

. A b s tr a c t A ddi t i on a l de s c r i pt i o n of doc um e nt

. A ut ho r A u t h or of doc um e n t

.4 Table 1 . Definitions of Fields in the Docket Record Index

Field Name Description Date Date of publication, issue, edition, or version. Actual date of meeting or telephone call. Copyrighted ( Yes/No )

– Materials that are copyright protected (e.g., books and other published material). These documents are not available through Regulations.gov but are only available in hard copy at the EPA Docket Center. CBI (Yes/No)

– Materials that are claimed to be Confidential Business Information. These documents are not available through Regulations.gov or in hard copy at the EPA Docket Center. DCN Unique document control number (DCN) assigned during the development of the proposed rulemaking.

How do I Use the Subject Outline to Find Documents in the Docket?

Review the subject outline to determine which section may contain the documents of interest. Then, locate documents for that section in the record index and note their Regulations.gov Document ID Number. Documents available electronically can be accessed through Regulations.gov. Other documents can be reviewed at the Water Docket in the EPA Docket Center in Washington, DC. See information on the Water Docket above. You may also be able to locate copyright protected materials ( e.g., books ) at an academic or public library.

4.0 F URTHER I NFORMATION
The primary contact regarding questions or comments on Docket ID No. EPA- HQ

- OW

2014-0598 and the Proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standa rds for the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category is provided below:

Lisa Biddle Environmental Engineer U.S. EPA Office of Water Eng ineering and Analysis Division 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20460

(202) 566-0350 (telephone) biddle.l isa@epa.gov