Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 36 / Wednesday, February 23, 2022 / Notices 10193 

Accession Number: 20220216–5064. 

Comment Date: 5 p.m. ET 2/28/22. 

Docket Numbers: RP22–555–000. 

Applicants: Iroquois Gas 

Transmission System, L.P. 

Description: § 4(d) Rate Filing: 2.16.22 

Negotiated Rates—DTE Energy Trading, 

Inc. R–1830–18 to be effective 4/1/2022. 

Filed Date: 2/16/22. 

Accession Number: 20220216–5065. 

Comment Date: 5 p.m. ET 2/28/22. 

Docket Numbers: RP22–556–000. 

Applicants: Iroquois Gas 

Transmission System, L.P. 

Description: § 4(d) Rate Filing: 2.16.22 

Negotiated Rates—Macquarie Energy 

LLC R–4090–24 to be effective 4/1/2022. 

Filed Date: 2/16/22. 

Accession Number: 20220216–5067. 

Comment Date: 5 p.m. ET 2/28/22. 

Docket Numbers: RP22–557–000. 

Applicants: Iroquois Gas 

Transmission System, L.P. 

Description: § 4(d) Rate Filing: 2.16.22 

Negotiated Rates—Freepoint 

Commodities LLC R–7250–41 to be 

effective 4/1/2022. 

Filed Date: 2/16/22. 

Accession Number: 20220216–5068. 

Comment Date: 5 p.m. ET 2/28/22. 

Docket Numbers: RP22–558–000. 

Applicants: Iroquois Gas 

Transmission System, L.P. 

Description: § 4(d) Rate Filing: 2.16.22 

Negotiated Rates—Castleton 

Commodities Merchant Trading L.P. R– 

4010–31 to be effective 4/1/2022. 

Filed Date: 2/16/22. 

Accession Number: 20220216–5071. 

Comment Date: 5 p.m. ET 2/28/22. 

Any person desiring to intervene or 

protest in any of the above proceedings 

must file in accordance with Rules 211 

and 214 of the Commission’s 

Regulations (18 CFR 385.211 and 

385.214) on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern 

time on the specified comment date. 

Protests may be considered, but 

intervention is necessary to become a 

party to the proceeding. 

Filings in Existing Proceedings 

Docket Numbers: RP21–1042–002. 

Applicants: Rover Pipeline LLC. 

Description: Compliance filing: File 

and Motion Revised & Cancelled 

Records RP21–1042–000 to be effective 

2/20/2022. 

Filed Date: 2/15/22. 

Accession Number: 20220215–5114. 

Comment Date: 5 p.m. ET 2/28/22. 

Any person desiring to protest in any 

the above proceedings must file in 

accordance with Rule 211 of the 

Commission’s Regulations (18 CFR 

385.211) on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern 

time on the specified comment date. 

The filings are accessible in the 

Commission’s eLibrary system (https://

elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/search/ 

fercgensearch.asp) by querying the 

docket number. 

eFiling is encouraged. More detailed 

information relating to filing 

requirements, interventions, protests, 

service, and qualifying facilities filings 

can be found at: http://www.ferc.gov/ 

docs-filing/efiling/filing-req.pdf. For 

other information, call (866) 208–3676 

(toll free). For TTY, call (202) 502–8659. 

Dated: February 16, 2022. 

Debbie-Anne A. Reese, 

Deputy Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2022–03801 Filed 2–22–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OW–2020–0426; FRL–8421–02– 

OW] 

Proposed 2022 Clean Water Act 

Financial Capability Assessment 

Guidance 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice; request for comment. 

SUMMARY: When municipal discharges 

cause violations of the Clean Water Act 

(CWA), EPA sets a schedule for the 

municipality to address them as soon as 

possible. When developing schedules to 

implement the control measures, EPA 

considers factors such as public health, 

environmental protection, and a 

community’s financial capability. The 

Proposed 2022 Financial Capability 

Assessment (FCA) Guidance describes 

the financial information and formulas 

the Agency intends to use to assess the 

financial resources a community has 

available to implement control 

measures. The Proposed 2022 FCA 

directly incorporates relevant portions 

of the 1997 Combined Sewer 

Overflows—Guidance for Financial 

Capability Assessment and Schedule 

Development (1997 FCA Guidance) and 

EPA’s 2014 Financial Capability 

Assessment Framework for Municipal 

Clean Water Act Requirements (2014 

FCA Framework) as Appendices. Once 

finalized, EPA intends for the Proposed 

2022 FCA to replace the 1997 FCA 

Guidance to evaluate a community’s 

capability to fund CWA control 

measures in both the permitting and 

enforcement context. Additionally, EPA 

intends Section IV.g of the 2022 FCA to 

assist states and authorized tribes in the 

consideration of economic impacts to 

public entities for supporting revisions 

to designated uses, water quality 

standard (WQS) variances, and 

antidegradation reviews for high quality 

waters. The Proposed 2022 FCA reflects 

EPA’s consideration of public comments 

received in response to its September 

18, 2020 Federal Register publication. 

The contents of this guidance document 

do not have the force and effect of law 

and are not meant to bind the public in 

any way. This document is intended 

only to provide clarity to the public 

regarding existing requirements under 

the law or agency policies. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before April 25, 2022. 

ADDRESSES: You may send comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

OW–2020–0426, by the following 

method: 

• Federal eRulemaking portal: 

https://www.regulations.gov/. Follow 

the online instructions for submitting 

comments. 

Instructions: All submissions received 

must include the Docket ID No. for this 

guidance. Comments received may be 

posted without change to https://

www.regulations.gov/, including any 

personal information provided. For 

detailed instructions on sending 

comments and additional information 

on the guidance process, see the 

‘‘Request for Public Comments’’ heading 

of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

section of this document. Out of an 

abundance of caution for members of 

the public and our staff, the EPA Docket 

Center and Reading Room are open to 

the public by appointment only to 

reduce the risk of transmitting COVID– 

19. Our Docket Center staff also 

continues to provide remote customer 

service via email, phone, and webform. 

Hand deliveries and couriers may be 

received by scheduled appointment 

only. For further information on EPA 

Docket Center services and the current 

status, please visit us online at https:// 

www.epa.gov/dockets. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Sonia Brubaker, Office of Wastewater 

Management, Water Infrastructure 

Division (MC4204M), Environmental 

Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania 

Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460; 

telephone number: (202) 564–0120; 

email address: brubaker.sonia@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Purpose of the Proposed 2022 Financial 

Capability Assessment Guidance 

II. Changes From the September 2020 

Proposed FCA Guidance 

III. Overview of the Proposed 2022 FCA 

Guidance 

IV. Request for Public Comments 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
10194 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 36 / Wednesday, February 23, 2022 / Notices 

1NAPA issued a report titled ‘‘Developing a New 

Framework for Community Affordability of Clean 

Water Services’’ in October 2017. 

2See 85 FR 58352 (September 18, 2020). 

3See https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/ 

presidential-actions/2021/01/20/regulatory-freezepending-review/. 

EPA’S Proposed 2022 Financial 

Capability Assessment Guidance 

I. Purpose of the Proposed 2022 

Financial Capability Assessment 

Guidance 

The Proposed 2022 FCA advances the 

ability of communities to more 

thoroughly demonstrate the financial 

impacts they face and increases the 

transparency of EPA’s considerations as 

it endeavors to consistently apply FCA 

methodologies across the country. The 

Proposed 2022 FCA allows communities 

to submit more consistent and 

comprehensive information relevant to 

the entire community’s capability to 

fund CWA control measures and 

programs. Specifically, the Proposed 

2022 FCA includes templates and 

calculations that communities can use 

to submit information regarding lowest 

quintile income (LQI), drinking water 

costs, financial models or studies, and 

other relevant information. The 

templates and calculations include 

references to publicly available data 

sources that can be used in compiling 

this information. 

The Proposed 2022 FCA sets forth two 

alternative approaches for assessing a 

community’s financial capability to 

carry out CWA control measures. The 

first alternative is the existing 1997 FCA 

methodology with expanded 

consideration of lowest quintile income 

and poverty in the service area. The 

second alternative is the development of 

a dynamic financial and rate model that 

looks at the impacts of rate increases 

over time on utility customers. 

Additionally, EPA recommends the 

application of the methodologies from 

Alternative 1 of the Proposed 2022 FCA 

to the consideration of economic 

impacts to public entities when making 

decisions on WQS variances and 

antidegradation reviews. In appropriate 

cases, these methodologies also inform 

decisions about revisions to designated 

uses, subject to additional analyses. 

EPA is proposing to base its FCA 

metrics on data that is available in the 

American Community Survey (ACS). 

The ACS is conducted every year by the 

U.S. Census Bureau to provide up-todate information about the social and 

economic conditions of communities. 

The annual updates include key sociodemographic information at an 

appropriate geographic scale with 

historic continuity. The ACS can 

produce data showing the quintiles of 

household income (each quintile 

defines the household income range for 

20% of a community’s households). The 

2022 Proposed FCA metrics meet the 

following criteria recommended by the 

National Academy of Public 

Administration (NAPA): 1

• Readily available from publicly 

available data sources; 

• Clearly defined and understood; 

• Simple, direct, and consistent; 

• Valid and reliable measures, 

according to conventional research 

standards; and 

• Applicable for comparative 

analyses among permittees. 

The 2022 Proposed FCA strengthens 

both CWA protections and water service 

affordability protections. For the first 

time, EPA may ask municipalities 

negotiating compliance schedules and 

certain WQS revisions to affirmatively 

demonstrate actions to reduce or 

mitigate the financial impact of water 

service costs on the lowest quintile 

households and to achieve compliance 

as expeditiously as possible. 

II. Changes From the September 2020 

Proposed FCA Guidance 

On September 18, 2020, EPA 

published a Proposed 2020 Financial 

Capability Assessment for Clean Water 

Act Obligations (Proposed 2020 FCA) in 

the Federal Register for notice and 

public comment.2 On January 12, 2021, 

EPA posted a pre-publication version of 

the FCA Guidance on the Agency’s 

website. The pre-publication FCA was 

never published in the Federal Register 

and was withdrawn for review and 

approval in accordance with the January 

20, 2021 White House Memorandum, 

Regulatory Freeze Pending Review.3 The 

Proposed 2022 FCA reflects EPA’s 

consideration of public comments 

received in response to its September 

2020 Federal Register publication, as 

well as feedback received through 

various stakeholder outreach sessions 

since then. The three major changes 

from the Proposed 2020 FCA are 

outlined below. 

1. Consideration of Lowest Quintile 

Households and Poverty Indicators 

EPA originally proposed to add two 

new FCA metrics, the Lowest Quintile 

Residential Indicator (LQRI) and the 

Poverty Indicator (PI). The LQRI was 

intended to evaluate the financial 

impact of CWA costs on lowest quintile 

households in a community by 

calculating the ratio of adjusted costs 

per lowest quintile household to the 

service area’s lowest quintile income. 

While commenters were supportive of 

the new poverty measures, many 

expressed concerns about the 

methodology proposed to scale the costs 

for lowest quintile households and the 

proposed LQRI thresholds. A number of 

community-specific factors—such as age 

of infrastructure, housing type, and 

efficiency of water appliances—may 

impact water usage and costs to lowest 

quintile households. In addition, if the 

community charges residential 

customers on a fixed rate structure, i.e., 

low-volume households receive the 

same bill as high-volume households, a 

metric that scales down estimates of 

cost based on projected water use would 

not be appropriate. 

EPA recognizes that considering 

lowest quintile income is an important 

measure to supplement existing FCA 

metrics. Median household income 

(MHI) does not account for the 

variability of income distribution from 

community to community. Even when 

communities have a similar MHI, 

infrastructure investments could have a 

greater financial impact on low-income 

households in certain situations, such as 

when there is a wide distribution 

between the highest and lowest income 

customers. For this reason, EPA is 

proposing two simplified Proposed 

Options to assess the severity and 

prevalence of poverty in a community’s 

service area. EPA is seeking comment 

on both Proposed Options, but only one 

of the Proposed Options is to be 

included in the final 2022 FCA 

Guidance. Both Options consider the 

community’s lowest quintile income as 

benchmarked against the national 

lowest quintile income, as well as five 

poverty indicators: 

• Percentage of Population with 

Income Below 200% of Federal Poverty 

Level; 

• Percentage of Population Receiving 

Food Stamps/SNAP Benefits; 

• Percentage of Vacant Households; 

• Trend in Household Growth; and 

• Percentage of Unemployed 

Population 16 and Over in Civilian 

Labor Force. 

EPA has determined that the 

methodology of either Option 1 or 2 

would enable EPA to distinguish 

between two communities with similar 

MHI but different levels of poverty. 

Proposed Option 1 for Comment: This 

Option would add a single new metric 

to the assessment, the Lowest Quintile 

Poverty Indicator (LQPI) to be 

considered with the Residential 

Indicator and Financial Capability 

Indicator. The LQPI would combine a 

lowest quintile income element with 

poverty indicator elements. To ensure 

that both the severity and prevalence of 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 36 / Wednesday, February 23, 2022 / Notices 10195 

4The CSO Policy identifies three additional 

financial considerations for negotiating 

implementation schedules: Grant and loan 

availability; previous and current residential, 

commercial and industrial sewer user fees and rate 

structures; and other viable funding mechanisms 

and sources of financing. See 59 FR 18688, 18694 

(April 19, 1994). 

poverty are reflected in the LQPI metric, 

EPA would give equal weight to the LQI 

(50%) and the five prevalence of 

poverty indicators (weighted at 10% 

each for a total of 50%). 

Under Proposed Option 1, Residential 

Indicator and Financial Capability 

Indicator would be combined in a 

matrix to determine an FCA Score. An 

Initial LQPI Score would be calculated, 

and adjusted based on a Financial 

Alternatives Analysis, if appropriate. 

Finally, the FCA Score and Final LQPI 

Score would be combined in the 

Expanded FCA Matrix to provide the 

final FCA result. 

Proposed Option 2 for Comment: This 

Option would add two new metrics, the 

Lowest Quintile Income Indicator (LQII) 

and the Poverty Indicator (PI) to be 

considered with the Residential 

Indicator and Financial Capability 

Indicator. The LQII is the lowest 

quintile income metric, and the PI is a 

separate metric based on the average 

score of the five prevalence of poverty 

indicators. 

Under Proposed Option 2, the 

Residential Indicator and Financial 

Capability Indicator would be combined 

in a matrix to determine an FCA Score. 

Then, LQII and PI would be each 

calculated separately. The LQII and PI 

would be combined in a matrix to 

determine an Initial LQPI Score. The 

Initial LQPI Score would be adjusted 

based on a Financial Alternatives 

Analysis, if appropriate. Finally, the 

FCA Score and Final LQPI Score would 

be combined in the Expanded FCA 

Matrix to provide the final FCA result. 

Summary of Section IV.b of the Proposed 2022 FCA: Step 3 Shows Two Proposed Options for Consideration of Lowest Quintile 

Income and Poverty Indicators 

Step 1: Calculate Residential Indicator. 

Step 2: Calculate Financial Capability Indicator. 

Step 3: Calculate Initial Lowest Quintile Poverty Indicator Score—Two Proposed Options. 

Step 3 Under Proposed Option 1 Step 3 Under Proposed Option 2 

Calculate Initial Lowest Quintile Poverty Indicator Score based on the 

six elements below: 

• Lowest Quintile Income benchmarked to National LQI—50% of 

score. 

• Percentage of Unemployed Population 16 and Over in Civilian Labor 

Force—10% of score. 

• Percentage of Population Living Under 200% of Poverty Level—10% 

of score. 

• Percentage of Population Receiving Food Stamps/SNAP Benefits— 

10% of score. 

• Percentage of Vacant Households—10% of score. 

• Trend in Household Growth—10% of score. 

First, calculate the Lowest Quintile Income Indicator Score (i.e., community’s Lowest Quintile Income benchmarked to the National LQI). 

Then, average the five poverty elements below to determine the Poverty Indicator Score: 

• Percentage of Unemployed Population 16 and Over in Civilian Labor 

Force. 

• Percentage of Population Living Under 200% of Poverty Level. 

• Percentage of Population Receiving Food Stamps/SNAP Benefits. 

• Percentage of Vacant Households. 

• Trend in Household Growth. 

Finally, combine the LQI and PI in the Initial LQPI Matrix to determine 

the Initial LQPI Score. 

Step 4: Perform Financial Alternatives Analysis if Initial LQPI Score is ‘‘medium’’ impact or ‘‘high’’ impact. 

Step 5: Determine Final LQPI Score. 

Step 6: First, combine RI and FCI to determine Financial Capability Matrix Score. Then, combine Financial Capability Matrix Score and Final 

LQPI Score to determine Expanded Financial Capability Assessment Matrix Score. 

2. Addition of Financial Alternatives 

Analysis 

Where CWA compliance costs may 

have an impact on a community’s 

residents with incomes in the lowest 

quintile, a longer schedule may not 

always be the best solution to address 

impacts to those residents. In particular, 

if a community shows strong economic 

indicators in other categories, there may 

be better options for the community to 

address the potential financial burden 

faced by its lowest quintile residents.4 If 

the intended goal is to help a 

community’s lowest income residents, 

an extended CWA schedule may in fact 

have the opposite effect if it delays 

addressing pollution in the 

neighborhoods where they live. 

Use of variable rate structures, 

customer assistance programs, and 

applications for grants or subsidies from 

the Clean Water State Revolving Fund 

(CWSRF) are all potential tools to enable 

shorter compliance schedules by 

allowing increased total spending on 

compliance without burdening lowincome customers. Federal funding 

initiatives and programs such as the 

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), 

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), 

State Revolving Loan Funds (SRFs), 

Water Infrastructure Finance and 

Innovation Act (WIFIA) and others 

provide billions of dollars for state, 

local, territorial, and tribal governments. 

For instance, the Bipartisan 

Infrastructure Law has provided $11.7 

billion in additional funds to the 

CWSRF. The state match requirement 

has been reduced to 10% for the first 

two years and 49% of the money will 

be provided as grants or principal 

forgiveness loans to communities. These 

resources create a historic opportunity 

for communities to address longstanding challenges. In addition, shorter 

compliance schedules provide water 

quality and public health improvements 

that deliver important social, 

environmental, and economic benefits 

to the community. For these reasons, 

EPA does not intend to provide 

extended CWA compliance schedules or 

greater consideration for WQS decisions 

unless the community demonstrates that 

it has taken all feasible steps to reduce 

or mitigate the financial impact of water 

service costs on the lowest quintile 

households and to achieve compliance 

as expeditiously as possible. In 

evaluating this demonstration, EPA 

expects to look comprehensively at the 

community’s financial strategy, 

including, but not limited to, an 

analysis of the community’s approach to 

covering costs through rate structure 

and design as well as its other initiatives 

to assist low-income customers while 

assuring necessary and timely 

compliance with environmental 

requirements. 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
10196 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 36 / Wednesday, February 23, 2022 / Notices 

5The Clean Water Act requires that each permit, 

order, or decree for a discharge from a municipal 

combined storm and sanitary sewer conform to the 

CSO Policy. 33 U.S.C. 1342(q). The CSO Policy lists 

the following considerations for financial 

capability: Median household income; total annual 

wastewater and CSO control costs per household as 

a percent of median household income; overall net 

debt as a percent of full market property value; 

property tax revenues as a percent of full market 

property value; property tax collection rate; 

unemployment; and bond rating. See 59 FR 18688, 

18694 (April 19, 1994). 

6These electronic spreadsheet tools for the public 

sector, available at https://www.epa.gov/wqs-tech/ 

spreadsheet-tools-evaluate-economic-impactspublic-sector, encompass the data inputs and 

calculations of the 1995 Interim Economic 

Guidance for Water Quality Standards. 

3. Modification of Scheduling 

Benchmarks 

The Proposed 2020 FCA provided that 

communities with ‘‘medium’’ FCA 

impacts could qualify for compliance 

schedules of up to 15 years and ‘‘high’’ 

impact communities could receive 

compliance schedules up to 25 years, or 

as long as the useful life of the CSO 

controls for unusually high impacts. For 

users of the Proposed 2022 FCA, it is 

more transparent and consistent to 

define a recommended scheduling 

boundary rather than retain the ‘‘useful 

life’’ language. It is important to 

consider human health and 

environmental impacts as well as cost 

when considering extended schedules. 

EPA is also mindful that prolonging 

water quality impairments could 

exacerbate environmental justice 

concerns. EPA believes that, for 

unusually high impacts, 25 years is a 

reasonable recommended scheduling 

benchmark that is more consistent with 

environmental protection and the 

Agency’s past FCA practice. 

EPA proposes to revise the FCA 

guidance to keep 15 years as the outer 

recommended boundary for ‘‘medium’’ 

impact communities and change the 

benchmark for ‘‘high’’ impact 

communities to 20 years, or up to 25 

years for unusually high impacts, but is 

seeking comment on whether these are 

appropriate recommended scheduling 

boundaries. 

III. Overview of the Proposed 2022 FCA 

Guidance 

The 2022 FCA Guidance recommends 

two alternative approaches for assessing 

a community’s financial capability to 

carry out CWA control measures. The 

first alternative is the existing 1997 FCA 

methodology with expanded 

consideration of poverty and impacts on 

the population in the service area with 

incomes in the lowest quintile. EPA is 

retaining the 1997 Residential Indicator 

(i.e., 2% of MHI) and the Financial 

Capability Indicator because they 

measure factors required under the 

Clean Water Act by the CSO Policy as 

part of a financial capability 

assessment.5 These indicators also allow 

for consistent comparative analysis 

among communities. The new critical 

metric, the Lowest Quintile Poverty 

Indicator (LQPI), allows the Agency to 

assess severity and prevalence of 

poverty. The second alternative is the 

development of a dynamic financial and 

rate model that looks at the impacts of 

rate increases over time on utility 

customers. 

Both alternatives permit consideration 

of other metrics and may support an 

extended implementation schedule. 

Nonetheless, EPA does not anticipate 

establishing implementation schedules 

that would exceed 20 years, or up to 25 

years for communities that demonstrate 

unusually high impacts. The Proposed 

2022 FCA can help to ensure that local 

challenges related to low-income 

households are better reflected in CWA 

implementation schedules. Consistent 

with previous policy, EPA plans to 

consider any relevant financial or 

demographic information presented that 

illustrates the unique or atypical 

circumstances faced by a community. 

The Proposed 2022 FCA is available at: 

https://www.regulations.gov/, Docket ID 

No. EPA–HQ–OW–2020–0426. 

Additionally, EPA recommends 

application of the methodologies from 

the Proposed 2022 FCA to the 

consideration of economic impacts to 

public entities for supporting revisions 

to designated uses, WQS variances, and 

antidegradation reviews for WQS. EPA 

intends that the recommended 

expanded matrix for WQS decisions in 

the Proposed 2022 FCA, once finalized, 

along with the electronic spreadsheet 

tools for the public sector,6 would 

replace the worksheets and calculations 

for the public sector sections of the 1995 

Interim Economic Guidance for Water 

Quality Standards. The Proposed 2022 

FCA does not revise the recommended 

methodology in the private sector 

sections of the 1995 WQS Guidance. 

IV. Request for Public Comments 

EPA requests public comment on the 

Proposed 2022 FCA. Specifically, EPA 

is requesting comment on the following: 

1. Should the Final 2022 FCA incorporate 

a single new metric—LQPI—that considers 

lowest quintile income and poverty elements 

together? Or should the Final 2022 FCA 

incorporate two new metrics (a lowest 

quintile income indicator and a poverty 

indicator) to be calculated separately and 

combined in a matrix? 

2. EPA is seeking additional examples or 

case studies of funding and financing 

considerations to add to Appendix C. 

3. EPA is seeking feedback on the current 

proposed scheduling benchmarks of 20 years 

for ‘‘high’’ Expanded FCA Matrix impacts, or 

25 years for unusually high impacts. If 

commentors propose different benchmarks, 

EPA is requesting examples to support the 

basis for such benchmarks. 

Dated: February 10, 2022. 

Andrew D. Sawyers, 

Director, Office of Wastewater Management, 

Office of Water. 

[FR Doc. 2022–03738 Filed 2–22–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OGC–2022–0200; FRL–9575–01– 

OGC] 

Proposed Consent Decree, Clean Air 

Act Citizen Suit 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of proposed consent 

decree; request for public comment. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Clean 

Air Act, as amended (CAA or the Act), 

notice is given of a proposed consent 

decree in Growth Energy v. Regan 

(D.D.C. No. 1:22–cv–00347). On 

February 8, 2022, Plaintiff Growth 

Energy filed a complaint in the United 

States District Court for the District of 

Columbia alleging that the 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA 

or the Agency) failed to perform nondiscretionary duties in accordance with 

the Act to establish renewable fuel 

standards for calendar years 2021 and 

2022. The proposed consent decree 

would establish deadlines for EPA to 

establish the 2021 and 2022 renewable 

fuel standards by June 3, 2022. 

DATES: Written comments on the 

proposed consent decree must be 

received by March 25, 2022. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

OGC–2022–0200, online at https://

www.regulations.gov (EPA’s preferred 

method). Follow the online instructions 

for submitting comments. 

Instructions: All submissions received 

must include the Docket ID number for 

this action. Comments received may be 

posted without change to https://

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided. For 

detailed instructions on sending 

comments and additional information 

on the rulemaking process, see the 

‘‘Additional Information about 

Commenting on the Proposed Consent 

Decree’’ heading under the 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of 

this document. Out of an abundance of 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES