19176 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 64 / Monday, April 4, 2016 / Notices 

Center 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 OEI 

Docket is (202) 566–1752. 

An electronic version of the public 

docket is available through 

www.regulations.gov. You may use 

www.regulations.gov to submit or view 

public comments, access the index 

listing of the contents of the official 

public docket, and access those 

documents in the public docket that are 

available electronically. Once in the 

system, key in the appropriate docket 

identification number then select 

‘‘search’’. 

It is important to note that EPA’s 

policy is that public comments, whether 

submitted electronically or in paper, 

will be made available for public 

viewing online at www.regulations.gov 

without change, unless the comment 

contains copyrighted material, CBI, or 

other information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Information 

claimed as CBI and other information 

whose disclosure is restricted by statute 

is not included in the official public 

docket or in the electronic public 

docket. EPA’s policy is that copyrighted 

material, including copyrighted material 

contained in a public comment, will not 

be placed in EPA’s electronic public 

docket but will be available only in 

printed, paper form in the official public 

docket. Although not all docket 

materials may be available 

electronically, you may still access any 

of the publicly available docket 

materials through the EPA Docket 

Center. 

B. How and to whom do I submit 

comments? 

You may submit comments as 

provided in the ADDRESSES section. 

Please ensure that your comments are 

submitted within the specified comment 

period. Comments received after the 

close of the comment period will be 

marked ‘‘late.’’ EPA is not required to 

consider these late comments. 

If you submit an electronic comment, 

EPA recommends that you include your 

name, mailing address, and an email 

address or other contact information in 

the body of your comment and with any 

disk or CD ROM you submit. This 

ensures that you can be identified as the 

submitter of the comment and allows 

EPA to contact you in case EPA cannot 

read your comment due to technical 

difficulties or needs further information 

on the substance of your comment. Any 

identifying or contact information 

provided in the body of a comment will 

be included as part of the comment that 

is placed in the official public docket, 

and made available in EPA’s electronic 

public docket. If EPA cannot read your 

comment due to technical difficulties 

and cannot contact you for clarification, 

EPA may not be able to consider your 

comment. 

Use of the www.regulations.gov Web 

site to submit comments to EPA 

electronically is EPA’s preferred method 

for receiving comments. The electronic 

public docket system is an ‘‘anonymous 

access’’ system, which means EPA will 

not know your identity, email address, 

or other contact information unless you 

provide it in the body of your comment. 

In contrast to EPA’s electronic public 

docket, EPA’s electronic mail (email) 

system is not an ‘‘anonymous access’’ 

system. If you send an email comment 

directly to the Docket without going 

through www.regulations.gov, your 

email address is automatically captured 

and included as part of the comment 

that is placed in the official public 

docket, and made available in EPA’s 

electronic public docket. 

Dated: March 23, 2016. 

Lorie J. Schmidt, 

Associate General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2016–07491 Filed 4–1–16; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OW–2015–0753; FRL 9944-46– 

OW] 

Recommended Aquatic Life Ambient 

Water Quality Criteria for Cadmium— 

2016 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is announcing the release 

of recommended aquatic life water 

quality criteria for cadmium. EPA has 

updated its national recommended 

ambient water quality criteria for 

cadmium in order to reflect the latest 

scientific information, and current EPA 

policies and methods. EPA’s water 

quality criteria for cadmium provides 

recommendations to states and tribes 

authorized to establish water quality 

standards under the Clean Water Act. In 

adopting water quality standards, states 

set exposure protections for aquatic life; 

acute exposure to cadmium results in 

lethality, while chronic exposure to 

cadmium negatively impacts growth, 

development, behavior, reproduction, 

and immune and endocrine systems in 

aquatic life. Cadmium enters the 

environment by natural and human 

processes, however, human sources, 

such as mining and urban processes, are 

responsible for contributing 

approximately 90 percent of the 

cadmium found in surface waters. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mike Elias, Health and Ecological 

Criteria Division, Office of Water (Mail 

Code 4304T), Environmental Protection 

Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue 

NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone 

number: (202) 566–0120; email address: 

elias.mike@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information 

A. How can I get copies of this 

document and other related 

information? 

1. Docket. EPA has established a 

docket for this action under Docket ID 

No. EPA–HQ–OW–2015–0753. Publicly 

available docket materials are available 

either electronically through 

www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at 

the Water Docket in the EPA Docket 

Center, (EPA/DC) EPA West, Room 

3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., 

Washington, DC. The EPA Docket 

Center 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. 

2. Electronic Access. You may access 

this Federal Register document 

electronically from the Government 

Printing Office under the ‘‘Federal 

Register’’ listings on FDSys (http://

www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/

collection.action?collectionCode=FR). 

II. What are EPA’s recommended water 

quality criteria? 

EPA’s recommended water quality 

criteria are scientifically derived 

numeric values that protect aquatic life 

or human health from the deleterious 

effects of pollutants in ambient water. 

Section 304(a)(1) of the Clean Water Act 

(CWA) directs EPA to develop and 

publish and, from time to time, revise 

criteria for protection of aquatic life and 

human health that accurately reflect the 

latest scientific knowledge. Water 

quality criteria developed under section 

304(a) are based solely on data and the 

latest scientific knowledge on the 

relationship between pollutant 

concentrations and environmental and 

human health effects. Section 304(a) 

criteria do not reflect consideration of 

economic impacts or the technological 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES

Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 64 / Monday, April 4, 2016 / Notices 19177 

feasibility of meeting pollutant 

concentrations in ambient water. 

EPA’s recommended section 304(a) 

criteria provide technical information to 

states and authorized tribes in adopting 

water quality standards (WQS) that 

ultimately provide a basis for assessing 

water body health and controlling 

discharges or releases of pollutants. 

Under the CWA and its implementing 

regulations, states and authorized tribes 

are to adopt water quality criteria to 

protect designated uses (e.g., public 

water supply, aquatic life, recreational 

use, or industrial use). EPA’s 

recommended water quality criteria do 

not substitute for the CWA or 

regulations, nor are they regulations 

themselves. EPA’s recommended 

criteria do not impose legally binding 

requirements. States and authorized 

tribes have the discretion to adopt, 

where appropriate, other scientifically 

defensible water quality criteria that 

differ from these recommendations. 

III. What is cadmium and why is EPA 

concerned about it? 

Cadmium is a naturally occurring 

metal found in mineral deposits and 

distributed widely at low concentrations 

in the environment. Cadmium’s primary 

industrial uses are for the 

manufacturing of batteries, pigments, 

plastic stabilizers, metal coatings, alloys 

and electronics. Recently, cadmium has 

been used in manufacturing 

nanoparticles (quantum dots) for use in 

solar cells and color displays. Cadmium 

is a non-essential metal with no 

biological function in aquatic life. Acute 

exposure causes mortality. Chronic 

exposure leads to adverse effects on 

growth, reproduction, immune and 

endocrine systems, development and 

behavior in aquatic organisms. 

IV. Information on the Aquatic Life 

Ambient Water Quality Criteria for 

Cadmium 

EPA prepared an update of the 

chronic aquatic life criteria document 

for cadmium based on the latest 

scientific information and current EPA 

policies and methods, including EPA’s 

Guidelines for Deriving Numerical 

National Water Quality Criteria for the 

Protection of Aquatic Organisms and 

Their Uses (1985) (EPA/R–85–100) and 

Guidelines for Ecological Risk 

Assessment (1998) (EPA/630/R–95/

002F). The 2016 updated criteria 

include new data for 75 species and 49 

genera not previously represented. The 

freshwater acute criterion was derived 

to be protective of aquatic species and 

further lowered to protect the 

commercially and recreationally 

important rainbow trout, consistent 

with procedures described in EPA’s 

current aquatic life criteria guidelines. 

The freshwater acute value is slightly 

lower (i.e., more stringent) than the 2001 

acute criterion for dissolved cadmium. 

The freshwater chronic criterion is 

slightly higher (i.e., less stringent) 

compared to the 2001 criterion for 

dissolved cadmium; this modest 

increase is primarily due to the 

inclusion of four new genera, and the 

reanalysis of other data. 

The estuarine/marine acute criterion 

for dissolved cadmium is slightly more 

stringent than the 2001 recommended 

criterion, which is primarily due to the 

addition of new sensitive genera. 

Changes in suggested values between 

2001 and 2016 can be found in Table 1 

below. 

TABLE 1—SUMMARY OF 2001 AND 2016 AQUATIC LIFE AWQC FOR CADMIUM

2016 AWQC update 2001 AWQC 

Acute (1-hour, 

dissolved Cd) c

Chronic (4-day, 

dissolved Cd) 

Acute (1-day, 

dissolved Cd) 

Chronic (4-day, 

dissolved Cd) 

Freshwater (Total Hardness = 100 mg/L as CaCO3) a ....................... 1.8 μg/Lb ........... 0.72 μg/L .......... 2.0 μg/Lb ........... 0.25 μg/L. 

Estuarine/marine .................................................................................. 33 μg/L ............. 7.9 μg/L ............ 40 μg/L ............. 8.8 μg/L. 

aFreshwater acute and chronic criteria are hardness-dependent and were normalized to a hardness of 100 mg/L as CaCO3 to allow the presentation of representative criteria values. b Lowered to protect the commercially and recreationally important species (rainbow trout), as per the 1985 Guidelines, Stephen et al. (1985). cThe duration of the 2016 acute criteria was changed to 1-hour to reflect the 1985 Guidelines-based recommended acute duration. 

V. What is the relationship between the 

water quality criteria and state or tribal 

water quality standards? 

As part of the WQS triennial review 

process defined in section 303(c)(1) of 

the CWA, the states and authorized 

tribes are responsible for maintaining 

and revising WQS. Standards consist of 

designated uses, water quality criteria to 

protect those uses, a policy for 

antidegradation, and may include 

general policies for application and 

implementation. Section 303(c)(1) 

requires states and authorized tribes to 

review and modify, if appropriate, their 

WQS at least once every three years. 

States and authorized tribes must 

adopt water quality criteria that protect 

designated uses. Protective criteria are 

based on a sound scientific rationale 

and contain sufficient parameters or 

constituents to protect the designated 

uses. Criteria may be expressed in either 

narrative or numeric form. States and 

authorized tribes have four options 

when adopting water quality criteria for 

which EPA has published section 304(a) 

criteria. They may: 

(1) Establish numerical values based 

on recommended section 304(a) criteria; 

(2) Adopt section 304(a) criteria 

modified to reflect site-specific 

conditions; 

(3) Adopt criteria derived using other 

scientifically defensible methods; or 

(4) Establish narrative criteria where 

numeric criteria cannot be established 

or to supplement numerical criteria (40 

CFR 131.11(b)). 

EPA’s regulation at 40 CFR 131.20(a) 

provides that if a state does not adopt 

new or revised criteria parameters for 

which EPA has published new or 

updated recommendations, then the 

state shall provide an explanation when 

it submits the results of its triennial 

review to the Regional Administrator 

consistent with CWA section 303(c)(1). 

The updated cadmium criteria 

supersede EPA’s previous 304(a) criteria 

for cadmium. Consistent with 40 CFR 

131.21, new or revised water quality 

criteria adopted into law or regulation 

by states and authorized tribes on or 

after May 30, 2000 are applicable water 

quality standards for CWA purposes 

only after EPA approval. 

VI. Additional Information 

EPA conducted a contractor-led and 

independent external peer review of the 

draft Aquatic Life Ambient Water 

Quality Criteria for Cadmium document 

in October 2015. This document was 

released for 60 day public comment in 

2016 and has been updated accordingly. 

The document may be found at: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES

19178 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 64 / Monday, April 4, 2016 / Notices 

Dated: March 28, 2016. 

Joel Beauvais, 

Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of 

Water. 

[FR Doc. 2016–07647 Filed 4–1–16; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

FEDERAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH 

REVIEW COMMISSION 

[BAC 6735–01] 

Sunshine Act Notice 

March 30, 2016. 

TIME AND DATE: 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, 

April 20, 2016. 

PLACE: The Richard V. Backley Hearing 

Room, Room 511N, 1331 Pennsylvania 

Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20004 

(enter from F Street entrance). 

STATUS: Open. 

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED: The 

Commission will hear oral argument in 

the matter Secretary of Labor v. The 

American Coal Company, Docket Nos. 

LAKE 2011–701, et al. (Issues include 

whether the Judge erred by not requiring 

that the Secretary prove by a 

preponderance of the evidence that the 

amounts of proposed penalties based on 

special assessments were appropriate.) 

Any person attending this oral 

argument who requires special 

accessibility features and/or auxiliary 

aids, such as sign language interpreters, 

must inform the Commission in advance 

of those needs. Subject to 29 CFR 

2706.150(a)(3) and 2706.160(d). 

CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFO: 

Emogene Johnson (202) 434–9935/(202) 

708–9300 for TDD Relay/1–800–877– 

8339 for toll free. 

Sarah L. Stewart, 

Deputy General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2016–07690 Filed 3–31–16; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 6735–01–P 

FEDERAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH 

REVIEW COMMISSION 

[BAC 6735–01] 

Sunshine Act Notice 

March 30, 2016. 

TIME AND DATE: 10:00 a.m., Thursday, 

April 21, 2016. 

PLACE: The Richard V. Backley Hearing 

Room, Room 511N, 1331 Pennsylvania 

Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20004 

(enter from F Street entrance). 

STATUS: Open. 

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED: The 

Commission will consider and act upon 

the following in open session: Secretary 

of Labor v. The American Coal 

Company, Docket Nos. LAKE 2011–701, 

et al. (Issues include whether the Judge 

erred by not requiring that the Secretary 

prove by a preponderance of the 

evidence that the amounts of proposed 

penalties based on special assessments 

were appropriate.) 

Any person attending this meeting 

who requires special accessibility 

features and/or auxiliary aids, such as 

sign language interpreters, must inform 

the Commission in advance of those 

needs. Subject to 29 CFR 2706.150(a)(3) 

and 2706.160(d). 

CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFO: 

Emogene Johnson (202) 434–9935/(202) 

708–9300 for TDD Relay/1–800–877– 

8339 for toll free. 

Sarah L. Stewart, 

Deputy General Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2016–07691 Filed 3–31–16; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 6735–01–P 

FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM 

Proposed Agency Information 

Collection Activities; Comment 

Request 

AGENCY: Board of Governors of the 

Federal Reserve System. 

SUMMARY: On June 15, 1984, the Office 

of Management and Budget (OMB) 

delegated to the Board of Governors of 

the Federal Reserve System (Board) its 

approval authority under the Paperwork 

Reduction Act (PRA), to approve of and 

assign OMB numbers to collection of 

information requests and requirements 

conducted or sponsored by the Board. 

Board-approved collections of 

information are incorporated into the 

official OMB inventory of currently 

approved collections of information. 

Copies of the PRA Submission, 

supporting statements and approved 

collection of information instruments 

are placed into OMB’s public docket 

files. The Federal Reserve may not 

conduct or sponsor, and the respondent 

is not required to respond to, an 

information collection that has been 

extended, revised, or implemented on or 

after October 1, 1995, unless it displays 

a currently valid OMB number. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before June 3, 2016. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by FR 4022, by any of the 

following methods: 

• Agency Web site: http://

www.federalreserve.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments at 

http://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/

foia/proposedregs.aspx . 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Email: regs.comments@

federalreserve.gov. Include OMB 

number in the subject line of the 

message. 

• FAX: (202) 452–3819 or (202) 452– 

3102. 

• Mail: Robert deV. Frierson, 

Secretary, Board of Governors of the 

Federal Reserve System, 20th Street and 

Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, 

DC 20551. 

All public comments are available 

from the Board’s Web site at http://

www.federalreserve.gov/apps/foia/

proposedregs.aspx as submitted, unless 

modified for technical reasons. 

Accordingly, your comments will not be 

edited to remove any identifying or 

contact information. Public comments 

may also be viewed electronically or in 

paper form in Room 3515, 1801 K Street 

(between 18th and 19th Streets NW.) 

Washington, DC 20006 between 9:00 

a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. 

Additionally, commenters may send a 

copy of their comments to the OMB 

Desk Officer—Shagufta Ahmed—Office 

of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 

Office of Management and Budget, New 

Executive Office Building, Room 10235, 

725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 

20503 or by fax to (202) 395–6974. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: A 

copy of the PRA OMB submission, 

including the proposed reporting form 

and instructions, supporting statement, 

and other documentation will be placed 

into OMB’s public docket files, once 

approved. These documents will also be 

made available on the Federal Reserve 

Board’s public Web site at: http://

www.federalreserve.gov/apps/

reportforms/review.aspx or may be 

requested from the agency clearance 

officer, whose name appears below. 

Federal Reserve Board Clearance 

Officer—Nuha Elmaghrabi—Office of 

the Chief Data Officer, Board of 

Governors of the Federal Reserve 

System, Washington, DC 20551 (202) 

452–3829. Telecommunications Device 

for the Deaf (TDD) users may contact 

(202) 263–4869, Board of Governors of 

the Federal Reserve System, 

Washington, DC 20551. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Request for Comment on Information 

Collection Proposal 

The following information collection, 

which is being handled under this 

delegated authority, has received initial 

Board approval and is hereby published 

for comment. At the end of the comment 

period, the proposed information 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES