Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 100 /Tuesday, May 26, 1998 / Notices 28509

Dated: May 18, 1998.

Richard T. Westlund,

Acting Director, Regulatory Information

Division.

[FR Doc. 98–13854 Filed 5–22–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[OPPTS–400130; FRL–5792–5]

Public Meetings on the Toxics Release

Inventory Reporting Form

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of public meetings.

SUMMARY: EPA will hold approximately

nine public meetings to solicit

comments relating to the Toxics Release

Inventory (TRI) reporting form, the

Form R. The purpose of the meetings is

to obtain comments from stakeholders

on ways to improve the type of right-toknow information available to

communities and to help streamline

right-to-know reporting to ease the

paperwork burden for businesses

affected by the requirements. The first

five meetings were held in November

1997 and February and April 1998. This

notice announces two upcoming

meetings. Additional meeting dates will

be announced through future Federal

Register notices.

DATES: The meetings will take place: 1. Thursday, June 18, 1998, 9 a.m. to

12 p.m., at the Ramada Inn, 70 John

Wesley Dobbs Avenue, Atlanta, GA

30303. Participants must register to

speak by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, June

11, 1998.

2. Wednesday, June 24, 1998, 9 a.m.

to 12 p.m., at the Holiday Inn City

Center, 1215 Wyandotte Street, Kansas

City, MO 64105. Participants must

register to speak by 5:00 p.m. on

Wednesday, June 17, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Each comment must bear

the docket control number ‘‘OPPTS–

400130.’’ All comments should be sent

in triplicate to: OPPT Document Control

Officer (7407), Office of Pollution

Prevention and Toxics, Environmental

Protection Agency, 401 M St., SW., Rm.

G–099, East Tower, Washington, DC

20460.

Comments and data may also be

submitted electronically to:

oppt.ncic@epamail.epa.gov. Follow the

instructions under Unit II. of this

document. No Confidential Business

Information (CBI) should be submitted

through e-mail. All comments which contain

information claimed as CBI must be

clearly marked as such. Three sanitized

copies of any comments containing

information claimed as CBI must also be

submitted and will be placed in the

public record for this action. Persons

submitting information on any portion

of which they believe is entitled to

treatment as CBI by EPA must assert a

business confidentiality claim in

accordance with 40 CFR 2.203(b) for

each such portion. This claim must be

made at the time that the information is

submitted to EPA. If a submitter does

not assert a confidentiality claim at the

time of submission, EPA will consider

this as a waiver of any confidentiality

claim and the information may be made

available to the public by EPA without

further notice to the submitter.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Vicki R. Anderson, (Mail Stop 7408),

Environmental Protection Agency, 401

M St., SW., Washington, DC 20460;

telephone: (202) 260–3544; fax number:

(202) 401–8142; e-mail:

anderson.vicki@epamail.epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

EPA plans to hold approximately nine

public meetings to solicit comments

relating to the Toxics Release Inventory

(TRI) reporting form, the Form R. The

first five meetings took place in

November 1997 and February and April

1998. The docket control number for the

November meetings is ‘‘OPPTS–

400117’’ and the docket control number

for the February and April meetings is

‘‘OPPTS–400124.’’ Comments presented

at these meetings are available for

review as described in Unit II. of this

document.

The purpose of the meetings is to

obtain comments from stakeholders on

ways to improve the type of right-toknow information available to

communities and to help streamline

right-to-know reporting to ease the

paperwork burden for businesses

affected by the requirements. Topics for

comment include the format of the Form

R; nomenclature used in the Form R;

opportunities for burden reduction in

both the Form R and Form A; additional

clarification of the elements in the Form

R; and EPA’s presentation of the data in

public information documents. EPA

would like to receive comments on

these issues from interested parties for

changes, modifications, deletions, and/

or additions of data elements to the

Form R and the Form A. These issues

are outlined in greater detail in an issue

paper available on the TRI Home Page

at http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/tri

under the heading ‘‘TRI Stakeholder

Dialogue’’ and the subheading ‘‘TRI

Public Meetings.’’ The sections of the Form R that EPA

would like specific comment on are

sections 5, 6, and 8. In section 5, there

have been a number of issues raised

with regard to the definition of

‘‘release,’’ particularly with respect to

Class I underground injection wells and

Resource Conservation and Recovery

Act (RCRA) subtitle C landfills. Several

commenters believe that EPA’s

interpretation of the Emergency

Planning and Community Right-ToKnow Act (EPCRA) definition of

‘‘release’’ will lead to the misperception

that a reported EPCRA section 313

‘‘release’’ necessarily results in an actual

exposure of people or the environment

to a toxic chemical. The Agency would

like to hear suggestions on ways to

collect and disseminate the data that are

consistent with the Agency’s

interpretation of the EPCRA definition

of ‘‘release’’ and would address the

concerns raised regarding public

misperception.

There have also been a number of

issues raised with regard to the

reporting of toxic chemicals in wastes in

section 8 of the Form R. Section 8

collects information on waste managed

at the facility whether or not the waste

was generated at the reporting facility.

Some individuals are concerned about

public misperception of the data in

section 8 because of the focus on the

amount of waste managed at the facility

and not the waste generated. EPA would

like comments on ways to change

section 8 of the Form R, which would

continue to allow the user to assess

wastes managed by the facility but

would minimize the perception that the

wastes reported in section 8 were

generated by the reporting facility.

Individuals wishing to attend these

meetings or participate via conference

call must sign-up in advance in order to

assure that all participants have an

opportunity to speak. Depending on the

number of individuals registered, oral

presentations or statements will be

limited to approximately 5 to 15

minutes. To register, contact Vicki

Anderson at (202) 260–3544. For those

who cannot travel to the public meeting

location, there will be 10 conference call

lines available on a first come, first

served basis. When registering, give

your name, organization, postal (and

electronic, if any) mailing address,

telephone, and fax number. If there is

insufficient interest in any of the

meetings, that meeting may be canceled.

Individuals registered will be notified in

the event a meeting is canceled. The

Agency bears no responsibility for

attendees’ decision to purchase

nonrefundable transportation tickets or

accommodation reservations.
28510 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 100 /Tuesday, May 26, 1998 / Notices

II. Public Record and Electronic

Submissions

The official record for this action, as

well as the public version, has been

established for this action under docket

control number ‘‘OPPTS–400130’’

(including comments and data

submitted electronically as described

below). A public version of this record,

including printed, paper versions of

electronic comments, which does not

include any information claimed as CBI,

is available for inspection from noon to

4 p.m., Monday through Friday,

excluding legal holidays. The official

record is located in the TSCA

Nonconfidential Information Center,

Rm. NE–B607, 401 M St., SW.,

Washington, DC 20460.

Electronic comments can be sent

directly to EPA at:

oppt.ncic@epamail.epa.gov

Electronic comments must be

submitted as an ASCII file avoiding the

use of special characters and any form

of encryption. Comments and data will

also be accepted on disks in

WordPerfect 5.1/6.1 or ASCII file

format. All comments and data in

electronic form must be identified by

the docket control number ‘‘OPPTS–

400130.’’ Electronic comments on this

action may be filed online at many

Federal Depository Libraries.

List of Subjects

Environmental protection,

Community right-to-know.

Dated: May 19, 1998.

Thomas D. Tillman,

Acting Director, Environmental Assistance

Division, Office of Pollution Prevention and

Toxics.

[FR Doc. 98–13897 Filed 5–22–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–F

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS

COMMISSION

[CC Docket No. 96–45; DA 98–856]

Proposed Third Quarter 1998 Universal

Service Contribution Factors

AGENCY: Federal Communications

Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The Common Carrier Bureau

announces proposed universal service

contribution factors for the third quarter

of 1998. If the Commission takes no

action regarding these proposed factors

within 14 days of publication in the

Federal Register, the projections shall

be deemed approved by the Commission

and shall be used to calculate third

quarter universal service contributions.

DATES: If the Commission takes no

action regarding these proposed factors

by June 9, 1998, the proposed third

quarter contribution factors will become

effective.

ADDRESSES: One original and five copies

of all comments responsive to this

Public Notice must be sent to Magalie

Roman Salas, Secretary, Federal

Communications Commission, 1919 M

Street, NW, Washington, DC 20554.

Three copies also should be sent to

Sheryl Todd, Accounting Policy

Division, Common Carrier Bureau, 2100

M Street, NW, 8th Floor, Washington,

DC 20554.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Frances Downey, Accounting Policy

Division, Common Carrier Bureau, (202)

418–7371.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In this Public Notice, the Accounting

Policy Division of the Common Carrier

Bureau announces proposed universal

service contribution factors for the third

quarter of 1998. On May 1, 1998, the

Universal Service Administrative

Company (USAC), Schools and Libraries

Corporation (SLC), and Rural Health

Care Corporation (RHCC) submitted the

following projections of third quarter

1998 demand and administrative

expenses:

MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

Program Program

demand

Administrative expenses

Interest incomeTotal program costs

Schools and Libraries ....................................................................................................... 690.0 4.4 (0.0) 694.4

Rural Health Care ............................................................................................................. 24.3 1.2 (0.5) 25.0

Subtotal .................................................................................................................. 714.3 5.6 (0.5) 719.4

High Cost .......................................................................................................................... 414.1 0.8 (0.7) 414.2

Low Income ...................................................................................................................... 125.3 0.4 (1.0) 124.7

Subtotal .................................................................................................................. 539.4 1.2 (1.7) 538.9

Total ....................................................................................................................... 1,253.7 6.8 (2.2) 1,258.3

Based on information contained in the

Universal Service Worksheets, FCC

Form 457, USAC submitted on May 1,

1998, end-user telecommunications

revenues for the 1997 calendar year.

Funding bases for the third and fourth

quarters are determined by subtracting

the revenues reported for January

through June 1997 (on the September

Worksheet) from the 1997 calendar year

revenues reported on the March

Worksheet. The amounts are as follows:

Total Interstate, Intrastate, and

International End-User

Telecommunications Revenues from

July 1, 1997—December 31, 1997:

$93.534 billion.

Total Interstate and International EndUser Telecommunications Revenues

from July 1, 1997—December 31, 1997:

$34.988 billion.

We estimate quarterly revenues by

dividing the six-month revenue

estimates listed above by two.

Based on the figures submitted by

USAC, SLC, and RHCC, the proposed

contribution factors for the third quarter

of 1998 are as follows:

Contribution factor for the schools

and libraries and rural health care

support mechanisms:

Total Program Costs/Contribution

Base (Interstate, International, and

Intrastate)=$0.719 billion/( $93.534

billion/2)=0.0154.

Contribution factor for the high cost

and low income support mechanisms:

Total Program Costs/Contribution

Base (Interstate and

International)=$0.539 billion/($34.988

billion/2)=0.0308.

These factors are the proposed third

quarter 1998 universal service