5588 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 22 / Wednesday, February 3, 2010 / Notices 

Having established both a proper basis 

to specify the particular good required 

for this project, and that this 

manufactured good was not available 

from a producer in the United States, 

the WMTMUA is hereby granted a 

waiver from the Buy American 

requirements of Section 1605(a) of 

Public Law 111–5 for the purchase of a 

Kubota MBR unit that incorporates flatplate MBR membrane cartridges using 

ARRA funds, as specified in the 

WMTMUA ’s request of June 5, 2009. 

This supplementary information 

constitutes the detailed written 

justification required by Section 1605(c) 

for waivers ‘‘based on a finding under 

subsection (b).’’ 

Authority: Pub. L. 111–5, section 1605. 

Dated: January 19, 2010. 

Judith A. Enck, 

Regional Administrator, Region 2. 

[FR Doc. 2010–2252 Filed 2–2–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–9109–3] 

Notice of a Regional Waiver of Section 

1605 (Buy American Requirement) of 

the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to 

the City of Richland (the City), WA for 

the Purchase of Aerostrip® Fine Pore 

[Bubble] Diffusers Manufactured 

Outside of the United States Under the 

Section 1605 Waiver Authority Based 

on the Conclusion That Iron, Steel, and 

the Relevant Manufactured Goods Are 

Not Produced in the United States in 

Sufficient and Reasonably Available 

Quantities and of a Satisfactory Quality 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Acting Regional 

Administrator of EPA Region 10, is 

hereby granting a waiver of the Buy 

America requirements of ARRA Section 

1605 under the authority of Section 

1605(b)(2) [manufactured goods are not 

produced in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities and of a satisfactory quality] 

to the City for the purchase of 

Aerostrip® Fine Pore Diffusers supplied 

by Treatment Equipment Company in 

Bellevue, Washington and 

manufactured in Austria. This is a 

project specific waiver and only applies 

to the use of the specified product for 

the ARRA project being proposed. Any 

other ARRA recipient that wishes to use 

the same product must apply for a 

separate waiver based on project 

specific circumstances. The applicant 

indicates that Aerostrip® Fine Pore 

Diffusers are the only feasible 

equipment to retrofit Richland’s existing 

Waste Water Treatment Facility aeration 

basins. The Aerostrip® Fine Pore 

Diffusers are only manufactured in 

Austria. No other fine pore diffusers are 

available or capable of meeting the 

aeration process design requirements. 

The Acting Regional Administrator is 

making this determination based on the 

review and recommendations of the 

Grants & Strategic Planning Unit. The 

City has provided sufficient 

documentation to support their request. 

DATES: Effective Date: December 16, 

2009. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Bryan Fiedorczyk, CWSRF ARRA 

Program Analyst, Grants & Strategic 

Planning Unit, Office of Water & 

Watersheds (OWW), (206) 553–0506, 

U.S. EPA Region 10 (OWW–137), 1200 

Sixth Avenue, Suite 900, Seattle, WA 

98101. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

In accordance with ARRA Section 

1605(c), the EPA hereby provides notice 

that it is granting a project waiver of the 

requirements of Section 1605(b)(2) of 

Public Law 111–5, Buy American 

requirements, to the City for the 

acquisition of Aerostrip® Fine Pore 

Diffusers supplied by Treatment 

Equipment Company in Bellevue, 

Washington and manufactured in 

Austria. The applicant indicates that 

Aerostrip® Fine Pore Diffusers are the 

only feasible equipment to retrofit 

Richland’s existing Waste Water 

Treatment Facility aeration basins. The 

Aerostrip® Fine Pore Diffusers are only 

manufactured in Austria. No other fine 

pore diffusers are available or capable of 

meeting the aeration process design 

requirements. Section 1605 of the ARRA 

requires that none of the appropriated 

funds may be used for the construction, 

alteration, maintenance, or repair of a 

public building or public work unless 

all of the iron, steel, and manufactured 

goods used in the project is produced in 

the United States unless a waiver is 

provided to the recipient by EPA. A 

waiver may be provided if EPA 

determines that (1) Applying these 

requirements would be inconsistent 

with public interest; (2) iron, steel, and 

the relevant manufactured goods are not 

produced in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities and of a satisfactory quality; 

or (3) inclusion of iron, steel, and the 

relevant manufactured goods produced 

in the United States will increase the 

cost of the overall project by more than 

25 percent. 

This ARRA-funded project involves 

upgrading the aeration system in one of 

the Waste Water Treatment Facility’s 

existing aeration basins, AB2 

(replacement of an existing mechanical 

aeration system with a fine bubble strip 

membrane diffuser aeration system) and 

installation of additional fine bubble 

strip membrane aeration diffusers in the 

facility’s other existing aeration basin, 

AB1. This project will thus complete the 

facility’s aeration system upgrade 

originally designed (using proprietary 

strip membrane diffusers) to replace the 

mechanical aeration systems in the 

facility’s two aeration basins. Important 

objectives of the project’s improvements 

are to reduce energy consumption by 

more than 70% and reduce the 

discharge of suspended solids, 

biochemical oxygen demand and 

nitrogen into the Columbia River. 

Further requirements of the project 

dictated by the constraints of the 

existing facility include (1) Retrofit 

installation in the existing sloped wall 

basins, (2) compatibility with the 

aeration diffusers installed in a previous 

system upgrade, and (3) limiting the size 

of the associated aeration system blower 

upgrade to the available capacity of the 

facility’s existing electrical system 

infrastructure. The objectives described 

above reflect appropriate and desirable 

performance upgrades central to the 

function of the facility, and are a 

justifiable basis for specifications to 

achieve those objectives. Similarly, the 

requirements for compatibility with 

various features of the existing facility 

are justified as appropriate and 

necessary specifications for a retrofit 

project. 

The applicant states that the engineer 

for the original project design evaluated 

fine bubble diffusers available from four 

manufacturers, and concluded that the 

Aerostrip® diffusers were the best 

selection for the project because: 

b The project would require smaller 

aeration blowers since the Aerostrip® 

diffusers: 

Æ Generate smaller bubbles 

(creating a higher oxygen transfer 

surface area and efficiency). 

Æ Operate at lower air flow per 

surface area to provide the required 

dissolved oxygen concentration to the 

wastewater under aeration. 

Æ Use lower minimum air flow to 

open the pores of the diffuser. 

b The smaller aeration blower 

requirement resulting from the use of 

the Aerostrip® diffusers allows the 

blower equipment to be implemented 

without requiring an upgrade to the 

facility’s electrical power system. 


jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 22 / Wednesday, February 3, 2010 / Notices 5589 

b The strip configuration of the 

Aerostrip® diffusers (available in 

several dimensional configurations) is 

compatible with physical retrofit 

requirements of the project (i.e., some 

diffusers require installation on sloped 

walls of the existing aeration basins). 

Information provided by the applicant 

also indicates that the Aerostrip® 

diffuser is preferable for the project 

because: 

b It is compatible with the aeration 

diffuser upgrade previously 

implemented in AB1 (which will allow 

for symmetrical flow/Biochemical 

Oxygen Demand (BOD) loading to the 

two aeration basins, simplifying the 

operation of the treatment plant). 

b It will provide the requisite 

aeration capacity for the upgrade project 

within the facility’s existing two 

aeration basins (i.e., use of an alternate 

fine bubble diffuser would require the 

design and construction of a third 

aeration basin to provide the required 

aeration capacity for the design BOD 

loading). 

The April 28, 2009 EPA HQ 

Memorandum, Implementation of Buy 

American provisions of Public Law 

111–5, the ‘‘American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009’’, defines 

‘‘reasonably available quantity’’ as the 

quantity of iron, steel, or relevant 

manufactured good is available or will 

be available at the time needed and 

place needed, and in the proper form or 

specification as specified in the project 

plans and design. The City has 

incorporated specific technical design 

features for the proposed project based 

on the performance characteristics of 

the Aerostrip® diffusers to meet the 

highest flow and loading demands of 

the Richland Waste Water Treatment 

Facility and the appropriate constraints 

of a retrofit project in an existing facility 

while minimizing energy consumption, 

operating costs and future capital 

improvements. 

The City has provided information to 

the EPA representing that there are 

currently no fine pore diffusers of 

comparable quality available from a 

domestic manufacturer to meet its 

specifications. 

Based on additional research by EPA’s 

consulting contractor (Cadmus), and to 

the best of the Region’s knowledge at 

this time, there does not appear to be 

other fine pore diffusers available to 

meet the City’s specifications. 

Furthermore, the purpose of the 

ARRA provisions was to stimulate 

economic recovery by funding current 

infrastructure construction, not to delay 

projects that are already shovel ready by 

requiring entities, like the City, to revise 

their design and potentially choose a 

more costly and less efficient project. 

The imposition of ARRA Buy American 

requirements on such projects eligible 

for CWSRF assistance would result in 

unreasonable delay and thus displace 

the ‘‘shovel ready’’ status for this project. 

To further delay construction is in 

direct conflict with the most 

fundamental economic purposes of 

ARRA; to create or retain jobs. 

The Grants & Strategic Planning Unit 

has reviewed this waiver request and 

has determined that the supporting 

documentation provided by the City is 

sufficient to meet the following criteria 

listed under Section 1605(b), 2 CFR 

176.60–176.170, and in the April 28, 

2009, Implementation of Buy American 

provisions of Public Law 111–5, the 

‘‘American Recovery and Reinvestment 

Act of 2009’’ Memorandum: Iron, steel, 

and the manufactured goods are not 

produced in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities and of a satisfactory quality. 

The basis for this project waiver is the 

authorization provided in Section 

1605(b)(2), due to the lack of production 

of this product in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities and of a satisfactory quality 

in order to meet the City’s design 

specifications. The March 31, 2009 

Delegation of Authority Memorandum 

provided Regional Administrators with 

the authority to issue exceptions to 

Section 1605 of ARRA within the 

geographic boundaries of their 

respective regions and with respect to 

requests by individual grant recipients. 

Having established both a proper basis 

to specify the particular good required 

for this project, and that this 

manufactured good was not available 

from a producer in the United States, 

the City is hereby granted a waiver from 

the Buy American requirements of 

Section 1605(a) of Public Law 111–5 for 

the purchase of Aerostrip® Fine Pore 

Diffusers supplied by Treatment 

Equipment Company in Bellevue, 

Washington and manufactured in 

Austria as specified in the City’s request 

of November 6, 2009. This 

supplementary information constitutes 

the detailed written justification 

required by Section 1605(c) for waivers 

based on a finding under subsection (b). 

Authority: Public Law 111–5, section 1605. 

Dated: December 21, 2009. 

Michelle L. Pirzadeh, 

Acting Regional Administrator, EPA, Region 

10. 

[FR Doc. 2010–2255 Filed 2–2–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–9109–1] 

Science Advisory Board Staff Office; 

Request for Public Nominations of 

Experts To Conduct a Peer Review of 

EPA’s Draft Document ‘‘An Advisory 

Value for Conductivity Using Field 

Data: An Adaptation of the U.S. EPA’s 

Standard Methodology for Deriving 

Water Quality Criteria’’ 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Request for additional public 

nominations. 

SUMMARY: The EPA Science Advisory 

Board (SAB) Staff Office is seeking 

public nomination of experts to conduct 

a peer review of EPA’s draft document 

‘‘An Advisory Value for Conductivity 

using Field Data: An Adaptation of the 

U.S. EPA’s Standard Methodology for 

Deriving Water Quality Criteria’’ 

DATES: Nominations should be 

submitted by February 17, 2010 per the 

instructions below. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Any 

member of the public wishing further 

information regarding this request for 

nominations may contact Mr. Edward 

Hanlon, Designated Federal Officer 

(DFO), SAB Staff Office, by telephone/ 

voice mail at (202) 343–9946; by fax at 

(202) 233–0643 or via email at 

hanlon.edward@epa.gov. General 

information concerning the EPA Science 

Advisory Board can be found at the EPA 

SAB Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/ 

sab. Any inquiry regarding EPA’s Office 

of Research and Development (ORD) 

draft document entitled ‘‘An Advisory 

Value for Conductivity using Field Data: 

An Adaptation of the U.S. EPA’s 

Standard Methodology for Deriving 

Water Quality Criteria’’ should be 

directed to Dr. Michael Slimak, ORD’s 

Associate Director of Ecology, National 

Center for Environmental Assessment 

(NCEA), who may be contacted via 

telephone at (703) 347–8524 or by email at slimak.michael@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background: Recent published 

scientific information indicates that 

discharges from mountaintop mining 

and valley-fill operations in Southern 

Appalachia may be linked to degraded 

water quality and adverse impacts on 

in-stream biota. Discharges from surface 

coal mining, valley-fills and associated 

operations are regulated under the Clean 

Water Act (CWA) and under the Surface 

Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 

1977 (SMCRA). Under the CWA, 

discharges from mountaintop mining 


jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES