Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 196 / Thursday, October 9, 2014 / Notices 61129 

Regional Airport in New Iberia, LA and 

described as follows: 

A parcel of land located in Section 32, 

Township 11 South, Range 6 East. Said 

parcel subject to all easements, 

restrictions, and reservations of record. 

Any person may inspect the request 

in person at the FAA office listed above 

under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT. 

In addition, any person may, upon 

request, inspect the application, notice 

and other documents germane to the 

application in person at the Louisiana 

Department of Transportation, Division 

of Aviation, Baton Rouge LA 70804– 

9245. 

Issued in Fort Worth, Texas on October 3, 

2014. 

Lacey D. Spriggs, 

Acting Manager, Airports Division. 

[FR Doc. 2014–24146 Filed 10–8–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Transit Administration 

[Docket No. FTA–2014–0021] 

Notice of Buy America Waiver for a 

Variable Refrigerant Flow HVAC 

System 

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, 

DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of Buy America waiver. 

SUMMARY: In response to the San 

Bernardino Associated Governments’ 

(SANBAG) request for a Buy America 

waiver for a Variable Refrigerant Flow 

(VRF) HVAC system, the Federal Transit 

Administration (FTA) hereby waives its 

Buy America requirements for the VRF 

HVAC system to be installed at the 

Omnitrans San Bernardino Transit 

Center (SBTC). This waiver is limited to 

a single procurement for the VRF HVAC 

system for the SBTC, an FTA-funded 

project. 

DATES: This waiver is effective 

immediately. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Richard L. Wong, FTA AttorneyAdvisor, at (202) 366–4011 or 

richard.wong@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

purpose of this notice is to announce 

that FTA has granted a Buy America 

non-availability waiver for SANBAG’s 

procurement of a VRF HVAC system for 

the SBTC. 

With certain exceptions, FTA’s Buy 

America requirements prevent FTA 

from obligating an amount that may be 

appropriated to carry out its program for 

a project unless ‘‘the steel, iron, and 

manufactured goods used in the project 

are produced in the United States.’’ 49 

U.S.C. 5323(j)(1). A manufactured 

product is considered produced in the 

United States if: (1) all of the 

manufacturing processes for the product 

take place in the United States; and (2) 

all of the components of the product are 

of U.S. origin. A component is 

considered of U.S. origin if it is 

manufactured in the United States, 

regardless of the origin of its 

subcomponents. 49 CFR 661.5(d). If, 

however, FTA determines that ‘‘the 

steel, iron, and goods produced in the 

United States are not produced in a 

sufficient and reasonably available 

amount or are not of a satisfactory 

quality,’’ then FTA may issue a nonavailability waiver. 49 U.S.C. 

5323(j)(2)(B); 49 CFR 661.7(c). 

SANBAG requested a non-availability 

waiver for a VRF HVAC system that will 

be installed into the SBTC, a 

multimodal transfer facility in 

downtown San Bernardino, California 

that will serve patrons and operators of 

Omnitrans’ fixed route buses, the newly 

opened sbX bus rapid transit (BRT) line, 

the Victor Valley Transit Authority, the 

Mountain Area Regional Transit 

Authority, and the Southern California 

Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink). 

FTA selected the SBTC project for 

award of fiscal year 2011 funding made 

available pursuant to the Bus and Bus 

Facilities Program (49 U.S.C. 5309(b)) in 

support of the U.S. Department of 

Transportation’s (DOT) Livability 

Initiative and the Partnership for 

Sustainable Communities between the 

U.S. DOT, the U.S. Department of 

Housing and Urban Development, and 

the U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency (Bus Livability Program). FTA 

selected each project for the Bus 

Livability Program based on whether it 

would, among other things, promote a 

more environmentally sustainable 

transportation system. 76 FR 37393, 

37397 (June 27, 2011); see also 76 FR 

68813 (Nov. 7, 2011). More specifically, 

FTA assessed the project’s ability to 

‘‘maintain, protect or enhance the 

environment, as evidenced by 

environmentally friendly policies and 

practices utilized in the project design, 

construction, and operation that exceed 

the requirements of the National 

Environmental Policy Act including 

items such as whether the project uses 

a [U.S. Green Building Council] 

Leadership in Energy and 

Environmental Design (LEED)-certified 

design. . . .’’ 76 FR at 37397. 

The SBTC is being built to the U.S. 

Green Building Council’s Leadership in 

Energy and Environmental Design 

(LEED) standards and will incorporate a 

number of sustainable and energy 

efficient elements. One of those 

elements is a VRF HVAC system that, 

among other things, is space saving, has 

invertor technology, efficiency, and a 

non-ozone depleting refrigerant that 

domestic manufacturers of HVAC 

systems do not provide. According to 

SANBAG, its contractor was directed to 

evaluate the substitution of a Buy 

America-compliant Variable Air Volume 

(VAV) system, but the contractor 

advised SANBAG that the VAV system 

would endanger the project’s LEED Gold 

certification because of the difference in 

efficiency between the VAV and VRF 

HVAC systems. In addition, the 

substitution of a VAV system would 

require significant changes to the 

project, such as the alteration of alreadyerected structural elements that were 

designed to accommodate a VRF system 

and additional design changes and plan 

reviews by the City of San Bernardino. 

SANBAG points to a recent nonavailability waiver FTA issued to St. 

Louis’ MetroLink for a similar VRF 

system (79 FR 34653, June 17, 2014), as 

well as to a blanket non-availability 

waiver issued by the U.S. Department of 

Energy (DOE) in 2010 for VRF HVAC 

systems procured with American 

Reinvestment and Recovery Act funding 

(75 FR 35447, June 22, 2010). According 

to SANBAG, the U.S. DOE’s 

determination of non-availability and 

FTA’s recent St. Louis MetroLink 

waiver, as well as SANBAG’s 

contractor’s research, indicate that this 

product is not manufactured 

domestically. 

On Monday, September 22, 2014, and 

in accordance with 49 U.S.C. 

5323(j)(3)(A), FTA published a notice in 

the Federal Register requesting public 

comment on, among other topics, the 

merits of SANBAG’s waiver request and 

potential effects of granting the waiver. 

The public comment period closed on 

September 29, 2014. FTA did not 

receive any comments. 

Based on SANBAG’s assertions that it 

is unable to procure a U.S.- 

manufactured VRF HVAC system, 

which is critical to obtaining LEED Gold 

certification, and the fact that FTA did 

not receive any public comments, FTA 

hereby waives its Buy America 

requirement for manufactured products 

under 49 CFR 661.5(d) for the VRF 

HVAC system. This waiver is limited to 

a single procurement for the VRF HVAC 

system for SANBAG’s SBTC project. 

Dana Nifosi, 

Acting Chief Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 2014–24053 Filed 10–8–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–57–P 

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