Document ID: EPA_FRDOC_0001-13102
Agency: epa
Document Type: Proposed Rule
Title: Clean Water Act: Contractor Access to Confidential Business Information
Posted Date: 2012-10-05T04:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 194 (Friday, October 5, 2012)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 60962-60963]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-23519]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 2

[FRL-9733-8]

Clean Water Act; Contractor Access to Confidential Business 
Information

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of intended transfer of confidential business 
information to contractor, subcontractors, and consultants.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Office of 
Water's (OW's) Office of Science and Technology (OST) has authorized 
Eastern Research Group (ERG), its subcontractors, and its consultants 
to access confidential business information (CBI) collected from 
numerous industries. Transfer of this information is necessary for ERG 
to assist the Office of Water in the preparation of effluent guidelines 
and standards for certain industries.
    We have determined that the contractors listed below require access

[[Page 60963]]

to CBI submitted to us under Section 308 of the Clean Water Act and in 
connection with various programs and are providing notice and an 
opportunity to comment. The nature of the work and its necessity, and 
the type of access granted, is described below for each contractor. 
Information has been provided to this contractor under a previous 
agreement since September 26, 2002.
    Transfer of the information to ERG will allow the contractor and 
subcontractors to support EPA in the planning, development, and review 
of effluent limitations guidelines and standards under the Clean Water 
Act (CWA). The information being transferred was or will be collected 
under the authority of section 308 of the CWA. Some information being 
transferred from the pulp, paper, and paperboard industry was collected 
under the additional authorities of section 114 of the Clean Air Act 
(CAA) and section 3007 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 
(RCRA). Interested persons may submit comments on this intended 
transfer of information to the address noted below.

DATES: Comments on the transfer of data are due October 15, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to Mr. M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document 
Control Officer, Engineering and Analysis Division (4303T), Room 6231S 
EPA West, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document 
Control Officer, at (202) 566-1044, or via email at 
siddiqui.ahmar@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with 40 CFR 2.302(h), EPA has 
transferred CBI to various contractors and subcontractors over the 
history of the effluent guidelines program. EPA determined that this 
transfer was necessary to enable the contractors and subcontractors to 
perform their work in supporting EPA in planning, developing, and 
reviewing effluent guidelines and standards for certain industries.
    Today, EPA is giving notice that it has entered into a contract 
with ERG, contract number EP-C-12-021, located in Chantilly, Virginia. 
The purpose of this contract is to secure technical and engineering 
analysis support for EPA in its development, review, implementation, 
and defense of water-related initiatives for a variety of industries. 
To obtain assistance in responding to this contract, ERG has entered 
into contracts with the following subcontractors: Advanced 
Environmental Management Group, LLC (AEM, located in Plymouth, 
Michigan), Aqua Terra Consultants (located in Mountain View, 
California), Avanti Corporation (located in Alexandria, Virginia), 
Great Lakes Environmental Center (GLEC, located in Traverse City, 
Michigan), and Mabbett & Associates (located in Bedford, 
Massachusetts), PG Environmental, LLC (located in Herndon, Virginia), 
Bill Kennedy, Orion Engineering (located in Charlotte, NC), John H. 
Martin, Hall Associates (located in Georgetown, DE), and John P. 
Martin, JPMartin Energy Strategy, LLC (located in Saratoga Springs, New 
York).
    All EPA contractor, subcontractor, and consultant personnel are 
bound by the requirements and sanctions contained in their contracts 
with EPA and in EPA's confidentiality regulations found at 40 CFR part 
2, Subpart B. ERG will adhere to EPA-approved security plans which 
describe procedures to protect CBI. ERG will apply the procedures in 
these plans to CBI previously gathered by EPA and to CBI that may be 
gathered in the future. The security plans specify that contractor 
personnel are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and are 
briefed on appropriate security procedures before they are permitted 
access to CBI. No person is automatically granted access to CBI: A need 
to know must exist.
    The information that will be transferred to ERG consists of 
information previously collected by EPA to support the development and 
review of effluent limitations guidelines and standards under the CWA. 
In particular, information, including CBI, collected for the planning, 
development, and review of effluent limitations guidelines and 
standards for the following industries may be transferred: Airport 
deicing; aquaculture; centralized waste treatment; coal bed methane; 
concentrated animal feeding operations; coal mining; construction and 
development; drinking water treatment; industrial container and drum 
cleaning; industrial laundries; industrial waste combustors; iron and 
steel manufacturing; landfills; meat and poultry products; metal 
finishing; metal products and machinery; nonferrous metals 
manufacturing; oil and gas extraction (including coalbed methane); ore 
mining and dressing; organic chemicals, plastics, and synthetic fibers; 
pesticide chemicals; petroleum refining; pharmaceutical manufacturing; 
pulp, paper, and paperboard manufacturing; shale gas extraction; steam 
electric power generation; textile mills; timber products processing; 
tobacco; and transportation equipment cleaning.
    EPA also intends to transfer to ERG all information listed in this 
notice, of the type described above (including CBI) that may be 
collected in the future under the authority of section 308 of the CWA 
or voluntarily submitted (e.g., in comments in response to a Federal 
Register notice), as is necessary to enable ERG to carry out the work 
required by its contract to support EPA's effluent guidelines planning 
process and the development of effluent limitations guidelines and 
standards.

    Dated: September 18, 2012.
Jeffrey L. Lape,
Acting Director, Office of Science and Technology.
[FR Doc. 2012-23519 Filed 10-4-12; 8:45 am]
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