Document ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2020-0017-0001
Agency: epa
Document Type: Notice
Title: Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposals, Submissions, and Approvals: Request for the 2020 Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment
Posted Date: 2020-02-05T05:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6542-6543]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-02263]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OW-2020-0017; FRL 10004-75-OW]

Proposed Information Collection Request; Comment Request; 
Information Collection Request for the 2020 Drinking Water 
Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment (DWINSA)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to 
submit an information collection request (ICR), ``Information 
Collection Request for the 2020 Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs 
Survey and Assessment (DWINSA)'' (EPA ICR No. 2616.01, OMB Control No. 
2040-NEW) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). Before 
doing so, the EPA is soliciting public comments on specific aspects of 
the proposed information collection as described in this document. This 
is a request for approval of a new collection. An Agency may not 
conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a 
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB 
control number.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before April 6, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-
2020-0017 online using https://www.regulations.gov (our preferred 
method), by email to ow-docket@epa.gov or by mail to: The EPA Docket 
Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460.
    The EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in 
the public docket without change including any personal information 
provided, unless the comment includes profanity, threats, information 
claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other 
information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Barles, Drinking Water 
Protection Division (Mail Code 4606M), Office of Ground Water and 
Drinking Water, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania 
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: 202-564-3814; fax 
number: 202-564-3754; email address: barles.robert@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supporting documents which explain in detail 
the information that the EPA will be collecting are available in the 
public docket for this ICR. The docket can be viewed online at https://www.regulations.gov or in person at the EPA Docket Center, WJC West, 
Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC. The telephone 
number for the Docket Center is 202-566-1744. For additional 
information about the EPA's public docket, visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
    Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501 et 
seq.), the EPA is soliciting comments and information to enable it to: 
(i) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility; (ii) 
evaluate the accuracy of the Agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (iii) enhance the quality, utility, 
and clarity of the information to be collected; and (iv) minimize the 
burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, 
including through the use of appropriate automated electronic, 
mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms 
of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of 
responses. The EPA will consider the comments received and amend the 
ICR as appropriate. The final ICR package will then be submitted to OMB 
for review and approval. At that time, the EPA will issue another 
Federal Register notice to announce the submission of the ICR to OMB 
and the opportunity to submit additional comments to OMB.
    Abstract: The purpose of this information collection is to identify 
the infrastructure needs of public water systems for the 20-year period 
from January 2020 through December 2039. The EPA's Office of Ground 
Water and Drinking Water will collect these data to comply with 
sections 1452(h) and 1452(i)(4) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 
U.S.C. 300j-12). This data collection effort will include the 2020 
State DWINSA and the 2020 Native American DWINSA. For the State DWINSA, 
the EPA will collect the 20-year need for systems that are in all 50 
states, the U.S. territories (Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern 
Mariana Islands, and American Samoa), Puerto Rico, and the District of 
Columbia. The EPA will use a questionnaire to collect capital 
investment need information from selected community water systems 
(CWSs) and not-for-profit noncommunity water systems (NPNCWSs). The EPA 
will collect data from NPNCWSs serving 10,000 or fewer persons and 
small CWSs serving 3,300 or fewer persons through site visits. For the 
Native American DWINSA, the EPA will survey selected American Indian 
and Alaska Native Village CWSs and NPNCWSs. These systems will receive 
the same data collection instrument as the systems selected for the 
2020 State DWINSA, except that American Indian and Alaska Native 
Village water systems will not receive questions related to American 
Iron and Steel because those requirements do not apply to these 
systems. Participation in the survey is voluntary. The data from the 
questionnaires will provide the EPA with new information from the field 
to assist in the 2020 update to the Agency's assessment of the 
nationwide infrastructure needs of public water systems. As mandated by 
section 1452(a)(1)(D)(ii) of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA uses 
the results of the latest survey to allocate Drinking Water State 
Revolving Fund (DWSRF) monies among states, territories, the EPA 
Regions (for direct implementation programs), and the Navajo Nation.
    Form Numbers: None.
    Respondents/affected entities: The respondents for the 2020 
Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment are CWSs, 
NPNCWSs, state agencies, the EPA Regions, and the Navajo Nation.
    Respondent's obligation to respond: Voluntary.
    Estimated number of respondents: 3,969 (total).
    Frequency of response: One time.
    Total estimated burden: 14,510 hours (average per year over three 
years). Burden is defined at 5 CFR 1320.03(b).
    Total estimated cost: $734,686 (average per year over three years), 
includes $0 annualized capital or operation & maintenance costs.
    Changes in estimates: This ICR does not modify an existing ICR. An 
ICR was prepared for the previous survey effort done in 2015, which is 
outside of the 3-year window for modifying an existing ICR for a new 
effort. For purposes of this reinstatement, the EPA has provided a

[[Page 6543]]

comparison of burden of the proposed new effort to the estimates of the 
previous 2015 DWINSA ICR.
    The estimated total public reporting burden over the entire 4-year 
length of the 2015 DWINSA was 37,195 hours. The total public reporting 
burden for the 2020 DWINSA is estimated to be 43,531 hours, an increase 
of 17 percent over the 2015 DWINSA. Some aspects of the 2020 DWINSA 
resulted in an estimated decrease in burden compared to the same data 
collection for the 2015 effort, and some aspects that are new to the 
2020 DWINSA resulted in an increase compared to the 2015 DWINSA. 
Specific differences between the 2015 and 2020 DWINSAs that resulted in 
changes in burden are as follows:
     The 2015 DWINSA focused on collecting data on 20-year 
infrastructure needs from medium and large systems through a State 
DWINSA. The 2015 DWINSA did not collect new data from small CWSs, state 
NPNCWSs, or American Indian or Alaska Native Village water systems. The 
2015 DWINSA relied on data from the 2007 DWINSA for small CWSs' needs, 
from the 1999 DWINSA for the state NPNCWSs' needs, and from the 2011 
DWINSA for the American Indian and Alaska Native Village systems' 
needs. The 2020 DWINSA will collect 20-year infrastructure need data 
from all of those survey groups. This increased scope of the 2020 
DWINSA efforts to collect infrastructure needs compared to the 2015 
DWINSA added survey groups with corresponding increased burden.
     The approach to data collection and therefore the overall 
assumptions on the burdens associated with collecting 20-year 
infrastructure need information from each large, medium, and small CWS 
for the State DWINSA did not change relative to the most recent State 
DWINSA in which these water systems were last surveyed. However, the 
burden estimate for collecting data from each NPNCWS has increased 
since the last time this type of system was surveyed in the 1999 State 
DWINSA. At that time, the EPA estimated that NPNCWS staff would spend 
little time accompanying the survey team during the site visit. 
Subsequently, the EPA developed more in-depth interview methods to 
improve capture of the 20-year infrastructure needs. The EPA will apply 
these newer survey methods to small NPNCWSs (serving 10,000 and fewer 
persons) for the first time in this 2020 State DWINSA. These changes to 
the survey methods were previously applied for small CWSs in the 2007 
survey and, therefore, the same burden estimates will now apply to both 
small CWSs and small NPNCWSs. The EPA will apply the same survey 
methods and, therefore, the same burden to CWS serving 10,000-50,000 
persons and NPNCWS serving more than 10,000 persons.
     As previously described, the assumed burdens for 
collecting 20-year infrastructure need information from each large, 
medium, and small CWS did not change relative to the most recent DWINSA 
in which these water systems were surveyed. However, the number of 
medium and large systems in the State DWINSA that will be surveyed 
decreased by 322 systems from 2,859 systems in 2015 to 2,537 systems in 
the 2020 DWINSA. This results in a lower burden estimate.
     The 2015 DWINSA focused on the 20-year infrastructure 
needs of the surveyed systems. The 2020 DWINSA includes three 
categories of new questions: Lead Service Lines, Operator Workforce, 
and American Iron and Steel. These new questions add burden to 
participating survey respondents, dependent on the category of the 
question and type of respondent.
     For the first time, the 2015 State Survey used a modified 
statistical approach where a large majority of the medium systems 
sampled had been previously sampled in the earlier 2011 State Survey; 
the change resulted in a significant decrease in states' and systems' 
reported burden hours. The 2020 State DWINSA applies the same modified 
approach to the medium system survey as was applied for the 2015 
DWINSA. The 2020 DWINSA also applies this approach for the first time 
to the 2020 Native American DWINSA. The 2015 DWINSA did not collect 
data on American Indian (AI) and Alaska Native Village (ANV) Needs; 
however, the estimated burden associated with the 2020 Native American 
DWINSA is less than was reported in the 2011 ICR.
    The increase in burden from the 2015 to the 2020 DWINSA 
attributable to the addition of new survey respondents (i.e., small 
water systems; NPNCWSs; and AI and ANV systems, including Navajo Nation 
water systems) for their 20-year infrastructure investment needs is a 
combined 3,382 burden hours. That increase is partially offset by a 
decrease of 1,548 burden hours to ascertain infrastructure needs for 
fewer large and medium systems. The net result is an increase of 1,560 
burden hours from the 2015 to the 2020 DWINSA for water system 
respondents to report infrastructure needs. Thus, the increase in 
burden for water systems overall is small relative to the additional 
data to be collected. The combined burden on primacy agencies for 
ascertaining water systems' infrastructure needs actually decreases 
from the 2015 to the 2020 DWINSA.
    Most of the increase in burden due to the expanded scope of the 
type of systems surveyed for infrastructure needs in the 2020 DWINSA is 
borne by the EPA. The EPA is responsible for collection of data from 
the small CWSs and NPNCWS for the State DWINSA, and by the EPA Regions 
for all but the Navajo Nation systems in the Native American DWINSA 
(the Navajo Nation will collect data for their systems).
    An increase of 3,573 burden hours from the 2015 to the 2020 DWINSA 
for water system respondents is attributable to the additional Lead 
Service Line, Operator Workforce, and American Iron and Steel 
questions. Most of this increase in burden is due to the Lead Service 
Line questions. The Lead Service Line questions account for 2,978 hours 
(83 percent) of the 3,573 hours of increased burden for the three 
additional question categories. The Lead Service Line questions will 
gather information about the water systems' service lines, as mandated 
by the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 section 2015(e)(2). 
These 2,978 hours translate to an average of 0.76 burden hours per 
water system respondent to specifically address the Lead Service Line 
questions.
    These changes are further discussed in the Supporting Statement of 
the Information Collection Request available in the EPA's docket for 
comment.

    Dated: January 31, 2020.
Jennifer McLain,
Director, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water.
[FR Doc. 2020-02263 Filed 2-4-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P