Document ID: EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640-2660
Agency: epa
Document Type: Proposed Rule
Title: Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System: Identification and Listing of Special Wastes; Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals From Electric Utilities - Comment period extension
Posted Date: 2010-08-20T04:00Z

[Federal Register: August 20, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 161)]
[Proposed Rules]               
[Page 51434-51436]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20au10-19]                         

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Parts 257, 261, 264, 265, 268, 271, and 302

[EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640; FRL-9191-5]
RIN-2050-AE81

 
Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System; Identification and 
Listing of Special Wastes; Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals From 
Electric Utilities

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule: corrections, extension of the comment period, 
and additional public hearings.

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SUMMARY: On June 21, 2010, EPA proposed to regulate the disposal of 
coal combustion residuals generated from the combustion of coal at 
electric utilities and by independent power producers. This action 
makes several administrative corrections in the preamble to the 
proposed rule, which were discovered after the proposal was published 
in the Federal Register. In addition, EPA is providing notice that 
additional support documents are available for public inspection in the 
rulemaking docket.
    This action also extends the deadline for submitting written 
comments on the proposed rule to November 19, 2010. This extension 
provides an additional 60 days for the public to provide written 
comments. EPA received numerous requests for an extension of the 
comment period and this notice is the Agency's response to those 
persons who requested an extension of the comment period.
    Also, in response to significant public interest in the proposed 
rule, the Agency recently announced on its Web site that it will 
conduct two additional public hearings on the proposed rule, one in 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the other in Louisville, Kentucky, and an 
additional Webinar. Additional information on these announcements is 
included in this notice.

DATES: Comments on the proposed rule must be received on or before 
November 19, 2010.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments on the proposed rule, identified by 
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640, by one of the following methods:
     http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line 
instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail) 
to rcra-docket@epa.gov, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640. 
In contrast to EPA's electronic public docket, EPA's e-mail system is 
not an ``anonymous access'' system. If you send an e-mail comment 
directly to the Docket without going through EPA's electronic public 
docket, EPA's e-mail system automatically captures your e-mail address. 
E-mail addresses that are automatically captured by EPA's e-mail system 
are included as part of the comment that is placed in the official 
public docket, and made available in EPA's electronic public docket.
     Fax: Comments may be faxed to 202-566-0272; Attention 
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640.
     Mail: Send your comments to the Hazardous and Solid Waste 
Management System; Identification and Listing of Special Wastes; 
Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals From Electric Utilities Docket, 
Attention Docket ID No., EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640, Environmental 
Protection Agency, Mailcode: 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20460. Please include a total of two copies.
     Hand Delivery: Deliver two copies of your comments to the 
Hazardous and Solid Waste Management System; Identification and Listing 
of Special Wastes; Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals From Electric 
Utilities Docket, Attention Docket ID No., EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640, EPA/
DC, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC 
20460. Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal 
hours of operation, and special arrangements should be made for 
deliveries of boxed information.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-
2009-0640. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you 
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://
www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site 
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your 
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of 
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without 
going through http://www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be 
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is 
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you 
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name 
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any 
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to 
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA 
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid 
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of 
any defects or viruses. For additional information about EPA's public 
docket, visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/
epahome/dockets.htm.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the 
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Hazardous and 
Solid Waste Management System; Identification and Listing of Special 
Wastes; Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals From Electric Utilities 
Docket, EPA/DC, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20460. This Docket Facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 
4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The Docket 
telephone number is (202) 566-0270. The Public Reading Room is open 
from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal 
holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 
566-1744.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions on the June 21, 2010, 
proposed rule or today's notice, contact Alexander Livnat, Office of 
Resource Conservation and Recovery, U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Mailcode 5304P, Washington, DC 
20460; telephone number: (703) 308-7251; e-mail address: 
livnat.alexander@epa.gov, or Steve Souders, Office of Resource 
Conservation and Recovery, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200

[[Page 51435]]

Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Mailcode 5304P, Washington, DC 20460; telephone 
number: (703) 308-8431; e-mail address: souders.steve@epa.gov. If you 
have questions concerning the public hearings or the Webinars, please 
contact Bonnie Robinson, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, 
Mailcode 5304P, Washington, DC 20460; telephone number (703) 308-8429; 
e-mail address: robinson.bonnie@epa.gov, or Elaine Eby, Office of 
Resource Conservation and Recovery, U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Mailcode 5304P, Washington, DC 
20460; telephone number (703) 308-8449; e-mail address 
eby.elaine@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background on the Proposed Rule

    On June 21, 2010, EPA co-proposed two options for regulating the 
disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCRs), commonly known as coal 
ash, generated from the combustion of coal at electric utilities and by 
independent power producers (75 FR 35128). Under the first proposal, 
EPA would reverse its August 1993 and May 2000 Bevill Regulatory 
Determinations regarding CCRs and list these residuals as special 
wastes subject to regulation under subtitle C of the Resource 
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), when they are destined for 
disposal in landfills and surface impoundments. Under the second 
proposal, EPA would leave the Bevill Regulatory Determinations in place 
and regulate the disposal of such materials under subtitle D of RCRA by 
issuing national minimum criteria. Under both alternatives, EPA 
proposed not to change the May 2000 Regulatory Determination for 
beneficially used CCRs, which are currently exempt from the hazardous 
waste regulations under Section 3001(b)(3)(A) of RCRA.
    To assist the reader in reviewing the proposed rule and the 
corrections published today, EPA has made available an unofficial 
version of the entire corrected proposal on its Web site, which can be 
accessed at http://www.epa.gov/coalashrule.

B. Corrections to the Proposed Rule

    The proposed rule as published in the Federal Register on June 21, 
2010, contained a number of inadvertent administrative errors in: (1) 
The ADDRESSES section; (2) a table summarizing EPA's estimates of 
regulatory costs and benefits; (3) the discussion of EPA's risk 
assessment; and (4) a footnote. Accordingly, the June 21, 2010 
publication of the proposed rule is corrected as follows:
    1. On page 35128, second column, sixth paragraph, in the first 
sentence, ``Mailcode: 5305T,'' is corrected to read ``Mailcode: 
28221T,''.
    2. On page 35134, Table 1 is replaced with the following table.

    Table 1--Summary Table Comparison of Regulatory Benefits to Costs--Ranging Over All Three Beneficial Use
                                                    Scenarios
     [$Millions @ 2009 $ prices and @ 7% discount rate over 50-year future period-of-analysis 2012 to 2061]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                         Subtitle C ``special
                                               waste''                 Subtitle D          Subtitle ``D prime''
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                                                A. Present Values
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1. Regulatory Costs..................  $20,349................  $8,095.................  $3,259.
2. Regulatory Benefits...............  ($230,817) to $102,191.  $1,168 to $41,761......  $593 to $17,501.
3. Net Benefits (2-1)................  ($251,166) to $81,842..  ($6,927) to $33,666....  ($2,666) to $14,242.
4. Benefit/Cost Ratio (2/1)..........  (11.343) to 5.022......  0.144 to 5.159.........  0.182 to 5.370.
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                                    B. Average Annualized Equivalent Values *
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1. Regulatory Costs..................  $1,474.................  $587...................  $236.
2. Regulatory Benefits...............  ($16,725) to $7,405....  $85 to $3,026..........  $43 to $1,268.
3. Net Benefits (2-1)................  ($18,199) to $5,930....  ($502) to $2,439.......  ($193) to $1,032.
4. Benefit/Cost Ratio (2/1)..........  (11.343) to 5.022......  0.144 to 5.159.........  0.182 to 5.370.
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* Note: Average annualized equivalent values calculated by multiplying 50-year present values by a 50-year 7%
  discount rate ``capital recovery factor'' of 0.07246.

    3. On page 35144, second column, third paragraph, the first 
sentence which reads ``EPA submitted the revised draft risk assessment 
report, together with public comments on the report in response to the 
2007 NODA, to a peer review panel. EPA completed the risk assessment, 
taking into account peer review comments, in a final report titled 
``Human and Ecological Risk Assessment of Coal Combustion Wastes,'' 
(September 2009).'' is corrected to read ``EPA submitted the revised 
draft risk assessment report, together with public comments on the 
report in response to the 2007 NODA, to a peer review panel. EPA 
completed the risk assessment, taking into account peer review 
comments, in a final report titled ``Human and Ecological Risk 
Assessment of Coal Combustion Wastes,'' (April 2010).''
    4. On page 35170, in the first column, the first full sentence 
which reads ``A detailed discussion of the modeling and risks from this 
pathway can be found in U.S. EPA 2009a (available in the docket for 
this proposal).'' is corrected to read ``A detailed discussion of the 
modeling and risks from this pathway can be found in U.S. EPA 2010a 
(available in the docket for this proposal).''
    5. On page 35170, in the first column, third paragraph, the third 
sentence which reads ``For CCRs co-managed with coal refule, thallium 
is estimated at two times the reference dose in unlined landfills at 
the 90th percentile, but did not exceed the reference dose at the 0th 
percentile for any liner type.'' is corrected to read ``For CCRs co-
managed with coal refuse, thallium is estimated at two times the 
reference dose in unlined landfills at the 90th percentile, but did not 
exceed the reference dose at the 50th percentile for any liner type.''
    6. On page 35170, in the second column, at the end of the first 
paragraph, the sentence ``Of the contaminated groundwater plumes that 
are estimated to reach the receptor wells from composite-lined units, 
the median time to peak well concentration as not estimated to sour in 
the 10,000 year time period that was modeled.101'' is 
corrected to read ``Of the contaminated groundwater plumes that are 
estimated to reach the receptor wells from composite-lined units, the 
median time to peak well concentrations was not

[[Page 51436]]

estimated to occur in the 10,000 year time period that was 
modeled.101''
    7. On page 35220, first column, footnote 165 which reads ``U.S. 
EPA. Regulatory Impact Analysis for EPA's Proposed Regulation of Coal 
Combustion Wastes Generated by the Electric Utility Industry, 2009. 
Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery.'' is corrected to read 
``U.S. EPA. Regulatory Impact Analysis for EPA's Proposed Regulation of 
Coal Combustion Wastes Generated by the Electric Utility Industry, 
April 2010. Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery.''

C. Notice That Additional Support Documents Have been Placed in the 
Docket

    This document also notifies the public that EPA has included 
additional support documents in the proposed rule docket. Documents 
that were referenced in the proposed rule, and were previously found 
only on EPA's Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2) Web site have 
been moved to the docket for this rulemaking. Similarly, EPA has 
included in the docket a notice that describes a file transfer protocol 
(FTP) site where the public can download the full scale risk modeling 
input and output files used in the document entitled, ``Draft Human and 
Ecological Risk Assessment of Coal Combustion Wastes,'' April, 2010. 
EPA also has added the executable files for the models used in the risk 
assessment in the same FTP site. As part of the proposed rule, EPA had 
stated that these materials would be available upon request; in the 
interest of ensuring the greatest degree of public access, EPA has 
subsequently decided to place them in the rulemaking docket.
    EPA therefore recommends that the public consult the docket to 
access all of EPA's record support documents. The docket provides the 
date on which the material was added, so newly added materials will be 
easily identifiable.

D. Two Additional Public Hearings

    On July 15, 2010 (75 FR 41121), EPA announced in the Federal 
Register its intent to conduct five public hearings across the United 
States to allow the public an opportunity to present data, views or 
arguments concerning the proposed rule. These public hearings are 
scheduled to take place in Arlington, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; 
Dallas, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Chicago, Illinois. Given 
the significant public interest in this rule and to further public 
participation opportunities, on August 6, 2010, EPA announced on its 
website that it would hold two additional public hearings, one in 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 21, 2010, and the other in 
Louisville, Kentucky, on September 28, 2010. These public hearings will 
be conducted in the same manner as the public hearings announced in the 
July 15, 2010, Federal Register notice. Details on the Pittsburgh and 
Louisville public hearings can be found on EPA's Web site at: http://
www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/ccr-rule/ccr-
hearing.htm. If you have any questions, please contact either Bonnie 
Robinson or Elaine Eby at the addresses given above under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.

E. Additional Webinar

    EPA previously announced that the Agency will be hosting two 
Webinars; one on August 5, 2010, and a second on August 12, 2010. On 
August 6, 2010, EPA announced on its Web site that we would conduct an 
additional Webinar. As soon as the scope and format of the third 
Webinar is determined, EPA will post such information on the Web site: 
http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/ccr-rule/ccr-
webinar.htm. EPA will post the transcript from the Webinars on its Web 
site and will put into the rulemaking record the questions that we 
receive during the Webinars. However, the Webinars are designed to 
assist the public in understanding the proposal and are not designed to 
take public comment on the proposal. For example, many of the questions 
that were submitted appear to have been made in response to statements 
made as part of the presentation, and may not be entirely clear without 
that context. Consequently, although EPA will treat the questions 
submitted during the Webinar as part of the rulemaking record, (and 
will respond accordingly), EPA encourages those who submitted questions 
as part of the Webinar, and who wish to submit comments on the 
proposal, to consider whether they wish to supplement or clarify those 
questions, and to follow the procedures for submitting comments set out 
in this notice and in our June 21 proposal.

    Dated: August 12, 2010.
Mathy Stanislaus,
Assistant Administrator, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.
[FR Doc. 2010-20703 Filed 8-19-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P