Document ID: EPA-HQ-TRI-2009-0614-0001
Agency: epa
Document Type: Notice
Title: Toxic Chemical Release Reporting; Community Right-To-Know; Request for Comment on Change of Contractor Handling Trade Secret Claims
Posted Date: 2009-08-25T04:00Z

[Federal Register: August 25, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 163)]
[Notices]               
[Page 42896-42898]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr25au09-70]                         

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-TRI-2009-0614; FRL-8948-8]

 
Toxic Chemical Release Reporting; Community Right-To-Know; 
Request for Comment on Change of Contractor Handling Trade Secret 
Claims

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces an upcoming change in location and 
contractor designated to manage the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data 
processing for all TRI submissions including TRI Trade Secret and 
confidential information submitted. Under Section 322 of the Emergency 
Planning and Community Right-to- Know Act, facilities submitting TRI 
reports may be eligible to claim Trade Secret for the specific chemical 
identity of a toxic chemical being reported. Information entitled to 
trade secret or confidential treatment may not be disclosed by the 
Agency to the Agency's authorized representative until each affected 
submitter has been furnished notice of the contemplated disclosure by 
the EPA program office and has been afforded opportunity to submit its 
comments. This Federal Register provides notice that EPA's authorized 
representative is changing and provides the public an opportunity to 
comment on this action. Limit your comments to the change of contractor 
handling trade secret and confidential information submitted to TRI 
under Emergency Planning and Community Right-to- Know reporting 
requirements.

DATES: Comments should be submitted by August 31, 2009.

ADDRESSES: EPA has established a docket for this action under EPA-HQ-
TRI-2009-0614. All documents in the docket are listed in the EDOCKET 
index at http://www.epa.gov/edocket. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, i.e., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, is not placed on the Internet and will be 
publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket 
materials are available either electronically in EDOCKET or in hard 
copy at the OEI Docket, EPA/DC, EPA West, Room B102, 1301 Constitution 
Ave., NW., Washington, DC. 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, and the 
telephone number for the OEI Docket is 202-566-1752.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information, contact The 
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Hotline at Environmental 
Protection Agency, Mail Code 5101, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20460, Toll free: 1-800-424-9346, in Virginia and 
Alaska: 703-412-9810, Toll free TDD: 1-800-553-7672., or http://
www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hotline/. For technical information about this 
change in contractor and location for TRI data processing, contact: 
Peggy Bagnoli, Toxics Release Inventory Program Division, OEI (2844T), 
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20460, Telephone: 202-566-1230; Fax: 202-566-0727; e-
mail: bagnoli.peggy@epa.gov. Effective July 30, 2009, certified mail 
should be sent to CGI Federal, C/O CDX Reporting Center, 12601 Fair 
Lakes Circle, Fairfax, VA 22033. All other submissions should be sent 
to the TRI Reporting Center, P.O. Box 10163, Fairfax, VA 22038.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Does This Notice Apply to Me?

    A. Affected Entities: Entities that will be affected by this action 
are those facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use 
certain toxic chemicals listed on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) 
and which are required under section 313 of the Emergency Planning and 
Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986, to report annually to EPA 
their environmental releases of such chemicals. Currently, those 
industries with the following NAICS code designations (that meet all 
other threshold criteria for TRI reporting) must report toxic chemical 
releases and other waste management activities: 11--Agriculture, 
Forestry, Fishing and Hunting (except for NAICS Code 111998); 21--
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction (except for NAICS Codes 
211112, 212324, 212325, 212393, and 212399); 22--Utilities (except for 
NAICS Codes 221111, 221112, 221113, 221119, 221121, 221122); 31-33--
Manufacturing (except for NAICS Codes 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 323, 
325, 326, 327, 334, 335, 337, and 339); 42--Wholesale Trade; 48-49--
Transportation and Warehousing (except for NAICS Code 488390); 51--
Information (except for NAICS Codes 511140, 512230, and 519130); 54--
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (except for NAICS Code 
541712); 56--Administrative and Support and Waste Management and 
Remediation Services (except for NAICS Codes 562112, 562211, 562213, 
562219, and 562920); and 81--Other Services (except Public 
Administration) (except for NAICS Code 811490).
    To determine whether you or your business is affected by this 
action, you should carefully examine the applicability provisions at 40 
CFR Part 350 and 40 CFR Part 372. If you have

[[Page 42897]]

any questions regarding the applicability of this action to a 
particular entity, consult the person(s) listed in the FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section.

II. How Can I Get Copies of This Document and Other Related 
Information?

    A. Docket. EPA has established an official public docket for this 
action under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-TRI-2009-0614. The public docket 
includes information considered by EPA in developing this action, 
including the documents listed below, which are physically located in 
the docket. In addition, interested parties should consult documents 
that are referenced in the documents that EPA has placed in the docket, 
regardless of whether these referenced documents are physically located 
in the docket. For assistance in locating documents that are referenced 
in documents that EPA has placed in the docket, but that are not 
physically located in the docket, please consult the person listed in 
the preceding FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section. Although a part 
of the official docket, the public docket does not include Confidential 
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is 
restricted by statute. The official public docket is the collection of 
materials that is available for public viewing at the EPA Docket 
Center, (EPA/DC) EPA West, Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center 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 Reading Room is (202) 566-1742, 
and the telephone number for the Notice of Change of Contractor 
Handling TRI Submissions including TRI Trade Secret Claims Docket is 
(202) 566-1752.
    B. Electronic Access. You may access this Federal Register document 
electronically through the EPA Internet under the Federal Register 
listings at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/. An electronic version of the 
public docket is available through EPA's electronic public docket and 
comment system, EPA Dockets. You may use EPA Dockets at http://
www.epa.gov/edocket/ to view public comments, access the index listing 
of the contents of the official public docket, and to access those 
documents in the public docket that are available electronically. 
Although not all docket materials may be available electronically, you 
may still access any of the publicly available docket materials through 
the docket facility identified in Unit II.A. Once in the system, select 
``search,'' then key in the appropriate docket identification number.

III. How Can I Respond to This Notice?

    A. How and To Whom Do I Submit Comments? You may submit comments 
through the mail, in person, or electronically. Be sure to identify the 
appropriate docket control number (i.e., EPA-HQ-TRI-2009-0614) in your 
correspondence. 1. By mail. All comments should be sent in triplicate 
to: Office of Environmental Information (OEI/TRI), Environmental 
Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Ariel 
Rios Building, Washington, DC 20460. 2. In person or by courier. 
Comments may be delivered in person or by courier to: EPA Docket 
Center, (EPA/DC) EPA West, Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC. The DCO is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the DCO is 
(202) 260-7093. 3. Electronically. Submit your comments electronically 
by e-mail to: ``oei.docket@epa.gov''. Please note that you should not 
submit any information electronically that you consider to be CBI. 
Electronic comments must be submitted as an ASCII file avoiding the use 
of special characters and any form of encryption. Comments and data 
will also be accepted on standard computer disks in Microsoft Office 
Word 2003 or ASCII file format. All comments and data in electronic 
form must be identified by the docket control number EPA-HQ-TRI-2009-
0614. Electronic comments on this document may also be filed online at 
many Federal Depository Libraries.
    B. How Should I Handle CBI Information That I Want To Submit to the 
Agency? All comments which contain information claimed as CBI must be 
clearly marked as such. Three sanitized copies of any comments 
containing information claimed as CBI must also be submitted and will 
be placed in the public record for this document. Persons submitting 
information on any portion of which they believe is entitled to 
treatment as CBI by EPA must assert a business confidentiality claim in 
accordance with 40 CFR 2.203(b) for each such portion. This claim must 
be made at the time that the information is submitted to EPA. If a 
submitter does not assert a confidentiality claim at the time of 
submission, EPA will consider this as a waiver of any confidentiality 
claim and the information may be made available to the public by EPA 
without further notice to the submitter.

IV. What Is the General Background for This Action?

    A. Trade Secret. The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is mandated by 
the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) 
and the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) of 1990. EPCRA Section 313 and 
PPA Section 6607 establish requirements for reporting of toxic chemical 
releases and other waste management quantities. Under Section 322 of 
EPCRA and 40 CFR Part 350, facilities submitting TRI reports may be 
eligible to claim Trade Secret for the specific chemical identity of 
the toxic chemical being reported. To support a claim of trade secrecy, 
a facility may need to submit additional confidential business 
information. Pursuant to 40 CFR 350.23 (``Disclosure to Authorized 
Representatives''), information entitled to trade secret or 
confidential treatment may not be disclosed by the Agency to the 
Agency's authorized representative until each affected submitter has 
been furnished notice of the contemplated disclosure by the EPA program 
office and has been afforded a period found reasonable by that office 
(not less than five working days) to submit its comments. Such notice 
shall include a description of the information to be disclosed, the 
identity of the contractor, subcontractor, or grantee, the contract, 
subcontract, or grant number, if any, and the purposes to be served by 
the disclosure. This notice may be published in the Federal Register or 
may be sent to individual submitters.

V. This Notice Announces a Change of Contractor Designated To Manage 
the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Data Processing for All TRI 
Submissions

    The contract to manage the TRI data submissions was competed in 
2001 and was awarded to the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) (GSA 
Contract GSOOT99ALD0203). This contract will end September 30, 2009. A 
new contract was awarded to CGI, Incorporated (GS-35F4797H 
TO1518) on April 1, 2009. The management of TRI data 
submissions will transition to CGI by the end of September 2009 and 
remain with CGI through March 30, 2012. This new facility will be 
located in Fairfax, Virginia.
    Effective July 30, 2009, certified mail should be sent to CGI 
Federal, C/O CDX Reporting Center, 12601 Fair Lakes Circle, Fairfax, VA 
22033. All other submissions should be sent to the TRI Reporting 
Center, P.O. Box 10163, Fairfax, VA 22038. All TRI submissions 
including trade secret and confidential

[[Page 42898]]

information submitted pursuant to 40 CFR Part 350 will be managed by 
CGI.
    In accordance with 40 CFR 350.23, EPA has determined that CGI and 
their subcontractors require access to trade secret and confidential 
information submitted under 40 CFR Part 350 in order to receive, 
manage, process, and safely store such information. The contractor will 
have appropriate procedures and facilities in place to safeguard the 
TRI trade secret and confidential information to which the contractor 
and subcontractors have access during the term of this contract. The 
contractor's and subcontractor's employees will be required to sign a 
``Confidentiality Agreement'' prior to being permitted access to trade 
secret and confidential information submitted under 40 CFR Part 350. 
All contractor and subcontractor access to TRI trade secret and 
confidential information will take place at the contractor's facility 
in Fairfax, VA.

    Dated: August 10, 2009.
Rick Martin,
Acting Director, Office of Information Analysis and Access.
[FR Doc. E9-20397 Filed 8-24-09; 8:45 am]

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