TSCA Rule On Cadmium and Cadmium Compounds Withdrawn

EPA is withdrawing the final Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) section 8(d) Health and Safety Data Reporting Rule that it issued on December 3, 2012. The health and safety data reporting rule would have required manufacturers (including importers) of cadmium or cadmium compounds, including as part of an article, that have been, or are reasonably likely to be, incorporated into consumer products to report certain unpublished health and safety studies to EPA. Since the final rule's issuance, EPA has received a number of letters, including requests for withdrawal, asking questions and raising concerns about the scope and extent of the immediate final rule that indicate that there is significant confusion and uncertainty about the final rule in certain industrial sectors subject to the final rule. EPA believes that some of the points raised in the letters warrant additional consideration by the Agency.


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Reissue of PM2.5 Determination For Milwaukee-Racine, Wisconsin Area

EPA has proposed to determine that the Milwaukee-Racine, Wisconsin area had attained the 2006 24-hour fine particle (2006 PM2.5) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) and to more clearly explain EPA's interpretation on the applicability of CFR 51.1004(c) to the 2006 PM2.5 NAAQS.

As background, on April 24, 2012, EPA published a proposed determination that the Milwaukee-Racine, Wisconsin area had attained the 2006 PM2.5 NAAQS. EPA received comments on the original proposal suggesting that the suspension of certain Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements cannot be applied in this instance because it only pertains to the 1997 PM2.5 NAAQS and not to the 2006 PM2.5 NAAQS. As a result, EPA has reproposed portion of the original proposed determination to address this issue. EPA will address all comments received on the original proposal and the current reproposal in the Federal Register final notice. Comments must be received on or before January 28, 2013.

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Amendment For Diesel Sulfur Rule For Transmix and Pipelines

EPA has issued a final rule to amend provisions in the diesel sulfur fuel programs to provide necessary flexibility for transmix processors and pipeline operators who produce locomotive and marine diesel fuel. The diesel transmix amendments will reinstate an allowance for transmix processors and pipeline operators to produce 500 ppm sulfur diesel fuel for use in older technology locomotive and marine diesel outside of the Northeast Mid-Atlantic (NEMA) Area and Alaska after 2014.

These provisions were originally put in place as a necessary flexibility to address feasibility and cost issues associated with handling of the transmix volume generated in the pipeline distribution system. These provisions allowed the fuel distribution system to continue to function while transitioning to ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD). The technology to economically reduce the sulfur content of transmix distillate product to 15 ppm at transmix processor and pipeline facilities did not exist, and any alternative measures of disposing of transmix were likewise deemed infeasible or cost prohibitive as the market was then configured. Thus, in order to implement the ULSD regulations, an outlet for the consumption of transmix distillate product was necessary. With no outlet, transmix would build up in storage tanks and pipelines would need to cease operations. When the ULSD standards were expanded to nonroad, locomotive, and marine (NRLM) diesel fuel, this would have removed the sole outlet in most areas of the country.

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EPA Summary of Enforcement Actions In 2012

On December 17, 2012, US EPA released its annual enforcement results. In 2012, EPA levied $252 million in civil and criminal penalties. According to EPA, the FY 2012 results include:

• Sustained and focused enforcement attention on serious violators of clean drinking water standards has resulted in improvements in compliance. The number of systems with serious violations has declined by more than 60 % in the past three years as a result of combined federal and state enforcement work, protecting people's health through safer drinking water.

• More than 67 % of large combined sewer systems are implementing solutions to reduce raw sewage and contaminated stormwater. EPA is working with communities to design integrated solutions to these water quality problems, and incorporating innovative and cost effective green infrastructure to save money and achieve multiple community benefits.

• EPA is bringing criminal prosecutions where criminal activity threatens public health, like failing to use required pollution control equipment or knowingly violating pollution rules resulting in death or serious harm or falsifying pollution information.

• EPA is advancing environmental justice by incorporating fenceline monitoring, which requires companies to monitor their air emissions and make that data available public, into settlements, ensuring that local residents have access to information about pollution that may be affecting their community. EPA also secured $44 million in additional investments through settlements for supplemental environmental projects that benefit impacted communities.

• EPA is increasing transparency to use the power of public accountability to help improve environmental compliance. EPA's 2012 enforcement actions map provides information about violators in communities. EPA's state dashboards and Clean Water Act pollutant loading tool provides the public with information about local pollution that may affect them and allows the public to take a closer look at how government is responding to pollution problems.


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Final Boiler and Process Heater NESHAP Released

On December 21, 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released air pollution rules regulating hazardous air emissions from industrial boilers and process heaters. This package of combustion rules includes a revised version of the Industrial Boiler Maximum-Achievable Control Technology standard (Boiler MACT).

The final combustion rule package addresses major and area source industrial boilers, as well as commercial and industrial solid waste incinerators (CISWI). These rules provide new emissions limits, compliance dates and important clarifications on how the rules are to be implemented. The rule package also includes guidance for defining whether non-hazardous secondary materials (NHSM) are to be considered a solid waste or a fuel, which is a critical decision for determining whether combustion of such materials must be regulated under the generally more stringent incinerator CISWI rules or the revised Boiler MACT rules.

Read a summary of the key changes from the March 2011 rules

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ADEQ SIP For Regional Haze Program

EPA is proposing to approve in part and disapprove in part a revision of Arizona's State Implementation Plan (SIP) to implement the regional haze program for the first planning period through July 31, 2018. This proposed action includes all portions of the SIP except for three electric generating stations that were addressed in a final rule published in the Federal Register on December 5, 2012. The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires states to adopt and submit to EPA SIPs that assure reasonable progress toward the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in 156 national parks and wilderness areas designated as Class I areas.

EPA is taking action on Arizona's Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) control analysis and determinations, Reasonable Progress Goals (RPGs) for the State's 12 Class I areas, Long-term Strategy (LTS), and other elements of the State's regional haze plan. If EPA takes final action to disapprove any portion of the SIP, EPA will work with the State to develop plan revisions to address the disapproved provisions.

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Proposed Action On Wisconsin PM2.5 SIP

EPA is proposing to disapprove a revision to Wisconsin's State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) in a letter dated May 12, 2011. The revision concerns permitting requirements relating to particulate matter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5). EPA is proposing to disapprove the revisions because they do not meet the 2008 PM2.5 SIP requirements.

As background, in May 2008 EPA finalized regulations to implement the New Source Review (NSR) Implementation Rule for PM2.5 to include the major source threshold, significant emissions rate and offset ratios for PM2.5, interpollutant trading for offsets and applicability of NSR to PM2.5 precursors. On October 20, 2010, EPA amended the requirements for PM2.5 under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program by adding maximum allowable increase in ambient pollutant concentrations and screening tools known as the Significant Impact Levels and Significant Monitoring Concentration (SMC) for PM2.5.

On May 12, 2011, Wisconsin requested a revision to its SIP to include new permit requirements relating to PM2.5. The provisions were designed to match the requirements set forth in the May 2008 and October 2010 rules. The submittal included permanent rules to define major source thresholds and significant emission increase levels; establish the SMC for PM2.5; establish interpollutant trading ratios for PM2.5, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX); and clarify existing nonattainment area permitting rules.

On July 21, 2011, EPA announced a change in its policy concerning the development and adoption of interpollutant trading provisions for PM2.5. The new policy requires that any ratio involving PM2.5 precursors submitted to EPA for approval for use in a state's interpollutant offset program for PM2.5 nonattainment areas must be accompanied by a technical demonstration that shows the net air quality benefits of such a ratio for the PM2.5 nonattainment area in which it will be applied. In a letter dated March 5, 2012, WDNR requested to withdraw its request to have NR 408.06(1)(cm), the provision pertaining to interpollutant trading ratios, included in its 2011 submittal.

EPA has evaluated WDNR's proposed revisions to the Wisconsin SIP in accordance with the Federal requirements governing state permitting programs. EPA is proposing to disapprove these revisions because they do not meet all the requirements of the 2008 rules. According to EPA, Wisconsin's current SIP does not contain the explicit language to account for PM2.5 and PM10 condensables in permitting decisions, as codified in 51.166(b)(49)(vi) and 40 CFR 52.21(b)(50)(vi), and to date, the State has not made a submission with such revisions.

EPA is proposing to disapprove the revisions to Wisconsin rules NR 400, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408 and 484, submitted by the State on May 12, 2011, for approval into the SIP. The full or partial disapproval of a SIP revision triggers the requirement under section 110(c) that EPA promulgate a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) no later than two years from the date of the disapproval unless the state corrects the deficiency, and the Administrator approves the plan or plan revision before the Administrator promulgates such FIP.

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