Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, Standard of Performance for Small Industrial-Commercial-Institutional Steam Generating Units

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this document announces that the following Information Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval: NSPS Subpart Dc, Standards of Performance for Small Industrial-Commercial-Institutional Steam Generating Units, OMB No. 2060-0202, expires 6/30/00. The ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its expected burden and cost; where appropriate, it includes the actual data collection instrument.

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before May 1, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For a copy of the ICR contact Sandy Farmer at EPA by phone at (202) 260-2740, by E-Mail at Farmer.Sandy@epamail.epa.gov or download off the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/icr and refer to EPA ICR No. 1564.05. For technical questions about the ICR contact Chris Oh at (202) 564-7004.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: NSPS-Subpart Dc, Standards of Performance for Small Industrial-Commercial-Institutional Steam Generating Units (OMB Control No. 2060-0202; EPA ICR No. 1564.05 ) expiring June 30, 2000. This is a request for extension of a currently approved collection.

Abstract: Owners or operators of Small Industrial-Commercial-Institutional Steam Generating Units subject to NSPS subpart Dc must make one-time-only notification of construction/reconstruction, anticipated and actual startup, initial performance test, physical or operational changes, and demonstration of a continuous monitoring system. They must also submit a report on initial performance test results, monitoring results, and excess emissions. Records must be maintained of startups, shutdowns, malfunctions, periods when the continuous monitoring system is inoperative, and of various fuel combustion and pollutant emission parameters.

The required notifications are used to inform the Agency or delegated authority when a source becomes subject to the standard. Performance test reports are needed as these are the Agency's records of a source's initial capability to comply with the emission standard, and serve as a record of the operating conditions under which compliance was achieved. The monitoring and excess emissions reports are used for problem identification, as a check on source operation and maintenance, and for compliance determination. The information collected from recordkeeping and reporting requirements are used for targeting inspections, and for other uses in compliance and enforcement programs.

Responses to these information collections are deemed to be mandatory, per section 114(a) of the Clean Air Act. The required information consists of emissions data and other information that have been determined not to be private. However, any information submitted to the Agency for which a claim of confidentiality is made will be safeguarded according to the Agency policies se forth in Title 40, Chapter 1, part 2, subpart B-Confidentiality of Business Information (see 40 CFR part 2; 41 FR 36902, September 1, 1976; amended by 43 FR 4000, September 8, 1978; 43 FR 42251, September 20, 1978; 44 FR 17674, March 23, 1979)

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. The OMB control numbers for EPA's regulations are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and 48 CFR Chapter 15. The Federal Register document required under 5 CFR 1320.8(d), soliciting comments on this collection of information was published on October 29, 1999 (64 FR 58396); no comments were received.

Burden Statement: The annual public reporting and recordkeeping burden for this collection of information are estimated to average 49 hours per response. A burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; train personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information; search data sources; complete and review the collection of information; and transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

Respondents/Affected Entities: Owners/Operators of Small Industrial-Commercial-Institutional Steam Generating Units.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 708.

Frequency of Response: Quarterly and Semiannual.

Estimated Total Annual Hour Burden: 81,078 hours.

Estimated Total Annualized Capital, O&M Cost Burden: $7,680,000.

Send comments on the Agency's need for this information, the accuracy of the provided burden estimates, and any suggested methods for minimizing respondent burdens, including through the use of automated collection techniques to the following addresses. Please refer to EPA ICR No. 1564.05 and OMB Control No. 2060-0202 in any correspondence.

Ms. Sandy Farmer, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Information, Collection Strategies Division (2822), 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460;

   and

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20503.