Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Community Right-to-Know Reporting Requirements Under Sections 311 and 312 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) (Renewal), EPA ICR Number 1352.10, OMB Control Number 2050-0072

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 an Information Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. This is a request to renew an existing approved collection. This ICR is scheduled to expire on October 31, 2004. Under OMB regulations, the Agency may continue to conduct or sponsor the collection of information while this submission is pending at OMB. This ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its estimated burden and cost.

DATES:

Additional comments may be submitted on or before December 3, 2004.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number SFUND-2004-0006, to (1) EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by e-mail to superfund.docket@epa.gov, or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund Docket, Mail Code 5305T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, and (2) OMB at: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Attention: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Sicy Jacob, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 564-8019; fax number: (202) 564-8233; e-mail address: jacob.sicy@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

EPA has submitted the following ICR to OMB for review and approval according to the procedures prescribed in 5 CFR 1320.12. On May 21, 2004 (69 FR 29304), EPA sought comments on this ICR pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.8(d). EPA has addressed the comments received.

EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID No. SFUND-2004-0006, which is available for public viewing at the Superfund Docket in 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) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Superfund Docket is (202) 566-0276. An electronic version of the public docket is available through EPA Dockets (EDOCKET) at http://www.epa.gov/edocket . Use EDOCKET to submit or view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the public docket, and to access those documents in the public docket that are available electronically. Once in the system, select “search,” then key in the docket ID number identified above.

Any comments related to this ICR should be submitted to EPA and OMB within 30 days of this notice. EPA's policy is that public comments, whether submitted electronically or in paper, will be made available for public viewing in EDOCKET as EPA receives them and without change, unless the comment contains copyrighted material, CBI, or other information whose public disclosure is restricted by statute. When EPA identifies a comment containing copyrighted material, EPA will provide a reference to that material in the version of the comment that is placed in EDOCKET. The entire printed comment, including the copyrighted material, will be available in the public docket. Although identified as an item in the official docket, information claimed as CBI, or whose disclosure is otherwise restricted by statute, is not included in the official public docket, and will not be available for public viewing in EDOCKET. For further information about the electronic docket, see EPA's Federal Register notice describing the electronic docket at 67 FR 38102 (May 31, 2002), or go to http://www.epa.gov/edocket .

Title: Community Right-to-Know Reporting Requirements Under Sections 311 and 312 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) (Renewal).

Abstract: The authority for these requirements is sections 311 and 312 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), 1986 (42 U.S.C. 11011, 11012). EPCRA section 311 requires owners and operators of facilities subject to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to submit a list of chemicals or Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) (for those chemicals that exceed thresholds, specified in 40 CFR part 370) to the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) and the local fire department (LFD) with jurisdiction over their facility. This is a one-time requirement unless a new facility becomes subject to the regulations or updating the information by facilities that are already covered by the regulations. EPCRA section 312 requires owners and operators of facilities subject to OSHA HCS to submit an inventory form (for those chemicals that exceed the thresholds, specified in 40 CFR part 370) to the SERC, LEPC, and LFD with jurisdiction over their facility. This activity is to be completed on March 1 of each year, on the inventory of chemicals in the previous calendar year.

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 in 40 CFR are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and are identified on the form and/or instrument, if applicable.

Burden Statement: The average burden for MSDS reporting under 40 CFR 370.21 is estimated at 1.5 hours for new and newly regulated facilities and approximately 0.5 hours for those existing facilities that obtain new or revised MSDSs or receive requests for MSDSs from local governments. For new and newly regulated facilities, this burden includes the time required to read and understand the regulations, to determine which chemicals meet or exceed reporting thresholds, and to submit MSDSs or lists of chemicals to SERC, LEPCs, and local fire departments. For existing facilities, this burden includes the time required to submit revised MSDSs and new MSDSs to local officials. The average reporting burden for facilities to perform Tier I or Tier II inventory reporting under 40 CFR 370.25 is estimated to be approximately 3 hours per facility, including the time to develop and submit the information. There are no recordkeeping requirements for facilities under EPCRA sections 311 and 312.

The average burden for State and local governments to respond to requests for MSDSs or Tier II information under 40 CFR 370.30 is estimated to be 0.2 hours per request. The average burden for State and local governments for managing and maintaining the reports is estimated to be 32 hours. The average burden for maintaining and updating the 312 database is 320 hours. The total burden to facilities over the three-year information collection period is estimated to be 5,686,000 hours, at a cost of $186 million, with an associated state and local burden of 401,000 hours at a cost of $9.2 million. The burden hours listed here are from the previously approved ICR. The labor costs have been adjusted to December 2003 wage rate published by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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: Entities potentially affected by this action are those facilities required to prepare or have available an MSDS for a hazardous chemical under the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Entities more likely to be affected by this action may include chemical, non-chemical manufacturers, retailers, petroleum refineries, utilities, etc.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 563,500.

Frequency of Response: Annually.

Estimated Total Annual Hour Burden: 2,028,700.

Estimated Total Annual Cost: $71,251,000, includes $4,000 annual startup/capital costs, $6,386,000 O&M costs and $64,861,000 annual labor costs.

Changes in the Estimates: There is no increase or decrease in the burden hours or costs in the total estimated burden currently identified in the OMB Inventory of Approved ICR Burdens. The estimated average annual burden to facility respondents for reporting and recordkeeping activities under EPCRA sections 311 and 312 is same as in the previous ICR, 1,895,000 hours per year. The estimated average annual burden for SERCs, LEPCs, and fire departments is also same as in the previous ICR, 133,700 hours. The Agency believes that electronic reporting may have reduced burden on many facilities and the implementing agencies. However, EPA has used the same burden estimates as it was in the previous ICR. The 2002 U.S. Census data have not been published, so EPA have applied the same growth factor for manufacturing facilities as in the previous ICR. The number of non-manufacturing facilities were also assumed to be the same as in the previous ICR. There are no programmatic changes in the reporting or recordkeeping requirements associated with EPCRA sections 311 and 312.