Notice2024-19345
Clean Water Act; Contractor Access to Confidential Business Information
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
August 28, 2024
Issuing agencies
Environmental Protection Agency
Abstract
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to transfer confidential business information (CBI) collected from numerous industries under a newly awarded blanket purchase agreement (BPA), effective July 19, 2024, to ICF International, LLC (ICF) and its subcontractors. In addition, the EPA intends to transfer CBI collected from the meat and poultry products (MPP) industry to ICF and its subcontractors under a task order on a different contract, effective July 3, 2024. Transfer of this information is necessary for ICF to assist the Office of Water in the preparation of effluent guidelines and standards and with its effluent guidelines planning and review activities. Much of the information being transferred was or will be collected under the authority of section 308 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Interested persons may submit comments on this intended transfer of information to the address noted below.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 167 (Wednesday, August 28, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 167 (Wednesday, August 28, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68896-68897]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-19345]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-12180-01-OW]
Clean Water Act; Contractor Access to Confidential Business
Information
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of intended transfer of confidential business
information to contractor and its subcontractors.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to transfer
confidential business information (CBI) collected from numerous
industries under a newly awarded blanket purchase agreement (BPA),
effective July 19, 2024, to ICF International, LLC (ICF) and its
subcontractors. In addition, the EPA intends to transfer CBI collected
from the meat and poultry products (MPP) industry to ICF and its
subcontractors under a task order on a different contract, effective
July 3, 2024. Transfer of this information is necessary for ICF to
assist the Office of Water in the preparation of effluent guidelines
and standards and with its effluent guidelines planning and review
activities. Much of the information being transferred was or will be
collected under the authority of section 308 of the Clean Water Act
(CWA). Interested persons may submit comments on this intended transfer
of information to the address noted below.
DATES: Comments on the transfer of data are due September 5, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent to M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document Control
Officer, Engineering and Analysis Division (4303T), U.S. EPA, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460, or via email at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#a5d6ccc1c1ccd4d0cc8bc4cdc8c4d7e5c0d5c48bc2cad3"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="55263c31313c24203c7b343d383427153025347b323a23">[email protected]</span></a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: M. Ahmar Siddiqui, Document Control
Officer, at (202) 566-1044, or via email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#5122383535382024387f30393c3023113421307f363e27"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="abd8c2cfcfc2dadec285cac3c6cad9ebcedbca85ccc4dd">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The EPA has transferred CBI to various
contractors and subcontractors over the history of the effluent
guidelines program under 40 CFR 2.302(h). The EPA determined that this
transfer was necessary to enable the contractors and subcontractors to
perform their work in supporting EPA in planning, developing, and
reviewing effluent guidelines and standards for certain industries.
In this document, pursuant to 40 CFR 2.302(h)(2), the EPA is giving
notice that, effective July 19, 2024, it has entered into a new BPA
with ICF, BPA number 68HERC24A0011, located in
[[Page 68897]]
Reston, Virginia. The purpose of this BPA is to secure economic and
environmental assessment support for the EPA in its development,
review, implementation, and defense of water-related initiatives for a
variety of industries. To obtain assistance in responding to this BPA,
ICF has entered into contracts with the following subcontractors and
consultants: Cognistic LLC (located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Dr.
Dennis Guignet (located in Blowing Rock, North Carolina), Dr. Robert
Johnston (located in Millville, Massachusetts), Dr. David Andrew Keiser
(located in Pelham, Massachusetts), Dr. Klaus Moeltner (located in
Blacksburg, Virginia), Ebony Marketing Systems (located in New York,
New York), Elena Besedin Consulting (located in Middletown, Rhode
Island), Great Lakes Environmental Center (located in Traverse City,
Michigan), Hawk Consulting LLC (located in Oak Island, North Carolina),
Hellerworx, Inc. (located in Chevy Chase, Maryland), Innovate! Inc.
(located in Alexandria, Virginia), Research Triangle Institute (located
in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina), Resources for the Future
(located in Washington, District of Columbia), Shadbegian Economic
Consulting (located in Worcester, Massachusetts), Dr. Raghavan
Srinivasan (located in Temple, Texas), and Texas A&M AgriLife Research
(located in College Station, Texas).
In addition to the BPA, the EPA is giving notice that it will be
transferring CBI to ICF, located in Reston, VA, under contract number
68HERC23D0003. The purpose of this transfer is to support economic and
environmental analysis support for the EPA in its development of
effluent guidelines and standards for the MPP industry. To support this
contract, ICF has entered into contracts with the following
subcontractors and consultants: Neptune and Company (located in
Lakewood, Colorado), Avanti Corporation (located in Alexandria,
Virginia), Cadmus (located in Waltham, Massachusetts), Gibb
Epidemiology Consulting (located in Washington, District of Columbia),
Great Lakes Environmental Center (located in Traverse City, Michigan),
Inotiv (located in Morrisville, North Carolina), Mote Marine Laboratory
(located in Sarasota, Florida), Pradeep Rajan, LLC (located in Chapel
Hill, North Carolina), Soller Environmental (located in Berkeley,
California), Vireo Advisers, LLC (located in Boston, Massachusetts),
Dr. Alexandria Boehm (located in Stanford, California), Dr. Erica
McKenzie (located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Dr. Kara Nelson
(located in Berkeley, California), Dr. Ian Pepper (located in Tucson,
Arizona), and Dr. Jill Stewart (located in Carrboro, North Carolina).
All EPA contractor, subcontractor, and consultant personnel are
bound by the requirements and sanctions contained in their contracts
with the EPA and in the EPA's confidentiality regulations found at 40
CFR part 2, subpart B. ICF will adhere to EPA-approved security plans
which describe procedures to protect CBI. ICF will apply the procedures
in these plans to CBI previously gathered by the EPA and to CBI that
may be gathered in the future. The security plans specify that
contractor personnel are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and
are briefed on appropriate security procedures before they are
permitted access to CBI. No person is automatically granted access to
CBI: a need to know must exist.
The information that will be transferred to ICF consists of
information previously collected by the EPA to support the development
and review of effluent limitations guidelines and standards under the
CWA and that the EPA had transferred to ICF under a previous contract
with them. In particular, information, including CBI, collected for the
planning, development, and review of effluent limitations guidelines
and standards for the following industries may be transferred to ICF
under the new contract: airport deicing; aquaculture; centralized waste
treatment; coal bed methane; concentrated animal feeding operations;
coal mining; construction and development; drinking water treatment;
industrial container and drum cleaning; industrial laundries;
industrial waste combustors; iron and steel manufacturing; landfills;
meat and poultry products; metal finishing; metal products and
machinery; nonferrous metals manufacturing; oil and gas extraction
(including coalbed methane); ore mining and dressing; organic
chemicals, plastics, and synthetic fibers; pesticide chemicals;
petroleum refining; pharmaceutical manufacturing; pulp, paper, and
paperboard manufacturing; shale gas extraction; steam electric power
generation; textile mills; timber products processing; tobacco;
transportation equipment cleaning; and other industrial categories that
the EPA has reviewed or may review as part of its CWA required annual
review activities.
The EPA also intends to transfer to ICF all information listed in
this document, of the type described above (including CBI) that may be
collected in the future under the authority of section 308 of the CWA
or voluntarily submitted (e.g., in comments in response to a Federal
Register notice), as is necessary to enable ICF to carry out the work
required by its BPA and contract to support EPA's effluent guidelines
planning and review process and the development of effluent limitations
guidelines and standards.
Deborah Nagle,
Director, Office of Science and Technology, Office of Water.
[FR Doc. 2024-19345 Filed 8-27-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on August 28, 2024.
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