Notice2025-03270
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Water Quality Standards Regulation (Renewal)
Primary source
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Published
February 28, 2025
Issuing agencies
Environmental Protection Agency
Abstract
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has submitted an information collection request (ICR), Water Quality Standards Regulation (EPA ICR Number 0988.17, OMB Control Number 2040-0049) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. This is a proposed extension of the ICR, which is currently approved through February 28, 2025. Public comments were previously requested via the Federal Register on June 5, 2024 during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 39 (Friday, February 28, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 39 (Friday, February 28, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10895-10896]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-03270]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0465; FRL-12617-01-OMS]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Water Quality Standards Regulation (Renewal)
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has submitted an
information collection request (ICR), Water Quality Standards
Regulation (EPA ICR Number 0988.17, OMB Control Number 2040-0049) to
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. This is a proposed
extension of the ICR, which is currently approved through February 28,
2025. Public comments were previously requested via the Federal
Register on June 5, 2024 during a 60-day comment period. This notice
allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
DATES: Comments may be submitted on or before March 31, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-
OW-2011-0465, to EPA online using <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> (our preferred
method), by email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4d223a6029222e2628390d283d2c632a223b"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="9cf3ebb1f8f3fff7f9e8dcf9ecfdb2fbf3ea">[email protected]</span></a> or by mail to: EPA Docket
Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460.
EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the
public docket without change including any personal information
provided, unless the comment includes profanity, threats, information
claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other
information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.
Submit written comments and recommendations to OMB for the proposed
information collection within 30 days of publication of this notice to
<a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. Find this particular information
collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--Open for
Public Comments'' or by using the search function.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kendall Scarlett, Office of Science
and Technology, Standards and Health Protection Division, (4305T),
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington,
DC 20460; telephone number: 202-564-1465; email address:
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#46352527342a233232682d232822272a2a0623362768212930"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="82f1e1e3f0eee7f6f6ace9e7ece6e3eeeec2e7f2e3ace5edf4">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a proposed extension of the ICR,
which is currently approved through February 28, 2025. 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.
Public comments were previously requested via the Federal Register
on June 5, 2024 during a 60-day comment period (89 FR 48163). This
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments. Supporting
documents, which explain in detail the information that the EPA will be
collecting, are available in the public docket for this ICR. The docket
can be viewed online at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> or in person at the EPA
Docket Center, WJC West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW,
Washington, DC. The telephone number for the Docket Center is 202-566-
1744. For additional information about EPA's public docket, visit
<a href="http://www.epa.gov/dockets">http://www.epa.gov/dockets</a>.
Abstract: Water quality standards (WQS) under the Clean Water Act
(hereafter referred to as ``the Act'') are provisions of state, Tribal,
or Federal law which consist of designated uses for waters of the
United States, water quality criteria to protect those uses, and
antidegradation requirements. WQS are established to protect public
health or welfare, protect and enhance the quality of water, and serve
the purposes of the Act. Such standards serve the dual purposes of
establishing the water quality goals for water bodies and serving as
the regulatory basis for the establishment of water quality-based
treatment controls and strategies beyond technology-based levels of
treatment required by sections 301(b) and 306 of the Act. The WQS
regulation, consisting of 40 CFR part 131, establishes the framework
for states and authorized Tribes to adopt standards, and for the EPA to
review and approve or disapprove them.
This ICR renews the WQS Regulation ICR, OMB control no. 2040-0049,
expiration date February 28, 2025. This ICR renewal describes the
estimated burden for states and authorized Tribes associated with the
information collections to implement the requirements of 40 CFR part
131 (Water Quality Standards) and required to obtain or retain benefits
(e.g., relaxed regulatory requirements) under the WQS regulation. This
WQS Regulation
[[Page 10896]]
ICR also covers periodic requests for voluntary WQS information from
states and Tribes to ensure efficient and effective administration of
the WQS program and further cooperative federalism.
At this time, the EPA is working to consolidate the two burden
estimates of the activities that were previously split 50/50 between
this WQS Regulation ICR and a separate NPDES Program ICR, OMB Control
Number 2040-0004. These activities are the Great Lakes Antidegradation
Demonstrations and Great Lakes Regulatory Relief Requests. The EPA
anticipates that by the time this WQS Regulation ICR renewal is
finalized, the full reporting burden for both activities would have
been transferred and consolidated within the NPDES Program ICR.
Therefore, the EPA is not reporting burden estimates for these two
activities in this WQS Regulation ICR renewal.
Form numbers: None.
Respondents/affected entities: Potential respondents to this ICR
include: the 50 states, the District of Columbia, five territories,
authorized Tribes with the EPA-approved water quality standards (51
Tribes as of October 2024), and a total of 18 additional Tribal
respondents over the three-year duration of the ICR. The total number
of potential respondents is thus 125.
Respondent's obligation to respond: Some collections in this ICR
are mandatory, some are required to obtain or retain benefits pursuant
to the WQS Regulation, and some are voluntary.
Estimated number of respondents: 125 (total).
Frequency of response: Variable (once every three years, on
occasion or as necessary, or only once) depending on type of
information collected.
Total estimated burden: 493,362 hours (per year). Burden is defined
at 5 CFR 1320.03(b).
Total estimated cost: $25,235,466 (per year) in labor costs and
$345,180 (per year) in operational and maintenance costs. There are no
annualized capital costs.
Changes in the estimates: There is increase of 22,600 hours in the
total estimated respondent burden compared with the ICR currently
approved by OMB. This increase reflects the burden hours associated
with the addition of four Tribal respondents for the information
collections on ``Administering State and Tribal WQS'' and ``Voluntary
WQS Program Information''. See Supporting Statement in the docket for
more information.
Courtney Kerwin,
Director, Information Engagement Division.
[FR Doc. 2025-03270 Filed 2-27-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
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