88 FR 146 pgs. 50148-50149 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Ambient Air Quality Surveillance (Renewal)
Type: NOTICEVolume: 88Number: 146Pages: 50148 - 50149
Pages: 50148, 50149Docket number: [EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-0091; FRL-11252-01-OMS]
FR document: [FR Doc. 2023-16215 Filed 7-31-23; 8:45 am]
Agency: Environmental Protection Agency
Official PDF Version: PDF Version
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-0091; FRL-11252-01-OMS]
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Ambient Air Quality Surveillance (Renewal)
AGENCY:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION:
Notice.
SUMMARY:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has submitted an information collection request (ICR), "Ambient Air Quality Surveillance (EPA ICR Number 0940.30, OMB Control Number 2060-0084) 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 July 31, 2023. Public comments were previously requested via the Federal Register on February 17, 2023, during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
DATES:
Comments may be submitted on or before August 31, 2023.
ADDRESSES:
Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2002-0091, to EPA online using www.regulations.gov (our preferred method), by email to a-and-r-docket@epa.gov, 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 www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 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:
Kevin Cavender, Air Quality Assessment Division, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, C304-06, Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone number: 919-541-2364; email address: cavender.kevin@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
This is a proposed extension of the ICR, which is currently approved through July 31, 2023. 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 February 17, 2023, during a 60-day comment period (88 FR 10315). 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 www.regulations.gov 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 https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
Abstract: This ICR includes ambient air monitoring data and other supporting measurements reporting and recordkeeping activities associated with the 40 CFR part 58 Ambient Air Quality Surveillance rule. These data and information are collected by various state and local air quality management agencies and reported to the EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards within the Office of Air and Radiation.
The data collected through this information collection consist of ambient air concentration measurements for the seven air pollutants with national ambient air quality standards ( i.e., ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide, PM 2.5 and PM 10 ), ozone precursors, air toxics, meteorological variables at a select number of sites, and other supporting measurements. Accompanying the pollutant concentration data are quality assurance/quality control data and air monitoring network design information.
The EPA and others ( e.g., state and local air quality management agencies, tribal entities, environmental groups, academic institutions, industrial groups) use the ambient air quality data for many purposes including informing the public and other interested parties of an area's air quality, judging an area's air quality in comparison with the established health or welfare standards, evaluating an air quality management agency's progress in achieving or maintaining air pollutant levels below the national and local standards, developing and revising State Implementation Plans (SIPs), evaluating air pollutant control strategies, developing or revising national control policies, providing data for air quality model development and validation, supporting enforcement actions, documenting episodes and initiating episode controls, air quality trends assessment, and air pollution research.
[top] The state and local agencies and tribal entities with responsibility for reporting ambient air quality data and information as requested in this ICR submit these data electronically to the EPA's Air Quality System (AQS) database. Quality assurance/quality control records and
Although the state and local air pollution control agencies and tribal entities are responsible for the operation of the air monitoring networks, the EPA funds a portion of the total costs through federal grants. The costs shown in this renewal are the total costs incurred for the monitoring program regardless of the source of the funding. This practice of using the total cost is consistent with prior ICR submittals and renewals.
Form numbers: None.
Respondents/affected entities: State, Local, and Tribal Air Pollution Control Agencies.
Respondent's obligation to respond: Mandatory (40 CFR part 58).
Estimated number of respondents: 168 (total).
Frequency of response: Quarterly.
Total estimated burden: 1,449,968 hours (per year). Burden is defined at 5 CFR 1320.03(b)
Total estimated cost: $181,278,444 (per year), includes $70,147,486 annualized capital or operation & maintenance costs.
Changes in the estimates: This is a decrease of 321,694 hours in the total estimated respondent burden compared with that identified in the ICR currently approved by OMB. This decrease is due to the consolidation of monitors into fewer sites, consolidation of PAMS network burden estimates to avoid double counting, termination of unnecessary monitors, and more efficient automated procedures ( e.g., moving from manual samplers to automated continuous samplers) for measuring and reporting data. The decrease is offset somewhat by the additional burden and cost estimates included for asset management and sensors.
Courtney Kerwin,
Director, Regulatory Support Division.
[FR Doc. 2023-16215 Filed 7-31-23; 8:45 am]
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