Massachusetts: Final Approval of State Underground Storage Tank Program Revisions, Codification, and Incorporation by Reference

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 282</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R01-UST-2023-0321; FRL-11752-02-R1]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Massachusetts: Final Approval of State Underground Storage Tank Program Revisions, Codification, and Incorporation by Reference</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Direct final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> Pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA or Act), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the State of Massachusetts' Underground Storage Tank (UST) program submitted by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). This action also codifies EPA's approval of Massachusetts' state program and incorporates by reference those provisions of the State statutes and regulations that we have determined meet the requirements for approval. The provisions will be subject to EPA's inspection and enforcement authorities under sections 9005 and 9006 of RCRA Subtitle I and other applicable statutory and regulatory provisions. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective October 1, 2024, unless EPA receives adverse comment by September 3, 2024. If EPA receives adverse comments, it will publish a timely withdrawal in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> informing the public that the rule will not take effect. The incorporation by reference of a certain publication listed in the regulations is approved by the Director of the Federal Register, as of October 1, 2024, in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments by one of the following methods: 1. <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. 2. <E T="03">Email: coyle.joan@epa.gov.</E> <E T="03">Instructions:</E> Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R01-UST-2023-0321. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the public docket without change and may be available online at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> including any personal information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> or email. The Federal <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> website is an “anonymous access” system, which means the EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an email comment directly to the EPA without going through <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> your email address will be automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name and other contact information in the body of your comment. If EPA cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties, and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses. EPA encourages electronic submittals, but if you are unable to submit electronically, please reach out to the EPA contact person listed in the notice for assistance. <E T="03">Docket:</E> All documents in the docket are listed in the <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> index. Although listed in the index, some information might not be publicly available, <E T="03">e.g.,</E> CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, might be publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically through <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> or in hard copy. <E T="03">IBR and supporting material:</E> The EPA encourages electronic reviewing of these documents, but if you are unable to review these documents electronically, please contact Joan Coyle to schedule an appointment to view the documents at the EPA Region 1 Library, 5 Post Office Square, 1st floor, Boston, MA 02109-3912. The facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays. Interested persons wanting to examine these documents should make an appointment at least two weeks in advance. For further information on EPA Docket Center services and the current status, please visit us online at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Joan Coyle, (617) 918-1303, <E T="03">coyle.joan@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Approval of Revisions to Massachusetts' Underground Storage Tank Program</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Why are revisions to state programs necessary?</HD> States that have received final approval from the EPA under RCRA section 9004(b) of RCRA, 42 U.S.C. 6991c(b), must maintain an underground storage tank program that is equivalent to, consistent with, and no less stringent than the Federal UST program. Either EPA or the approved state may initiate program revision. When EPA makes revisions to the regulations that govern the UST program, states must revise their programs to comply with the updated regulations and submit these revisions to the EPA for approval. Program revision may be necessary when the controlling Federal or state statutory or regulatory authority is modified or when responsibility for the state program is shifted to a new agency or agencies. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. What decisions has the EPA made in this rule?</HD> On December 21, 2022, in accordance with 40 CFR 281.51(a), Massachusetts submitted a complete program revision application seeking EPA approval for its UST program revisions (State Application). Massachusetts' revisions correspond to the EPA final rule published on July 15, 2015 (80 FR 41566), which revised the 1988 UST regulations and the 1988 State program approval (SPA) regulations (2015 Federal Revisions). As required by 40 CFR 281.20, the State Application contains the following: a transmittal letter requesting approval, a description of the program and operating procedures, a demonstration of the State's procedures to ensure adequate enforcement, a Memorandum of Agreement outlining the roles and responsibilities of the EPA and the implementing agency, a statement of certification from the Attorney General, and copies of all relevant State statutes and regulations. We have reviewed the State Application and determined that the revisions to Massachusetts' UST program are equivalent to, consistent with, and no less stringent than the corresponding Federal requirements in subpart C of 40 CFR part 281, and that the Massachusetts program provides for adequate enforcement of compliance (40 CFR 281.11(b)). Therefore, the EPA grants Massachusetts final approval to operate its UST program with the changes described in the program revision application, and as outlined below in section I.G. of this document. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. What is the effect of this approval decision?</HD> This action does not impose additional requirements on the regulated community because the regulations being approved by today's rule are already effective in Massachusetts, and they are not changed by today's action. This action merely approves the existing state regulations as meeting the federal requirements and renders them federally enforceable. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Why is EPA using a direct final rule?</HD> EPA is publishing this direct final rule concurrent with a proposed rule because we view this as a noncontroversial action and anticipate no adverse comment. EPA is providing an opportunity for public comment now. <HD SOURCE="HD2">E. What happens if the EPA receives comments that oppose this action?</HD> Along with this direct final, the EPA is publishing a separate document in the “Proposed Rules” section of this <E T="04">Federal Register</E> that serves as the proposal to approve the State's UST program revision, providing opportunity for public comment. If EPA receives comments that oppose this approval, EPA will withdraw the direct final rule by publishing a document in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> before the rule becomes effective. The EPA will base any further decision on the approval of the State program changes on the proposal to approve after considering all comments received during the comment period. EPA will then address all public comments in a later final rule. You may not have another opportunity to comment. If you want to comment on this approval, you must do so at this time. <HD SOURCE="HD2">F. For what has Massachusetts previously been approved?</HD> On March 17, 1995, effective April 17, 1995 (60 FR 14371), EPA approved the State's UST program administered at that time by the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services (DFS). Effective December 30, 1996 (61 FR 56135), EPA codified the Massachusetts' statutes and regulations comprising the State's approved UST program, incorporating by reference those approved provisions that are subject to EPA's inspection and enforcement authorities under RCRA sections 9005 and 9006, 42 U.S.C. 6991d and 6991e, and other applicable statutory and regulatory provisions. The responsibility for administering the underground storage tank program was transferred to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), effective July 1, 2009. MassDEP adopted UST regulati ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 48k characters. 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