[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 137 (Thursday, July 16, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 43191-43193]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-15344]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300
[EPA-HQ-SFUND-1986-0005; FRL-10011-95-Region 5]
National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan;
National Priorities List: Partial Deletion of the Fort Wayne Reduction
Dump Superfund Site
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule; notification of intent.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 is issuing
a Notice of Intent to Delete Operable Unit 1 (OU1) and Operable Unit 2
(OU2) (the two capped landfill areas) of the Fort Wayne Reduction Dump
Superfund Site (Fort Wayne Reduction Site or Site) located in Fort
Wayne, Indiana, from the National Priorities List (NPL) and requests
public comments on this proposed action. The NPL, promulgated pursuant
to Section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is an
appendix of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution
Contingency Plan (NCP). The EPA and the State of Indiana, through the
Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), have determined
that all appropriate response actions under CERCLA, other than
operation and maintenance, monitoring, and five-year reviews, have been
completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions
under Superfund.
DATES: Comments must be received by August 17, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
SFUND-1986-0005, by one of the following methods:
https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot
be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. EPA may publish any comment
received to its public docket. Do not submit electronically any
information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI)
or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.
Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a
written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment
and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. EPA will
generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of
the primary submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing
system). For additional submission methods, the full EPA public comment
policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general
guidance on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
Email: [email protected].
Written comments submitted by mail are temporarily suspended and no
hand deliveries will be accepted. We encourage the public to submit
comments via email or at https://www.regulations.gov.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-
1986-0005. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at
https://www.regulations.gov, 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
[[Page 43192]]
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through https://www.regulations.gov or email. The https://www.regulations.gov website
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means 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 EPA without
going through https://www.regulations.gov, 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 and with any
disk or CD-ROM you submit. 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.
Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the https://www.regulations.gov index, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-1986-0005.
Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly
available, e.g., CBI or other information whose disclosure is
restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted
material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. Publicly
available docket materials are available electronically at https://www.regulations.gov, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-1986-0005 and at
https://www.epa.gov/superfund/fort-wayne-dump or you may contact the
person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section for
additional availability information.
The EPA is temporarily suspending its Docket Center and Regional
Records Centers for public visitors to reduce the risk of transmitting
COVID-19. In addition, many site information repositories are closed
and information in these repositories, including the deletion docket,
has not been updated with hardcopy or electronic media. For further
information and updates on EPA Docket Center services, please visit us
online at https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
The EPA continues to carefully and continuously monitor information
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local area
health departments, and our Federal partners so that we can respond
rapidly as conditions change regarding COVID-19.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karen Cibulskis, NPL Deletion
Coordinator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, at (312)
886-1843 or via email at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. NPL Deletion Criteria
III. Deletion Procedures
IV. Basis for Partial Site Deletion
I. Introduction
EPA Region 5 announces its intent to delete OU1 and OU2 (the two
capped landfill areas) of the Fort Wayne Reduction Site from the NPL
and requests public comment on this proposed action. The Operable Unit
3 (OU3) (groundwater) portion of the Site will remain on the NPL and is
not being considered for deletion as part of this action.
The NPL constitutes Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300, which is the
NCP. EPA promulgated the NCP pursuant to Section 105 of CERCLA of 1980,
as amended. EPA maintains the NPL as the list of sites that appear to
present a significant risk to public health, welfare, or the
environment. Sites on the NPL may be the subject of remedial actions
financed by the Hazardous Substance Superfund (Fund). This partial
deletion of OU1 and OU2 of the Fort Wayne Reduction Site is proposed in
accordance with 40 CFR 300.425(e) and is consistent with the Notice of
Policy Change: Partial Deletion of Sites Listed on the National
Priorities List (60 FR 55466), November 1, 1995. As described in 40 CFR
300.425(e)(3) of the NCP, portions of a site deleted from the NPL
remain eligible for Fund-financed remedial actions if future conditions
warrant such actions.
EPA will accept comments on the proposal to delete OU1 and OU2 of
the Fort Wayne Reduction Site for thirty (30) days after publication of
this document in the Federal Register.
Section II of this preamble explains the criteria for deleting
sites from the NPL. Section III of this preamble discusses the
procedures that EPA is using for this action. Section IV of this
preamble discusses where to access and review information that
demonstrates how the deletion criteria have been met at OU1 and OU2 of
the Fort Wayne Reduction Site.
II. NPL Deletion Criteria
The NCP establishes the criteria that EPA uses to delete sites from
the NPL. In accordance with 40 CFR 300.425(e), sites, or portions
thereof, may be deleted from the NPL where no further response is
appropriate. In making such a determination pursuant to 40 CFR
300.425(e), EPA will consider, in consultation with the State, whether
any of the following criteria have been met:
i. Responsible parties or other persons have implemented all
appropriate response actions required;
ii. All appropriate Fund-financed response under CERCLA has been
implemented, and no further response action by responsible parties is
appropriate; or
iii. The remedial investigation has shown that the release poses no
significant threat to public health or the environment and, therefore,
the taking of remedial measures is not appropriate.
Pursuant to CERCLA Section 121(c) and the NCP, EPA conducts five-
year reviews to ensure the continued protectiveness of remedial actions
where hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants remain at a
site above levels that allow for unlimited use and unrestricted
exposure. EPA conducts such five-year reviews even if a site is deleted
from the NPL. EPA may initiate further action to ensure continued
protectiveness at a deleted site if new information becomes available
that indicates it is appropriate. Whenever there is a significant
release from a site deleted from the NPL, the deleted site may be
restored to the NPL without application of the hazard ranking system.
III. Deletion Procedures
The following procedures apply to the deletion of OU1 and OU2 (the
two capped landfill areas) of the Fort Wayne Reduction Site from the
NPL:
(1) EPA consulted with the State of Indiana prior to developing
this Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion.
(2) EPA has provided the State thirty (30) working days for review
of this notice prior to publication of it today.
(3) In accordance with the criteria discussed above, EPA has
determined that no further response is appropriate for OU1 and OU2 of
the Site other than routine operation and maintenance, monitoring, and
five-year reviews.
(4) The State of Indiana, through the IDEM, concurred with the
deletion of OU1 and OU2 of the Fort Wayne Reduction Dump Site from the
NPL on June 18, 2020.
(5) Concurrently with the publication of this Notice of Intent for
Partial Deletion in the Federal Register, an announcement of the
availability of the Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion is being
published in a major local newspaper, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.
The newspaper notice
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announces the 30-day public comment period concerning the Notice of
Intent for Partial Deletion of the Fort Wayne Reduction Site from the
NPL.
(6) EPA placed copies of documents supporting the proposed partial
deletion in the deletion docket and made these items available for
public inspection and copying at https://www.regulations.gov, Docket ID
No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-1986-0005 and on the EPA's Fort Wayne Reduction Site
web page at https://www.epa.gov/superfund/fort-wayne-dump.
If comments are received within the 30-day public comment period on
this document, EPA will evaluate and respond appropriately to the
comments before making a final decision to delete OU1 and OU2 of the
Fort Wayne Reduction Site from the NPL. If necessary, EPA will prepare
a Responsiveness Summary to address any significant public comments
received. After the public comment period, if EPA determines it is
still appropriate to delete OU1 and OU2 of the Fort Wayne Reduction
Site from the NPL, the EPA will publish a final Notice of Partial
Deletion in the Federal Register. Public notices, public submissions,
and copies of the Responsiveness Summary, if prepared, will be made
available to interested parties and in the docket listed above.
Deletion of a portion of a site from the NPL does not itself
create, alter, or revoke any individual's rights or obligations.
Deletion of a portion of a site from the NPL does not in any way alter
EPA's right to take enforcement actions, as appropriate. The NPL is
designed primarily for informational purposes and to assist EPA
management. Section 300.425(e)(3) of the NCP states that the deletion
of a site or a portion of a site from the NPL does not preclude
eligibility for future response actions, should future conditions
warrant such actions.
IV. Basis for Partial Site Deletion
The EPA placed copies of a Site-Specific Justification for the
Partial Deletion from the NPL of Operable Units 1 and 2 (Capped
Landfill Areas), Fort Wayne Reduction Dump Superfund Site and other
documents supporting the proposed partial deletion in the deletion
docket. The material provides explanation of EPA's rationale for the
partial deletion and demonstrates how OU1 and OU2 of the Fort Wayne
Reduction Site meet the NPL deletion criteria. This information is made
available for public inspection in the docket at the locations
identified above.
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 300
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Chemicals,
Hazardous substances, Hazardous waste, Intergovernmental relations,
Penalties, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Superfund, Water
pollution control, Water supply.
Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.; 42 U.S.C. 9601-9657; E.O.
13626, 77 FR 56749, 3 CFR, 2013 Comp., p. 306; E.O. 12777, 56 FR
54757, 3 CFR, 1991 Comp., p. 351; E.O. 12580, 52 FR 2923, 3 CFR,
1987 Comp., p. 193.
Dated: July 10, 2020.
Kurt Thiede,
Regional Administrator, Region 5.
[FR Doc. 2020-15344 Filed 7-15-20; 8:45 am]
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