This ICR is approved on an emergency basis for six months, until Sept 30, 2003. OMB is granting this emergency approval because of the statutory requirement for water systems serving 100,000 or more people to comply with some of the requirements by March 31, 2003, and because of the urgent nature of the public health and safety threats that this ICR and the accompanying statutory requirements are intended to address. However, OMB notes that the statute establishing these requirements was passed in June 2002, which should have provided EPA sufficient time to have this ICR reviewed by both OMB and the public in accordance with the normal time frames. OMB's emergency clearance procedures are not, in general, designed to cover situations where agencies fail to comply with statutory deadlines. As such, OMB endorses the agency's decision to immediately follow this emergency approval with a regular ICR submittal, including the full PRA-established time frames for public comment. During this follow-up process, OMB encourages EPA to address and provide additional opportunity for public comment on the following issues, which were raised by commenters during the 10 day comment period provided for this emergency clearance: 1) EPA should clarify what it means by "compliance reviews" of the submitted vulnerability assessments; 2) EPA should reassess its burden estimates for developing and/or revising emergency response plans; 3) EPA should provide easy to identify estimates of total burden, as well as burden averaged over 3 years. Finally, OMB notes that the statutory deadline for incorporating the results of the vulnerability assessment into a new or revised emergency response plan is "as soon as reasonably possible...but not later than 6 months after the completion of the vulnerability assessment..." The deadlines specified in the ICR supporting statement do not exactly match this wording. OMB believes that EPA should stick to the letter of the statutory requirement, and is therefore approving the emergency response plan certification requirement consistent with the deadlines specified in the statute.
table that charts list comparision
Inventory as of this Action
Requested
Previously Approved
09/30/2004
09/30/2004
22,499
0
0
2,652,392
0
0
82,000
0
0
Title VI of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Pre- paredness and Response Act of 2002 (Pub L 107-188) (Act) amends the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The Act requires each community water system (CWS) serving a population of more than 3,300 people to conduct a vulnerability assessment of its water system and to prepare or revise an emergency response plan that incorporates the results of the vulnerability assessment.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Title VI of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Pre- paredness and Response Act of 2002: Drinking Water Security and Safety