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.
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