MEMORANDUM
To:
Electronic
Docket
No.
2002­
0056
From:
William
H.
Maxwell
Date:
January
30.
2004
Subject:
Interagency
Review
Materials
to
be
Added
to
the
Docket
After
Proposal
The
EPA
received
a
significant
number
of
comments
on
the
draft
notice
of
proposed
rulemaking
for
the
proposed
utility
mercury
and
nickel
regulations
during
the
interagency
review
process.
Many
of
these
comments
were
handwritten
notations
on
the
draft
of
the
proposal
package
originally
submitted
to
the
Office
of
Management
and
Budget
for
review.
Others
were
electronicmail
messages
from
various
participants
in
the
interagency
review
process.
Due
to
the
large
volume
of
comments
received,
EPA
was
unable
to
submit
all
of
the
comments
to
the
docket
prior
to
publication
of
the
proposed
rule.
The
EPA's
inability
to
submit
all
of
the
comments
in
a
timely
manner
was
due
to
a
combination
of
factors.
The
delay
resulted
primarily
from
the
governmentwide
change
to
an
exclusively
electronic
docket.
As
a
result
of
this
change,
documents
may
only
be
submitted
to
a
rulemaking
docket
in
electronic
format.
As
a
result,
rather
than
merely
submitting
documents
received
in
hard
copy
format
directly
to
the
docket,
as
has
been
the
practice
in
the
past,
all
such
documents
must
now
be
converted
to
electronic
format
prior
to
submission
to
the
docket.
The
EPA
was
unable
to
convert
the
large
volume
of
comments
received
in
hard
copy
format
to
electronic
format
prior
to
publication
of
the
proposed
rule.
In
addition
to
problems
arising
as
a
result
of
the
conversion
to
an
exclusively
electronic
docket,
EPA
has
been
diligently
working
on
a
supplemental
notice
of
proposed
rulemaking
which
is
an
integral
part
of
the
proposed
rule.
As
a
result
of
the
time
pressures
associated
with
this
effort
,
EPA
was
unable
to
assemble
and
submit
all
of
the
interagency
comments
received
in
electronic
format
prior
to
publication
of
the
proposal.
The
EPA
determined
that
it
will
better
serve
the
public
interest
to
submit
all
of
the
interagency
comments
at
the
same
time,
rather
than
submitting
only
a
subset
of
these
documents
prior
to
publication
of
the
proposed
rule.
As
a
result,
EPA
only
included
in
the
docket
a
document
in
redline/
strikeout
format
which
reflects
all
of
the
changes
made
during
the
interagency
review
process
as
of
the
date
of
publication
of
the
proposed
rule.
The
EPA
intends
to
submit
all
of
the
comments
received
during
the
interagency
review
process
to
the
docket
as
expeditiously
as
practicable.
If
there
are
any
questions
regarding
any
of
these
materials
prior
to
their
inclusion
in
the
docket,
interested
parties
should
contact
William
H.
Maxwell
at
919­
541­
5430.
