Voglio sapere a riguardo di…

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with RULES

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 4 / Thursday, January 7, 2021 / Rules and Regulations high scenario, environmental investigations are assumed to be conducted when a childs blood lead level equals or exceeds the CDCs reference level of 5 mg/dL. The two scenarios function as bounding estimates, and a more realistic assessment of the number of environmental investigations is that they are between the high and low scenarios. The low and high scenarios for the number of environmental investigations affect the estimated number of small business that might incur costs for cleaning and additional dust wipe testing if EPA promulgates the clearance levels in this final rule.
The Agency has determined that this rule may impact 1,240 to 10,215 small abatement firms. Of these, about 1,025
to 8,977 may have cost impacts less than 1% of revenues, 113 to 990 may have impacts between 1% and 3%, and 28 to 240 may have impacts greater than 3% of revenues. The and
symbols are intended to convey uncertainty in the results. They do not mean that the results are unbounded i.e., that the true values could be zero on the lower end or infinity on the higher end. Details of the analysis are presented in the EA, which is available in the docket Ref. 7.
In addition to the use of the high scenario which is likely to overestimate the number of small entities with significant impacts, the analysis makes a series of other assumptions that are likely to lead to an overestimate of small entity impacts. In order to estimate the potential impacts of the rule, EPA
assumed that an environmental investigation occurs whenever a childs blood lead level is found to equal or exceed a Federal or state trigger value;
that the environmental investigation always includes dust wipe testing of the childs home; and that a clean-up occurs whenever the environmental investigation indicates that dust-lead loadings exceed a hazard standard.
Neither the DLCL nor the other provisions of EPAs LBP activities regulations require property owners to evaluate their properties for the presence of dust-lead hazards, nor to take action to address the hazards if dust-lead hazards are identified. These assumptions may overestimate the number of abatements affected, and thus the number of small abatement firms with significant impacts.
The analysis also assumes that in all cases where a dust-lead hazard is identified, the property owner performs at least one baseline abatement activity.
This likely overestimates costs because some events may only involve interim controls, and EPA does not require
VerDate Sep<11>2014

16:55 Jan 06, 2021

Jkt 253001

clearance testing for such events. Again, this assumption may overestimate the number of abatements affected, and thus the number of small abatement firms with significant impacts.
Finally, the analysis assumes that in all cases the costs are borne entirely by the lead paint abatement firm as opposed to being passed through to the property owner. However, it is more likely that some, or perhaps even most, of these costs will be passed on to the property owners. In some circumstances the demand for abatements is likely to be relatively inelastic. Furthermore, the costs of this rule for an affected job are a fraction of the costs of a typical abatement, and only a fraction of jobs are estimated to require re-clearance meaning that the additional costs for a few jobs can be spread over the up-front prices of a much larger pool of abatements. EPA believes it is likely that abatement contractors will be able to raise up-front prices to some degree to account for the potential costs of additional cleaning and associated activities. Such pass-through of costs would decrease the magnitude of the cost impacts on individual abatement firms.
In light of these conservative assumptions, the small entity impacts analysis likely overstates the number of small businesses with large impacts, both in terms of the magnitude of the impacts and the number of businesses affected.
E. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act UMRA
This action does not contain an unfunded mandate of $100 million or more as described in UMRA, 2 U.S.C.
15311538, and does not significantly or uniquely affect small governments. The total estimated annual cost of the rule is $3 million to $14 million per year Ref.
7, which does not exceed the inflationadjusted unfunded mandate threshold of $156 million.
F. Executive Order 13132: Federalism This action does not have federalism implications, as specified in Executive Order 13132 64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999. It will not have substantial direct effects on the states, on the relationship between the national government and the states, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government. States that have authorized LBP Activities programs must demonstrate that they have DLCL at least as protective as the levels at 40 CFR 745.227. However, authorized states are under no obligation to continue to administer the LBP Activities program, and if they do
PO 00000

Frm 00061

Fmt 4700

Sfmt 4700

993

not wish to adopt the new DLCL they can relinquish their authorization. In the absence of a state authorization, EPA
will administer these requirements.
Thus, Executive Order 13132 does not apply to this action.
G. Executive Order 13175: Consultation and Coordination With Indian Tribal Governments This action does not have tribal implications as specified in Executive Order 13175 65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000. Federally recognized tribes that have authorized LBP Activities programs must demonstrate that they have DLCL at least as protective as the clearance level at 40 CFR 745.227.
However, these authorized tribes are under no obligation to continue to administer the LBP Activities program, and if they do not wish to adopt the new DLCL they can relinquish their authorization. In the absence of a tribal authorization, EPA will administer these requirements. Thus, Executive Order 13175 does not apply to this action.
H. Executive Order 13045: Protection of Children From Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks This action is subject to Executive Order 13045 62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997, because it is economically significant as defined in Executive Order 12866, and EPA believes that the environmental health or safety risk addressed by this action may have a disproportionate effect on children.
Accordingly, we have evaluated the environmental health or safety effects of dust-lead exposure in children. The results of this evaluation are contained in Unit I.F. of the preamble titled Childrens Environmental Health, Unit II.A. of the preamble titled Health Effects, the Economic Analysis and the Technical Support Document, where the health impacts of lead exposure and children is discussed more fully Ref. 7, 12. The documents referenced above are available in the public docket for this action.
The primary purpose of this rule is to clear abatements to a level that can reliably, effectively and safely eliminate LBP hazards in target housing, including target housing where children reside, and COFs. EPAs analysis indicates that there will be approximately 2,300 to 22,000 children per year affected by the rule Ref. 7.

E:FRFM07JAR1.SGM

07JAR1