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A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the contractual relationship between the Department of Defense (DOD) and BioPort Corporation for production of the anthrax vaccine, focusing on: (1) the financial assistance DOD provided BioPort in 1999; and (2) additional financial assistance DOD is providing BioPort in 2000."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the process used by the Public Buildings Service (PBS) to procure leased space for federal agencies, focusing on the: (1) approaches 3 of the General Services Administration's 11 regional offices use to lease space, including how each region determines an agency's space requirements, identifies and assesses potential space, and communicates with actual offerors; and (2) effect of solicitation practices on competition."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) computer-generated low-dollar notices, focusing on notices involving: (1) amounts due of less than $5; and (2) refunds of less than $1."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Medicaid program and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), focusing on the differences between both programs with regard to outreach, application and eligibility determination, screening and enrollment, and benefits."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) whistleblower protection, focusing on the: (1) actions VA has taken since October 29, 1994--the enactment of the 1994 Whistleblower Protection Act amendments--to inform its employees about their rights to protection against reprisal when reporting misconduct; (2) extent to which VA employees are aware of their rights to such protection; (3) extent to which VA employees are willing to report misconduct in VA operations, should they become aware of it; and (4) number and disposition of whistleblower reprisal complaints filed by VA employees with agencies responsible for providing whistleblower protection."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO presented a draft of its revised government auditing standards to audit officials and others interested in government auditing standards, which summarized the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards' views on the proposed changes to financial auditing standards."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) multiple collection notices, focusing on: (1) how many individual taxpayers were sent multiple notices to collect the same tax assessment, particularly after IRS received full payment of the assessment; and (2) IRS' reasons for sending collection notices after receiving full payment."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the implementation of the Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act of 1998, focusing on: (1) the overall initial implementation of the FAIR Act; (2) the clarity and understandability of five agencies' FAIR Act inventories; (3) the extent to which these agencies exempted commercial activities from competition; and (4) supplemental information that enhanced the understandability of agencies' inventories."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed whether the District of Columbia's annual performance report contained all the information required by law and, if not, why. This report transmits GAO's comments on the Mayor's performance report for fiscal year (FY) 1999, which was due on March 1, 2000, but was issued on March 7, 2000."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the General Services Administration's (GSA) estimates of the Federal Technology Service (FTS) 2001 revenues and the implications of allowing other service providers to compete in the FTS 2001 market, focusing on: (1) the percentage of FTS 2001 contracts that are minimum revenue guarantees (MRG); (2) when MRGs are likely to be satisfied; (3) the factors that could significantly alter the estimates of total program revenue and corresponding timeframes for satisfying MRGs; and (4) how competition could affect the estimates."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Essential Air Service (EAS) program, focusing on: (1) how DOT applied criteria to establish which communities would receive subsidized air service; (2) changes in the level of subsidies provided to EAS-eligible communities in fiscal year 1999 relative to that provided in 1995; (3) why the level of subsidies changed between 1995 and 1999; and (4) whether DOT applied any of the increase in program funding to rural air safety projects."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information about the resources and selected accomplishments of inspectors general at 18 federal departments and agencies."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the number of Haitian nationals who have applied and been approved to adjust their status to legal permanent residence under the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998."

This report documents the revision for STREAM2 code and its input files. STREAM2 is an aqueous transport module of the WIND system. As requested by the Emergency Response Department, two surface aqueous release locations (McQueen Branch and Tims Branch) were added in the STREAM2 code. In addition, the revised STREAM2 has the capability to vary the channel-segment volume based on channel flow to better represent the open channel hydraulics. Thus, the updated version of STREAM2 improves the contaminant transport calculation

Aqueous radioactive wastes from Savannah River Site (SRS) separations processes are contained in large underground carbon steel tanks. Inspections made during 1999 to evaluate these vessels and auxiliary appurtenances along with evaluations based on data accrued by inspections performed since the tanks were constructed are the subject of this report.

An independent (third-party) verification of contractor remedial actions of the subject site verifies that remedial actions have been effective in meeting established and site-specific guidelines and that the documentation accurately and adequately describes the radiological conditions at the site.

A project to recover economic amounts of oil from a very mature oil field is being conducted by Laguna Petroleum Corporation of Midland, Texas, with partial funding from a U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to study shallow carbonate rock reservoirs. The objectives of the project are to use modern engineering methods to optimize oil field management and to use geological and geophysical data to recover untapped potential within the petroleum reservoirs. The integration of data and techniques from these disciplines has yielded results greater than those achievable without their cooperation. The cost of successfully accomplishing these goals is to be low enough for even small independent operators to afford. This article is a report describing accomplishments for the fiscal year 1998-1999.

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The proposed DOE action considered in this environmental impact statement (EIS) is to implement appropriate processes for the safe and efficient management of spent nuclear fuel and targets at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken County, South Carolina, including placing these materials in forms suitable for ultimate disposition. Options to treat, package, and store this material are discussed. The material included in this EIS consists of approximately 68 metric tons heavy metal (MTHM) of spent nuclear fuel 20 MTHM of aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel at SRS, as much as 28 MTHM of aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel from foreign and domestic research reactors to be shipped to SRS through 2035, and 20 MTHM of stainless-steel or zirconium-clad spent nuclear fuel and some Americium/Curium Targets stored at SRS. Alternatives considered in this EIS encompass a range of new packaging, new processing, and conventional processing technologies, as well as the No Action Alternative. A preferred alternative is identified in which DOE would prepare about 97% by volume (about 60% by mass) of the aluminum-based fuel for disposition using a melt and dilute treatment process. The remaining 3% by volume (about 40% by mass) would be managed using chemical separation. Impacts are assessed …

Many State and Federal environmental protection laws and regulations apply to Western. Western facilities are within the jurisdiction of six Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regions and 17 states. Western's environmental policy statement directs employees to prevent, control, and abate environmental pollution at their facilities, and when possible, enhance the environment. To help assure conformance with all regulatory requirements, and to achieve its pollution prevention goals and objectives, Western is developing an Environmental Management System (EMS). One of the major regulatory impacts on Western continues to be the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that regulates the use of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). Western's policy is to eliminate PCBs from its system wherever economically and operationally possible. This will lessen the impact of PCB regulations on operations and the impact of PCBs on the environment. Executive Order 12856 requires Federal Agencies to comply with the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). As with other DOE elements, Western has been complying with EPCRA since before the Executive Order was issued. To summarize, in 1999, Western's Regional offices implemented programs to notify State and local emergency response entities in accordance with Section 311 and 312 of EPCRA. Chemical inventories indicate that Western does not …

As directed by a written development plan (CRWMS M&O 1999a), a conceptual model for water entering the drift and reacting with the invert materials is to be developed. The purpose of this conceptual model is to assist Performance Assessment Operations (PAO) and its Engineered Barrier Performance Department in modeling the geochemical environment within a repository drift, thus allowing PAO to provide a more detailed and complete in-drift geochemical model abstraction, and to answer the key technical issues (KTI) raised in the NRC Issue Resolution Status Report (IRSR) for the Evolution of the Near-Field Environment (NFE), Revision 2 (NRC 1999). This AMR also seeks to: (1) Develop a logical conceptual model for physical/chemical interactions between seepage and the invert materials; (2) screen potential processes and reactions that may occur between seepage and invert to evaluate the potential consequences of the interactions; and (3) outline how seepage/invert processes may be quantified. This document provides the conceptual framework for screening out insignificant processes and for identifying and evaluating those seepage/invert interactions that have the potential to be important to subsequent PAO analyses including the Engineered Barrier System (EBS) physical and chemical model abstraction effort. This model has been developed to serve as a …

As directed by written development plan (CRWMS M&O 1999a), a sub-model of seepage/backfill interactions is developed and presented in this document to support the Engineered Barrier System (EBS) Physical and Chemical Environment Model. The purpose of this analysis is to assist Performance Assessment Operations (PAO) and the Engineered Barrier Performance Department in modeling the geochemical environment within a repository drift. In this analysis, a conceptual model is developed to provide PAO a more detailed and complete in-drift geochemical model abstraction and to answer the key technical issues (KTI) raised in the NRC Issue Resolution Status Report (IRSR) for the Evolution of the Near Field Environment (NFE) Revision 2 (NRC 1999). The development plan calls for a sub-model that evaluates the effect on water chemistry of chemical reactions between water that enters the drift and backfill materials in the drift. The development plan specifically requests an evaluation of the following important chemical reaction processes: dissolution-precipitation, aqueous complexation, and oxidation-reduction. The development plan also requests the evaluation of the effects of varying seepage and drainage fluxes, varying temperature, and varying evaporation and condensation fluxes. Many of these effects are evaluated in a separate Analysis/Model Report (AMR), ''Precipitates Salts Analysis AMR'' (CRWMS M&O …