[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 190 (Friday, September 30, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60820-60822]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-25298]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9473-6; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2011-0050]
Draft Integrated Science Assessment for Ozone and Related
Photochemical Oxidants
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice of Public Comment Period.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing
the availability of the second external review draft of a document
titled, ``Second External Review Draft Integrated Science Assessment
for Ozone and Related Photochemical Oxidants'' (EPA/600/R-10/076B). The
document was prepared by the National Center for Environmental
Assessment (NCEA) within EPA's Office of Research and Development as
part of the review of the national ambient air quality standards
(NAAQS) for ozone.
EPA is releasing this draft document to seek review by the Clean
Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) and the public (meeting date
and location to be specified in a separate Federal Register notice).
The draft document does not represent and should not be construed to
represent any final EPA policy, viewpoint, or determination. EPA will
consider any public comments submitted in response to this notice when
revising the document.
[[Page 60821]]
DATES: Comments must be received on or before November 29, 2011.
ADDRESSES: The ``Second External Review Draft Integrated Science
Assessment for Ozone and Related Photochemical Oxidants'' will be
available primarily via the Internet on the National Center for
Environmental Assessment's home page under the Recent Additions and
Publications menus at http://www.epa.gov/ncea. A limited number of CD-
ROM or paper copies will be available. Contact Ms. Marieka Boyd by
telephone: 919-541-0031; fax: 919-541-5078; or e-mail: boyd.marieka
@epa.gov to request either of these. Please provide your name, your
mailing address, and the document title, ``Second External Review Draft
Integrated Science Assessment for Ozone and Related Photochemical
Oxidants'' (EPA/600/R-10/076B) to facilitate processing of your
request.
Comments may be submitted electronically via http://www.regulations.gov, by mail, by facsimile, or by hand delivery/
courier. Please follow the detailed instructions provided in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.
FURTHER INFORMATION: For information on the public comment period,
contact the Office of Environmental Information Docket; telephone: 202-
566-1752; facsimile: 202-566-1756; or e-mail: [email protected].
For technical information, contact Dr. James Brown, National Center
for Environmental Assessment; telephone: 919-541-0765; facsimile: 919-
541-1818; or e-mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Information About the Document
Section 108 (a) of the Clean Air Act directs the Administrator to
identify certain pollutants which, among other things, ``cause or
contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to
endanger public health or welfare'' and to issue air quality criteria
for them. These air quality criteria are to ``accurately reflect the
latest scientific knowledge useful in indicating the kind and extent of
all identifiable effects on public health or welfare which may be
expected from the presence of [a] pollutant in the ambient air * * *.''
Under section 109 of the Act, EPA is then to establish national ambient
air quality standards (NAAQS) for each pollutant for which EPA has
issued criteria. Section 109 (d) of the Act subsequently requires
periodic review and, if appropriate, revision of existing air quality
criteria to reflect advances in scientific knowledge on the effects of
the pollutant on public health or welfare. EPA is also to revise the
NAAQS, if appropriate, based on the revised air quality criteria.
Ozone (O3) is one of six principal (or ``criteria '')
pollutants for which EPA has established NAAQS. Periodically, EPA
reviews the scientific basis for these standards by preparing an
Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) (formerly called an Air Quality
Criteria Document). The ISA, in conjunction with additional technical
and policy assessments, provides the scientific basis for EPA decisions
on the adequacy of the current NAAQS and the appropriateness of
possible alternative standards. The Clean Air Scientific Advisory
Committee (CASAC), an independent science advisory committee whose
existence and whose review and advisory functions are mandated by
Section 109 (d) (2) of the Clean Air Act, is charged with the
independent scientific review of EPA's air quality criteria.
On September 29, 2008 (73 FR 56581), EPA formally initiated its
current review of the air quality criteria for ozone, requesting the
submission of recent scientific information on specified topics. A
draft of EPA's ``Integrated Review Plan for the Ozone National Ambient
Air Quality Standards Review'' (EPA/452/P-09/001) was made available in
September 2009 for public comment and was discussed by the CASAC via a
publicly accessible teleconference on November 13, 2009 (74 FR 54562).
In August 2010, EPA held a workshop with invited scientific experts to
discuss initial draft materials prepared in the development of the ISA
(75 FR 42085). The first external review draft ISA for Ozone and
Related Photochemical Oxidants was released on March 4, 2011 (http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/isa/recordisplay.cfm?deid=217463). The CASAC panel
held a public meeting on May 19, 2011 to review the draft ISA (76 FR
23809). Subsequently, on August 10, 2011, the CASAC panel provided a
consensus review to the Administrator of the EPA (http://
yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/4620a620d0120f93852572410080d786/
45A59F1BC8912FEE852578E80066021C/$File/EPA-CASAC-11-009-unsigned.pdf).
The second external review draft ``Integrated Science Assessment
for Ozone and Related Photochemical Oxidants'' will be discussed at a
public meeting for review by the CASAC, and public comments received
will be provided to the CASAC review panel. A future Federal Register
notice will inform the public of the exact date and time of that CASAC
meeting.
II. How To Submit Technical Comments to the Docket at
www.regulations.gov
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2011-
0050 by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments;
E-mail: [email protected];
Fax: 202-566-1753;
Mail: Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket
(Mail Code: 2822T), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460. The telephone number is
202-566-1752; or
Hand Delivery: The OEI Docket is located in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center, Room 3334 EPA West Building, 1301
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center Public
Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through
Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public
Reading Room is 202-566-1744. Deliveries are only accepted during the
docket's normal hours of operation, and special arrangements should be
made for deliveries of boxed information.
If you provide comments by mail or hand delivery, please submit
three copies of the comments. For attachments, provide an index, number
pages consecutively with the comments, and submit an unbound original
and three copies.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-
2011-0050. Please ensure that your comments are submitted within the
specified comment period. Comments received after the closing date will
be marked ``late,'' and may only be considered if time permits. It is
EPA's policy to include all comments it receives in the public docket
without change and to make the comments available online at http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided,
unless a comment includes information claimed to be Confidential
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is
restricted by statute. Do not submit information through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail that you consider to be CBI or otherwise
protected. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous
access'' system, which means EPA will not know your identity or contact
information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you
send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without going through http://www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be automatically captured
and included as part of the comment
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that is placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet.
If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include
your name and other contact information in the body of your comment and
with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due
to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of
any defects or viruses. For additional information about EPA's public
docket visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
Docket: Documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other materials,
such as copyrighted material, are publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the
EPA Headquarters Docket Center.
Dated: September 20, 2011.
Darrell A. Winner,
Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 2011-25298 Filed 9-29-11; 8:45 am]
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