[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 41 (Friday, March 2, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9522-9523]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-3685]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-8282-7; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2007-0108]
External Review Draft, Evaluating Ecological Risk to Invertebrate
Receptors From PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste Sites
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of public comment period.
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SUMMARY: EPA is announcing a 30-day public comment period for the draft
document titled, ``Evaluating Ecological Risk to Invertebrate Receptors
from PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste Sites'' (EPA/600/R-06/162).
The document was prepared by the Ecological Risk Assessment Support
Center managed by the National Center for Environmental Assessment
within EPA's Office of Research and Development.
EPA is releasing this draft document solely for the purpose of pre-
dissemination peer review under applicable information quality
guidelines. This document has not been formally disseminated by EPA. It
does not represent and should not be construed to represent any Agency
policy or determination. EPA will consider any public comments
submitted in accordance with this notice when revising the document.
DATES: The 30-day public comment period begins March 2, 2007, and ends
April 2, 2007. Technical comments should be in writing and must be
received by EPA by April 2, 2007.
ADDRESSES: The draft document, ``Evaluating Ecological Risk to
Invertebrate Receptors from PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste
Sites,'' is 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 paper copies are available from the Technical Information Staff,
NCEA-Cin; telephone: 513-569-7257; facsimile: 513-569-7916. If you are
requesting a paper copy, please provide your name, your mailing
address, and the document title, ``Evaluating Ecological Risk to
Invertebrate Receptors from PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste
Sites.''
Comments may be submitted electronically via 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.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the public comment
period, contact the Office of Environmental Information Docket;
telephone: 202-566-1752; facsimile: 202-566-1753; or e-mail:
[email protected].
For technical information, contact Michael Kravitz, NCEA;
telephone: 513-569-7740; facsimile: 513-487-2540; or email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Information About the Project/Document
U.S. EPA's Ecological Risk Assessment Support Center (ERASC) is a
knowledge center that provides technical information and addresses
scientific questions on topics relevant to ecological risk assessment
at hazardous waste sites for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency
Response (OSWER) and Regional Superfund/Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act (RCRA) staff. Topics are submitted to ERASC by users in
EPA program offices and regions. The ERASC is managed by the Office of
Research and Development's (ORD's) National Center for Environmental
Assessment and is located in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The ERASC recently completed an external review draft document
titled, ``Evaluating Ecological Risk to Invertebrate Receptors from
PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste Sites.'' It provides an overview
of an approach for assessing risk to invertebrate receptors resulting
from exposure to PAHs in contaminated sediments. The approach, based on
procedures described in the EPA document, Procedures for the Derivation
of Equilibrium Partitioning Sediment Benchmarks (ESBs) for the
Protection of Benthic Organisms: PAH Mixtures (EPA/600/R-02/013),
involves the use of equilibrium partitioning techniques to determine
exposure/bioavailability and narcosis theory to estimate sublethal
toxicity of PAHs. Examples of how to use this approach with analytical
data resulting from the analysis of contaminated sediments are
provided. The approach offers risk assessors a useful tool for
assessing the risk of PAHs to benthic invertebrates at hazardous waste
sites, particularly when used with other contaminated sediment
assessment methods. The External Review Draft only addresses risks to
benthic invertebrates because reaching a consensus scientific position
on vertebrate risk issues is a longer-term prospect.
II. How To Submit Technical Comments to the Docket at
www.regulations.gov
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2007-
0108 by one of the following methods:
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 Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460. The phone number is 202-
566-1752.
Hand Delivery: The OEI Docket is located in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center, Room 3334 EPA West Building, 1301
Constitution Ave., 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. Such 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-
2007-0108. It is EPA's policy to include all comments it receives in
the public
[[Page 9523]]
docket without change and to make the comments available online at
www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided,
unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is
restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to
be CBI or otherwise protected through www.regulations.gov or e-mail.
The 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 www.regulations.gov,
your e-mail address will be automatically captured and included as part
of the comment 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
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
at www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center.
Dated: February 22, 2007.
Peter W. Preuss,
Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. E7-3685 Filed 3-1-07; 8:45 am]
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