[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 168 (Tuesday, August 31, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53298-53299]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-21696]
[[Page 53298]]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9195-4; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2010-0709]
A Method to Assess Climate-Relevant Decisions: Application in the
Chesapeake Bay
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of public comment period.
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SUMMARY: The EPA is announcing a 60-day public comment period for the
draft document titled, ``A Method to Assess Climate-Relevant Decision:
Application in the Chesapeake Bay'' (EPA/600/R-10/096a). The draft
document was prepared by the National Center for Environmental
Assessment (NCEA) within EPA's Office of Research and Development.
In the 2010 Executive Order (EO) Strategy entitled, Protecting and
Restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, EPA has committed to ``minimize
the vulnerability of the Chesapeake Bay watershed to adverse impacts
from climate change.'' The EO Strategy also commits EPA to ensuring
that ``TMDL allocations account for climate change impacts [by working]
in conjunction with the states to conduct an analysis by 2017 to
consider accounting for uncertainties of climate change in TMDL
allocations.'' To accomplish this, it is necessary to understand the
rates at which conditions are changing and are projected to change in
the future; how various factors, such as land-use changes, interact
with climate change impacts; and the likely consequences for water
quality, habitats, fish and wildlife and communities. This draft report
presents a systematic approach for evaluating these factors and
practices for their relative potential effectiveness in ameliorating
climate changes impacts. The report also includes the results of
applying this approach in a pilot assessment of management practices in
the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The practices evaluated could be used for
both nutrient and sediment reductions, and also to ameliorate the
effects of climate change on water quality that will ultimately inform
the 2017 reassessment for Bay restoration.
The public comment period and the external peer-review workshop,
which will be scheduled at a later date and announced in the Federal
Register, are separate processes that provide opportunities for all
interested parties to comment on the document. EPA intends to forward
public comments that are submitted in accordance with this notice to
the external peer-review panel prior to the meeting for their
consideration. When finalizing the draft document, EPA intends to
consider any public comments that EPA receives in accordance with this
notice.
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.
DATES: The 60-day public comment period begins August 31, 2010, and
ends November 1, 2010. Technical comments should be in writing and must
be received by EPA by November 1, 2010.
ADDRESSES: The draft ``A Method To Assess Climate-Relevant Decisions:
Application in the Chesapeake Bay'' is available via the Internet on
the National Center for Environmental Assessment's home page under the
Recent Additions and the Data and Publications menus at http://www.epa.gov/ncea. A limited number of paper copies are available from
the Information Management Team (IMT), NCEA; telephone: 703-347-8561;
facsimile: 703-347-8691. If you are requesting a paper copy, please
provide your name, mailing address, and the document title, ``A Method
To Assess Climate-Relevant Decisions: Application in the Chesapeake
Bay.''
Comments may be submitted electronically via http://www.regulations.gov, by mail, by facsimile, or by hand delivery/
courier. Please follow the detailed instructions as 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].
If you need technical information about the document, please
contact Susan Julius, National Center for Environmental Assessment
(NCEA); telephone: 703-347-8619; facsimile: 703-347-8694; e-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Summary of Information About the Project/Document
Climate change is a global phenomenon that is affecting natural and
human systems in all parts of the world. Some of the decisions and
actions taken to manage these systems are likely to be affected by
climate change and may likewise affect the vulnerability of the managed
resource or ecosystem to climate change. The goal of this study is to
formalize an approach to inventory and analyze management decisions in
order to produce useful information targeted toward effective
adaptation to climate change. The approach uses as its starting point
ongoing planning processes and decisions geared toward achieving
environmental management goals, and then collects information on
decisions and prioritizes them according to specific attributes. The
pilot study described in this report applies this approach and examines
its usefulness to decision makers.
The major steps of the approach are to (1) select a study area and
compile a list of key decisions (2) develop criteria for evaluating the
climate-relevance of decisions; (3) apply the criteria to select
decisions that are potentially sensitive to climate change; (4) solicit
expert judgment regarding those selections (and refine the selections
accordingly); and (5) test alternative weighting schemes for
prioritizing decisions most in need of decision support or additional
research based on the selected attributes.
II. How To Submit Technical Comments to the Docket at
www.regulations.gov
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD 2010-
0709, 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 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
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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-
2010-0709. 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 that you consider to
be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-
mail. 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 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: August 25, 2010.
Rebecca Clark,
Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 2010-21696 Filed 8-30-10; 8:45 am]
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