[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 174 (Thursday, September 8, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55673-55675]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-22993]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9460-8; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2011-0485]
Vulnerability Assessments in Support of the Climate Ready
Estuaries Program: A Novel Approach Using Expert Judgment, Volume I:
Results for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership and Volume II:
Results for the Massachusetts Bays Program
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of Public Comment Period and Letter Peer-Review.
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SUMMARY: EPA is announcing a 30-day public comment period for the draft
documents titled, Vulnerability Assessments in Support of the Climate
Ready Estuaries Program: A Novel Approach Using Expert Judgment, Volume
I: Results for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership (EPA/600/R-11/
058a) and Vulnerability Assessments in Support of the Climate Ready
Estuaries Program: A Novel Approach Using Expert Judgment, Volume II:
Results for the Massachusetts Bays Program (EPA/600/R-11/058b). The EPA
also is announcing that Eastern Research Group, an EPA contractor for
external scientific peer review, will select two independent groups of
experts to conduct a letter peer-review of the same draft documents.
The documents were prepared by the National Center for Environmental
Assessment within EPA's Office of Research and Development, in
collaboration with the San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP), the
San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and the
Massachusetts Bays Program (MBP). The reports are pilot ecological
vulnerability assessments using a novel methodology, based on expert
judgment, to inform adaptation planning under EPA's
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Climate Ready Estuaries Program. To demonstrate the novel methodology,
two ecosystem processes were selected for each assessment: sediment
retention in salt marshes (for both SFEP and MBP) and community
interactions (of wading shorebirds and their mudflat prey for SFEP, and
of the saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow and key species of nesting
habitat grasses for MBP). This study assesses (1) Relationships among
key physical and ecological variables that regulate each process, (2)
relative sensitivities of these relationships under current and future
climate change scenarios, (3) degree of confidence about these
relationships, and (4) implications for management. The results of this
study are designed to support the SFEP's and MBP's adaptation planning
efforts as well as those of other estuary managers.
EPA intends to forward the public comments that are submitted in
accordance with this notice to the external peer-reviewers for their
consideration during the letter review. When finalizing the draft
document, EPA intends to consider any public comments received in
accordance with this notice. EPA is releasing these draft documents for
the purpose of pre-dissemination peer review under applicable
information quality guidelines. These documents have not been formally
disseminated by EPA. They do not represent and should not be construed
to represent any Agency policy or determination.
The draft documents are available via the Internet on the NCEA home
page under the Recent Additions and the Data and Publications menus at
http://www.epa.gov/ncea.
DATES: The 30-day public comment period begins September 8, 2011, and
ends October 11, 2011. Technical comments should be in writing and must
be received by EPA by October 11, 2011.
ADDRESSES: The two draft documents, Vulnerability Assessments in
Support of the Climate Ready Estuaries Program: A Novel Approach Using
Expert Judgment, Volume I: Results for the San Francisco Estuary
Partnership and Vulnerability Assessments in Support of the Climate
Ready Estuaries Program: A Novel Approach Using Expert Judgment, Volume
II: Results for the Massachusetts Bays Program, are available primarily
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, NCEA; telephone: 703-
347-8561; facsimile: 703-347-8691. If you are requesting a paper copy,
please provide your name, mailing address, the EPA number of the
requested publication, and the document title, Vulnerability
Assessments in Support of the Climate Ready Estuaries Program: A Novel
Approach Using Expert Judgment, Volume I: Results for the San Francisco
Estuary Partnership or Vulnerability Assessments in Support of the
Climate Ready Estuaries Program: A Novel Approach Using Expert
Judgment, Volume II: Results for the Massachusetts Bays Program.
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.
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 Jordan West, NCEA; telephone:
703-347-8584; facsimile: 703-347-8694; or e-mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Information About the Project/Document
For this project, an exercise was designed to elicit judgments from
experts in a workshop setting, regarding climate change effects on two
ecosystem processes for each pilot assessment: sediment retention and
community interactions. This method is based on a novel application of
expert elicitation (a process for obtaining the judgments of groups of
experts to characterize each expert's beliefs about relationships of
interest) for use in a two-day workshop using two groups of seven
expert participants each. EPA has investigated the utility of expert
elicitation and provides recommendations for ``best practices'' through
an Expert Elicitation Task Force White Paper (see http://www.epa.gov/spc/expertelicitation/index.htm).
The exercise involved elicitation of qualitative judgments about
the sensitivity of ecosystem processes to physical and ecological
variables, using ``influence diagrams'' to depict the relationships
among variables. For each ecosystem process, an influence diagram was
developed that identified the key process variables and their
interrelationships (influences). Using a coding scheme, each expert
characterized the type and sensitivity of each influence under both
current and future climate change scenarios.
The experts also discussed the high impact of certain influences on
sediment retention and community interactions, relative to other
influences in the diagram, and the potential for threshold changes.
These reports show how climate-sensitive pathways can be identified
and linked to management options in the context of planning documents
in order to support adaptation to climate change.
II. How To Submit Technical Comments to the Docket at http://www.regulations.gov
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD 2011-
0485, 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; and
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's 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 one
unbound original with pages numbered consecutively and 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-
2011-0485. 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,
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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
at http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the
EPA Headquarters Docket Center.
Dated: August 12, 2011.
Darrell A. Winner,
Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 2011-22993 Filed 9-7-11; 8:45 am]
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