[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 211 (Thursday, October 31, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65306-65308]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-25845]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9902-21-ORD; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2013-0723]
Best Practices for Continuous Monitoring of Temperature and Flow
in Wadeable Streams
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
document titled, ``Best Practices for Continuous Monitoring of
Temperature and Flow in Wadeable Streams'' (EPA/600/R-13/170). The EPA
also is announcing that either ERG or Versar,
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EPA contractors for external scientific peer review, will select an
independent group of experts to conduct a letter peer review of the
draft document. The document was prepared by the National Center for
Environmental Assessment (NCEA) within EPA's Office of Research and
Development. The report describes best practices for the deployment of
continuous temperature and flow sensors in wadeable streams. This
document addresses questions related to equipment needs, configuration,
placement, installation techniques, data retrieval, and data
processing.
EPA is releasing the draft report for the purposes of public
comment and peer review. The draft document is available via the
Internet on the NCEA home page under the Recent Additions and the Data
and Publications menus at www.epa.gov/ncea. This draft report is not
final as described in EPA's information quality guidelines, and does
not represent and should not be construed to represent Agency policy or
views. 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 that EPA receives
in accordance with this notice.
DATES: The 30-day public comment period begins October 31, 2013, and
ends December 2, 2013. Technical comments should be in writing and must
be received by EPA by December 2, 2013.
ADDRESSES: The draft document, ``Best Practices for Continuous
Monitoring of Temperature and Flow in Wadeable Streams,'' is available
primarily via the Internet on the NCEA home page under the Recent
Additions and the Data and Publications menus at www.epa.gov/ncea. A
limited number of paper copies will be 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, and the document title, ``Best Practices for
Continuous Monitoring of Temperature and Flow in Wadeable Streams,''
(EPA/600/R-13/170) to facilitate processing of your request.
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 ORD Docket at the EPA Headquarters Docket Center;
telephone: 202-566-1752; facsimile: 202-566-9744; or email: [email protected].
For technical information, contact Dr. Britta Bierwagen, NCEA;
telephone: 703-347-8613; facsimile: 703-347-8694; or email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Information About the Project/Document
The lack of continuous temperature and flow data for minimally
disturbed, free-flowing freshwater wadeable streams is an impediment to
analyses of long-term trends in biological, thermal, and hydrologic
data. In recent years, there has been substantial interest in
developing regional monitoring networks with states and EPA regional
offices to detect long-term climate change-related impacts on aquatic
communities in freshwater streams. Current participants, including
states in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, are initiating
collection of thermal, hydrologic, and biological data from targeted
sites in each state. To help further this effort, EPA and collaborators
have written a best practices document to facilitate more uniform and
effective collection of continuous temperature and water depth data at
ungaged sites in wadeable streams. This document addresses questions
related to equipment needs, configuration, placement, installation
techniques, data retrieval, and data processing. The collection of
these data will further efforts to detect and track climate change-
related impacts over the long term, further our understanding of how
thermal, hydrologic, and biological conditions vary spatially and
temporally and inter-relate to one another, and help inform state and
federal agencies on how to attribute altered environmental conditions
to climate change versus other stressors.
II. How To Submit Technical Comments to the Docket at
www.regulations.gov
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2013-
0723, by one of the following methods:
www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for
submitting comments.
Email: [email protected].
Fax: 202-566-9744.
Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket
Center (ORD Docket), [Mail Code: 28221T], 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.,
Washington, DC 20460. The phone number is 202-566-1752. If you provide
comments by mail, 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.
Hand Delivery: The ORD Docket is located in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center, EPA West Building, Room 3334, 1301
Constitution Avenue 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
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-
2013-0723. 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
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 www.regulations.gov or email. 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 email comment
directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov, your email
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
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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 home page at 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 ORD Docket in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center.
Dated: October 23, 2013.
Abdel-Razak M. Kadry,
Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 2013-25845 Filed 10-30-13; 8:45 am]
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