[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 174 (Tuesday, September 9, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47513-47514]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-23748]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Geological Survey


Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC); Public Comment on the 
Proposal To Develop the ``Environmental Hazards Geospatial Data Content 
Standard'' as a Federal Geographic Data Committee Standard

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The FGDC is soliciting public comments on the proposal to 
develop a ``Environmental Hazards Geospatial Data Content Standard.'' 
If the proposal is approved, the standard will be developed following 
the FGDC standards development and approval process. If the standard is 
adopted by the FGDC, it must be followed by all Federal agencies 
collecting environmental hazards geospatial data directly or 
indirectly, through grants, partnerships, or contracts.
    In its assigned Federal leadership in the development of the 
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), the FGDC recognizes that 
FGDC standards must also meet the needs and recognize the views of 
State and local governments, academia, industry, and the public. The 
purpose of this notice is to solicit such views. The FGDC invites the 
community to review the proposal and comment on the objectives, scope, 
approach, usability of the proposed standard; identify existing related 
standards; and indicate their participating in the development of the 
standard.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before October 3, 1997.

CONTACT and ADDRESSES: The complete proposal is included in this 
notice. It is also posted at Internet address: http://www.fgdc.gov/pub/
standards/Hazards/envhzpro.txt
    Comments may be submitted via Internet mail or by submitting an 
electronic copy on diskette. Send comments via Internet to: www.fgdc.gov">gdc-
hazards@www.fgdc.gov. Comments e-mailed as attachments must be in ASCII 
format.
    A soft copy version may be submitted on a 3.5 x 3.5 diskette in 
WordPerfect 5.0 or 6.0/6.1 format, along with one hardcopy version of 
the comments, to the FGDC Secretariat (attn: Jennifer Fox) at U.S. 
Geological Survey, 590 National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, 
Reston, Virginia, 20192.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Following is the complete proposal for the 
Environmental Hazards Geospatial Data Content Standard.

    Date of Proposal: May 1997.
    Submitting Organization: FGDC Facilities Working Group (FWG).
    Point of Contact: Nancy Blyler (202) 761-8893.
    Objectives: To develop a nationally focused Environmental Hazards 
Geospatial Data Content Standard (hereafter called Environmental 
Hazards Standard) that will establish a consistent approach to sharing 
information about natural and manmade substances, materials, and 
conditions that are, or have the potential to be, detrimental to 
ecosystems on the earth.
    Goals: 1. To compile common definitions for environmental hazard 
data that will facilitate the effective, use, understanding, and 
automation of geospatial information.
    2. To standardize entities, attributes, and domain values that will 
improve the creation, management and data sharing of environmental 
hazard data.
    3. To resolve discrepancies related to the use of similar terms, 
thereby minimizing duplication within and among systems.
    Scope: The environmental hazards standard will address data 
concerning the evaluation and investigation of the existence of 
environmental hazards, monitoring the presence of hazards, preparedness 
and protection from hazards, and remediation of their effects. This 
standard will include the management of information about chemical and 
biological substances, hazardous materials, and physical conditions 
that affect the earth's ecosystems, including air, soil, and water 
systems (both surface water and ground water). This standard will not 
address natural disasters (e.g., volcanoes, earthquakes).
    Justification/Benefits: There is no national geospatial data 
content standard for environmental hazards. A comprehensive data 
content standard supporting the study, management, and remediation of 
environmental hazards

[[Page 47514]]

would be beneficial to hazardous materials managers, solid waste 
engineers, and public works officers. Benefits would also be realized 
in emergency situations, when efficient management and data sharing 
between Federal and local agencies is imperative to containing 
hazardous materials and protecting the environment.
    Development of Environmental Hazard Standards through the FGDC will 
provide an opportunity for broad participation from national, state, 
and local governments, municipalities, professional societies, and 
private industry. Environmental Hazard Standards will also support the 
FGDC's integrated standard database project and will provide new data 
sharing opportunities for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure 
(NSDI) (i.e., Federal, state, and local governments, as well as the 
private sector.)
    Approach: The FWG will establish an Environmental Hazards project 
team to develop this Environmental Hazards Standard. The project team 
will begin development of this Environment Hazards Standard using the 
Environmental Hazards information contained in the Tri Service Spatial 
Data Standard (TSSDS). However, the project team or the resulting 
standard will not be constrained to the content extracted from the 
TSSDS. The entity classes, entity types, etc. may be enhanced and 
modified to create a comprehensive Environmental Hazard Data Content 
standard that meets the diverse requirements of Federal, state, and 
community environmental data users. The project team will solicit input 
from a broad range of agencies and environmental groups for development 
of the standard.
    The FWG will also maintain an Environmental Hazards database 
containing the entity/attribute/domain information that can be used to 
support the Standards Working Group (SWG) integrated feature registry 
project.
    Related Standards: As mentioned in the approach paragraph, the 
TSSDS is a related standard that includes Environmental Hazards 
information. Additional content added to the Environmental Hazard 
standard (beyond what is available from the TSSDS) will be closely 
coordinated with the Tri-Service CADD/GIS Technology Center so that 
later versions of the TSSDS may potentially incorporate this additional 
information. This project will also be coordinated with the Facilities 
Identification project.
    Other related standards (relevant to domain values) are: EPA Order 
2180.1, June 26, 1987 standard for Chemical Abstracts Service Registry 
Number Data Standard for using CAS Registry Number for identification 
of chemical substances.
    ANSI X3.50-1986, American National Standard for information 
systems--represnetations for U.S. customary, SI, and other units to be 
used in systems with limited character sets. NIST Special Publication 
811, 1995 Edition, Guide for the Use of the International System of 
Units (SI) for standardizing units of measure.
    Schedule: The FWG has formed an Environmental Hazards project team 
to begin work on the development of this standard. The development of a 
working draft Environmental Hazards Standard is expected to take 9-12 
months. Once the FWG is satisfied with the content of this 
Environmental Hazards Standard it will be forwarded to the SWG for 
consideration to go out for public review. The FWG expects to have a 
completed, approved Environmental Hazard standard in 24 months.
    Resources: The FWG has adequate resources to accomplish the initial 
development of this Environmental Hazards Standard. If after review and 
comment from other Federal Agencies and the non-Federal sector there is 
considerable additional content need, then additional resources may be 
required.
    Potential Participants: The primary participants will be the 
members of the FWG which includes representatives from Federal 
agencies, municipalities, professional associations, and private 
industry.
    Target Authorization Body: The FWG proposes pursing the development 
of this Environmental Hazards Standard as an FGDC standard. The FWG may 
consider pursuing (at a later date) the development of the 
Environmental Hazards Standard as an ANSI (American National Standards 
Institute) Standard within ANSI's technical committee for GIS, NCITS 
L1. FGDC would serve as the Target Authorization Body until this 
Environmental Hazards Standard becomes an ANSI Standard.

    Dated: September 2, 1997.
John Fischer,
Acting Chief, National Mapping Division.
[FR Doc. 97-23748 Filed 9-8-97; 8:45 am]
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