[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 233 (Thursday, December 4, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64223-64224]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-31793]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-5931-9]


Models-2000 Workshop; Meeting

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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    The Ecosystems Research Division of the National Exposure Research 
Laboratory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a 
workshop on the development and use of computer models in risk 
assessment, including both dose-response and exposure modeling. The 
workshop will be held at the EPA Ecosystems Research Division, 960 
College Station Rd. in Athens, GA from December 15-17, 1997, convening 
no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and adjourning no later than 6:00 p.m. For 
further information, contact Dr. Rosemarie Russo, Director of EPA's 
Ecosystems Research Division at (706) 355-8001 
([email protected]).

Background

    In March 1994, the Deputy Administrator endorsed the 
recommendations of the ad hoc Agency Task Force on Environmental 
Regulatory Modeling (ATFERM) that were designed to improve the 
procedures by which the Agency adopts and utilizes computer models in 
generating risk assessments. Following subsequent discussion in the 
Science Policy Council Steering Committee, the senior science policy 
body in the Agency, and in correspondence between the Agency's Science 
Advisory Board (SAB) Chair and the Administrator, a further effort is 
being undertaken to (a) facilitate Agency adherence to existing 
guidance on modeling and (b) define and implement improvements to the 
way in which the Agency develops and uses modeling. A key aspect of 
this new effort is the convening of a workshop, aimed primarily at 
Agency modelers and risk assessors.
    The intended goal of the workshop is to recommend to the Science 
Policy Council (SPC) and the Administrator/Deputy Administrator of EPA 
a Models Implementation and Improvement Plan

[[Page 64224]]

for enhancing modeling within EPA. The Plan is likely to include the 
following: model development and application, peer review and quality 
assurance/control, training, technical support, applications 
acceptability criteria, and identification and penetration of barriers 
to improved use of models within EPA.
    The Agency will convene experts in a workshop format to critically 
review existing EPA and other appropriate guidance, policies and 
procedures, plus recent analyses of associated problems, such as the 
ATFERM report. The aim is to improve adherence to existing policies; 
identify needed guidance changes (additions or deletions) to those 
policies; identify barriers to effective implementation of policies; 
and recommend actions to overcome these barriers (e.g., training in 
model use, organizing a standing model users support group).
    The workshop is designed primarily for EPA scientists. Some outside 
scientists are being invited to attend, including some who may have 
been members of past Science Advisory Board panels. They will be 
participating as individuals, not as SAB members, and the SAB will not 
be making any advice on the basis of this meeting. There is some 
limited space for observers from the public.
Robert R. Swank, Jr.,
Acting Director, Ecosystems Research Division, Athens, GA.
[FR Doc. 97-31793 Filed 12-3-97; 8:45 am]
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