[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 250 (Wednesday, December 31, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68287-68288]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-34102]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[OPPTS-400123; FRL-5763-8]


Toxics Data Reporting Committee of the National Advisory Council 
for Environmental Policy and Technology; Notice of Public Meeting

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, EPA gives notice of 
a 2-day meeting of the Toxics Data Reporting Committee of the National 
Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology. This will be 
the third meeting of the Toxics Data Reporting (TDR) Committee, whose 
mission is to provide advice to EPA regarding the Agency's Toxics 
Release Inventory (TRI) Program.

DATES: The public meeting will take place on January 29-30, 1998, from 
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Written and electronic comments in response to this 
notice should be received by January 16, 1998.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at: L'Enfant Plaza, 480 L'Enfant 
Plaza SW., Washington, DC 20024, (202) 484-1000.
    Each comment must bear the docket control number ``OPPTS-400123.'' 
All comments should be sent in triplicate to: OPPT Document Control 
Officer (7407), Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, 
Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M St., SW., Room G099, East Tower, 
Washington, DC 20460.
    Comments and data may also be submitted electronically to: oppt. 
[email protected]. Follow the instructions under Unit II. of this 
document. No Confidential Business Information (CBI) should be 
submitted through e-mail.
    All comments which contain information claimed as CBI must be 
clearly marked as such. Three sanitized copies of any comments 
containing information claimed as CBI must also be submitted and will 
be placed in the public record for this rulemaking. Persons submitting 
information on any portion of which they believe is entitled to 
treatment as CBI by EPA must assert a business confidentiality claim in 
accordance with 40 CFR 2.203(b) for each such portion. This claim must 
be made at the time that the information is submitted to EPA. If a 
submitter does not assert a confidentiality claim at the time of 
submission, EPA will consider this as a waiver of any confidentiality 
claim and the information may be made available to the public by EPA 
without further notice to the submitter.


[[Page 68288]]


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cassandra Vail, telephone: (202) 260-
0675, fax number: (202) 401-8142, e-mail: 
[email protected]. or Michelle Price, telephone: (202) 
260-3372, fax number: (202) 410-8142, e-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    At the 2-day meeting, the TDR Committee will continue the 
discussions begun at the January 29-30 meeting regarding how the 
Agency's characterizes the TRI data through the annual public data 
release. Concerns have been raised that EPA's presentation of the TRI 
data can lead to public misperception of the data. The Committee will 
be discussing possible recommendations on ways to more clearly present 
release data to the public to distinguish between the various methods 
of disposal while still making it possible to present meaningful 
statistics on a national basis about releases. In addition the TDR 
Committee will discuss how section 8 of the Form R collects information 
required by the Pollution Prevention Act concerning waste management 
and source reduction of toxic chemicals.
    EPA would like specific comment on three issues relating to section 
8 of the Form R.
    1. Reporting of waste sent to publicly owned treatment works. In 
particular, the Agency is interested in comments on how toxic chemicals 
in wastes sent to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) should be 
reported in section 8. Historically, these chemicals have been reported 
as treated in section 8.7 unless the toxic chemicals are metals. If the 
toxic chemical is a metal, the facility would report the toxic chemical 
as released in section 8.1 with the understanding that metals cannot be 
destroyed and are usually landfilled after treatment by POTWs. Because 
some chemicals can be ``treated'' to a limited extent at POTWs and 
other chemicals cannot be ``treated'' at all and are ultimately 
released by the POTW, EPA is soliciting comment on how these chemicals 
should be reported in section 8. One option to address this issue is 
that EPA could provide in the instructions a list of chemicals and the 
treatment (destruction) efficiency expected to occur at POTWs with 
secondary treatment capabilities. EPA would make available for review 
and comment a list of toxic chemicals identified as released by POTWs. 
The reporter could use the list to apportion quantities of the chemical 
to be reported in section 8.1 (releases) and section 8.7 (quantities 
treated off-site).
    2. Public perception. EPA is asking for comment on how the 
generation of the toxic chemical reported to have been managed as a 
waste is perceived by the public. Section 8 collects information on 
waste managed at the facility whether or not the waste was generated at 
the reporting facility. Some individuals are concerned about public 
misperception of the data in section 8 because of the focus on the 
amount of waste managed at the facility, not waste generated. EPA would 
like comments on ways to change section 8 of the Form R which would 
continue to allow the user to assess wastes managed by the facility but 
would minimize the perception that the wastes reported in section 8 
were generated by the reporting facility.
    3. Addition of data element. The Agency is requesting comment 
regarding adding a data element that would indicate if the toxic 
chemical is recycled on-site or off-site more than once during the 
calendar year and if so, how many times it is recycled. For example, a 
facility recycles batches of 100 pounds of the toxic chemical 10 times 
throughout the year. The recycling process is 98 percent efficient with 
the other two percent being sent off-site for disposal. The facility 
would report 9,800 pounds as recycled on-site in section 8.4 and 200 
pounds in as released in section 8.1. In section 8.4, the facility 
would also indicate that the toxic chemical was recycled 10 times. The 
public could then determine that although the facility recycled 9,800 
pounds of the toxic chemical, because the facility recycled 10 times, 
it actually only recycled 98 pounds each time.
    A meeting summary from the December 9-10 TDR Committee meeting will 
be available on the TRI Home Page. The address of the TRI Home Page is 
http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/tri. This summary can be found under the 
heading ``TRI Stakeholder Dialogue.'' In addition, the agenda and an 
issue paper outlining topics for discussion at the January 29-30 
Committee meeting will also be available at this same site prior to the 
meeting. Oral presentations or statements by interested parties will be 
limited to 5 minutes. Interested parties are encouraged to contact 
Cassandra Vail, to schedule presentations before the Committee.

II. Public Record and Electronic Submissions

    The official record for this action, as well as the public version, 
has been established for this action under docket control number 
``OPPTS-400123'' (including comments and data submitted electronically 
as described below). A public version of this record, including 
printed, paper versions of electronic comments, which does not include 
any information claimed as CBI, is available for inspection from 12 
noon to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The 
official rulemaking record is located in the TSCA Nonconfidential 
Information Center, Rm. NE-B607, 401 M St., SW., Washington, DC.
    Electronic comments can be sent directly to EPA at:
    [email protected]


    Electronic comments must be submitted as an ASCII file avoiding the 
use of special characters and any form of encryption. Comments and data 
will also be accepted on disks in WordPerfect 5.1/6.1 or ASCII file 
format. All comments and data in electronic form must be identified by 
the docket control number ``OPPTS-400123.'' Electronic comments on this 
action may be filed online at many Federal Depository Libraries.

    Dated: December 22, 1997.
Cassandra Vail,
Designated Federal Official.

[FR Doc. 97-34102 Filed 12-30-97; 8:45 am]
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