[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 229 (Monday, November 30, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65779-65780]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-31803]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-6194-8]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Environmental Information Customer Survey

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 
et seq.), this document announces that the following Information 
Collection Request (ICR) has been forwarded to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for review and approval: Center for Environmental 
Information and Statistics, Environmental Information Customer Survey. 
The ICR describes the nature of this information collection and its 
expected burden and cost; where appropriate, it includes the actual 
data collection instrument.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before December 30, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sandy Farmer at EPA by phone at (202) 
260-2740, by email at [email protected], or download off the 
Internet at http://www.epa.gov/icr and refer to EPA ICR No. 1853.01

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: CEIS Environmental Information Customer Survey (EPA ICR 
Number 1853.01) This is a new collection.
    Abstract: This information collection request covers a voluntary 
program of activities to be implemented by the EPA's Center for 
Environmental Information and Statistics (CEIS) over the next three 
years (FY1999-2001). The CEIS was established in EPA's Office of Policy 
starting in 1997, to provide the public with a single, convenient 
source of EPA's information on environmental quality, status and 
trends. In brief, CEIS compiles existing data and information from 
major EPA databases and makes that information available to the public 
in plain English and in graphical, easy-to-use formats. The CEIS is 
providing this information to the public via a Web site on EPA's home 
page (www.epa.gov/ceis), publications, and in other suitable formats 
identified by EPA's information customers. Soon after the announcement 
of the Center, a Customer Survey Plan was drafted and peer reviewed to 
establish a three-year series of survey activities to keep CEIS 
informed of the public's changing environmental information needs and 
access preferences. The survey activities identified in this 
information collection request will ultimately support the achievement 
of EPA's goals to, ``Expand Americans' Right to Know About Their 
Environment'' (per EPA's Strategic Plan (EPA/190-E-97-002) . The 
results of these survey activities will also shape the development and 
delivery of the Center's products and services over time.
    The survey activities in the Customer Survey Plan will enable the 
Center to:
     Identify who among the general public uses environmental 
information;
     Understand who, among the public, considers themselves to 
be an EPA environmental information customer;
     Understand, who among the public, considers themselves to 
be a customer of the new Center,
     Assess what types of data and information CEIS customers 
need and how they would like to access these data and information, and,
     Develop the capacity to use customer feedback in 
developing and improving the Center's products and services.
    The CEIS Customer Survey Plan calls for a three year, iterative 
program of qualitative and quantitative survey activities including 
telephone surveys, focus groups, interviews, and self-

[[Page 65780]]

administered questionnaires via mail and various electronic media. In 
addition to assessing customer needs and access preferences, these 
activities will help CEIS to test product or service concepts (alpha 
testing); test actual products and services (beta-testing); or 
determine customer satisfaction with finished products and services. 
CEIS and its consultants will store survey data and analysis on their 
computers and in hard copy. Personal or demographic information will be 
collected and aggregated to maintain confidentiality of responses and 
to protect the identity of individual respondents.
    The activities proposed for this three-year program will involve an 
estimated 47,040 members of the public and cost an estimated $4.2 
million dollars. The estimated total respondent burden hours for the 
entire three-year set of activities is approximately 18,395 hours.
    A national telephone survey of the public's environmental 
information needs, proposed to start in January, 1999, is described in 
Part B of this Information Collection Request. EPA's CEIS will submit 
cost and burden data to OMB for each major survey activity called for 
in this ICR, once individual survey budgets, survey designs, and/or 
interview protocols are developed.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for EPA's 
regulations are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and 48 CFR Chapter 15. The 
Federal Register document required under 5 CFR 1320.8(d), soliciting 
comments on this collection of information was published on April 3, 
1998; no comments were received.
    Burden Statement: The annual public reporting and recordkeeping 
burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 3 
hours per response. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This 
includes the time needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, 
install, and utilize technology and systems for the purposes of 
collecting, validating, and verifying information, processing and 
maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; 
adjust the existing ways to comply with any previously applicable 
instructions and requirements; train personnel to be able to respond to 
a collection of information; search data sources; complete and review 
the collection of information; and transmit or otherwise disclose the 
information.
    Respondents/Affected Entities: The U.S. public.
    Estimated Number of Respondents in all proposed survey activities: 
47,040.
    Frequency of Response: occasional.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondent Burden: 6,130 hours
    Estimated Total Cost: $0
    Send comments on the Agency's need for this information, the 
accuracy of the provided burden estimates, and any suggested methods 
for minimizing respondent burden, including through the use of 
automated collection techniques, to the following addresses. Please 
refer to EPA ICR No. 1853.01 in any correspondence.

Ms. Sandy Farmer, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, OP Regulatory 
Information Division (2137), 401 M Street, SW, Washington, DC 20460;

    and

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and 
Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th Street, NW, 
Washington, DC 20503.

    Dated: November 20, 1998.
Richard T. Westlund,
Acting Director, Regulatory Information Division.
[FR Doc. 98-31803 Filed 11-27-98; 8:45 am]
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