[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 24 (Friday, February 5, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5794-5795]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-2952]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-6300-2]


Science Advisory Board; Emergency Notification of Public Advisory 
Committee Meetings

    Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, 
notice is hereby given that one Committee of the Science Advisory Board 
(SAB) will meet on the dates and times described below. All times noted 
are Eastern Time. The meeting is open to the public, however, seating 
is limited and available on a first come basis. Documents that are the 
subject of SAB reviews are normally available from the originating U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office and are not available from 
the SAB Office. Public drafts of SAB reports are available to the 
Agency and the public from the SAB office. Details on availability are 
noted below.

1. Drinking Water Committee (DWC)

    The Drinking Water Committee (DWC) of the Science Advisory Board 
(SAB) will hold a public meeting beginning at 9:00 am Wednesday, 
February 17, 1999 and ending not later than 5:00 pm Thursday, February 
18, 1999. The meeting will be held at the Drawbridge Estate hotel, 2477 
Royal Drive, Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky, 41017; telephone (606) 341-2800. 
At this meeting, the Committee will complete its review of the US EPA 
ORD comparative risk framework method (an approach for balancing the 
chemical and microbial risks from drinking water) and receive a 
briefing on the status of the EPA's water consumption project.
    On December 10-11, 1998, the Drinking Water Committee held its 
first meeting at which comparative risk framework review was initiated. 
At that time, the Agency briefed the Committee on the various 
components of the framework and a case study, after which, members and 
Agency representatives discussed specific topics. These interactions 
are captured in the minutes of the December, 1998 meeting which 
includes, as attachments, the written comments of the individual review 
panel members. The DWC engaged in a consultation with the Agency on the 
water consumption project at its June 18, 1998 meeting.
    Background--(a) Comparative Risk Framework Methodology: The Safe 
Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires EPA to provide for the maximum 
control of exposures to pathogenic organisms in water while minimizing 
concomitant exposures to the disinfection byproducts (DBPs) that might 
be generated by control measures. SDWA also requires EPA to conduct 
cost-benefit analyses of the regulatory impacts in order to identify 
cost-effective drinking water treatment options.
    The National Center for Environmental Assessment-Cincinnati Office 
(NCEA-Cin) has developed a methodology for risk analysis and comparison 
that could help to inform the Agency while it is considering SDWA 
regulatory and implementation actions. The Agency's draft document, 
Comparative Risk Framework Methodology and Case Study (Framework 
Document), presents a method for such comparisons that applies the 
prevention-effectiveness approach developed by the Centers for Disease 
Control for structuring and analyzing complex risk trade-off problems. 
Prevention-effectiveness research combines tools of decision and 
economic analysis to look at the cost-effectiveness of different public 
health interventions and employs decision trees to explicitly and 
graphically structure the problem. The document consists of a 
Comparative Risk Framework Methodology (CRFM) and a Case Study. The 
application of this approach explicitly recognizes disinfection and 
treatment of drinking water to be primary public health intervention 
and prevention measures designed to minimize the transmission of 
microbial pathogens in drinking water.
    Charge--Comparative Risk Framework Methodology: The Drinking Water 
Committee was requested to review the strategy proposed for structuring 
and analyzing this comparative risk/risk tradeoff problem, including 
the overall concept, the use of population-based probabilities for 
expressing both cancer and noncancer health risks and mechanisms for 
arriving at these numbers, and the pros and cons of the different 
common metrics/weights proposed for comparing qualitatively and 
quantitatively different health risks. Specific charge questions are 
available by contacting the Office of the Science Advisory Board at the 
address noted below. Charge questions are included for the following 
areas: overall approach; the comparative risk framework methodology; 
the case study; engineering and water treatment issues; risk 
characterization; microbial risks; chemical dose-response assessment; 
exposure; health conditions; the common health metric; the results of 
the methods application; and research needs.
    (b) Water Consumption Estimates for the United States: EPA is now 
developing estimates of water intake for the United States. Included in 
the final report will be estimates of water intake (municipal tap and 
bottled water) with percentile distributions by age, gender, race, 
socioeconomic status, and geographic region and separately for pregnant 
and lactating women. The estimates will be derived using a method 
developed by EPA which will be applied to data contained in the United 
States Department of Agriculture's 1994-1996 Continuing Survey of Food 
Intake by Individuals (CSFII). EPA anticipates wide use of the 
estimates in future drinking water rule-making activities. This will be 
one of two briefings for standing Science Advisory Board committees in 
preparation for a formal SAB review of the EPA water consumption report 
during the Spring of 1999. The other briefing will occur during the 
March

[[Page 5795]]

1999 meeting of the SAB's Integrated Human Exposure Committee.
    For Further Information Contact: Single copies of the background 
information for the review of the risk comparison framework can be 
obtained by contacting Mr. Glenn Rice, US EPA National Center for 
Environmental Assessment, 26 Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 
45268; or by telephone at (513) 569-7813. No background documents are 
expected to be provided to the Committee for the water consumption 
briefing. Additional information for this meeting, or the meeting 
agenda, can be obtained by contacting Mr. Thomas O. Miller, Designated 
Federal Officer (DFO) for the Drinking Water Committee, Science 
Advisory Board (1400), U.S. EPA, 401 M Street, SW, Washington, DC 
20460; by telephone at (202) 260-5886; by fax at (202) 260-7118 or via 
the E-Mail at: [email protected], or by contacting Ms. Dorothy Clark 
at (202) 260-6555, by fax at (202) 260-7118, and by E-Mail at: 
[email protected]. Anyone wishing to make an oral presentation to 
the Committee must contact Mr. Miller, in writing (by letter, fax, or 
E-mail) no later than 12 noon, Thursday, February 11, 1999, in order to 
be included on the Agenda. The request should identify the name of the 
individual who will make the presentation and an outline of the issues 
to be addressed. At least 35 copies of any written comments to the 
Committee are to be given to Mr. Miller no later than the time of the 
presentation for distribution to the Committee and the interested 
public.

Providing Oral or Written Comments at SAB Meetings

    The Science Advisory Board expects that public statements presented 
at its meetings will not be repetitive of previously submitted oral or 
written statements. In general, each individual or group making an oral 
presentation will be limited to a total time of ten minutes. For 
teleconference meetings, opportunities for oral comment will usually be 
limited to no more than three minutes per speaker and no more than 
fifteen minutes total. Written comments (at least 35 copies) received 
in the SAB Staff Office sufficiently prior to a meeting date (usually 
one week before the meeting), may be mailed to the relevant SAB 
committee or subcommittee; comments received too close to the meeting 
date will normally be provided to the committee at its meeting, or 
mailed soon after receipt by the Agency. Written comments may be 
provided to the Drinking Water Committee up until the time of the 
meeting, however, for this meeting only, delayed comments received up 
to 15 days after the meeting will be provided to the Committee for 
consideration and will be made part of the permanent Committee record.
    Additional information concerning the Science Advisory Board, its 
structure, function, and composition, may be found on the SAB Website 
(http://www.epa.gov/sab) and in The Annual Report of the Staff Director 
which is available from the SAB Publications Staff at (202) 260-4126 or 
via fax at (202) 260-1889. Individuals requiring special accommodation 
at SAB meetings, including wheelchair access, should contact the 
appropriate DFO at least five business days prior to the meeting so 
that appropriate arrangements can be made.

    Dated: February 3, 1999.
Donald G. Barnes,
Staff Director, Science Advisory Board.
[FR Doc. 99-2952 Filed 2-4-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P