[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 207 (Wednesday, October 27, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57884-57885]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-28045]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[NCEA-CD-99-1072; FRL-6464-1]


Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter (External Review 
Draft)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of a Draft for Public Review and Comment.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Center for 
Environmental Assessment (NCEA), is today announcing the availability 
of an external review draft of the document, Air Quality Criteria for 
Particulate Matter. Required under sections 108 and 109 of the Clean 
Air Act, the purpose of this document is to provide an assessment of 
the latest scientific information on the effects of airborne 
particulate matter (PM) on the public health and welfare for use in the 
next periodic review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards 
(NAAQS) for PM.

DATES: Anyone who wishes to comment on the draft document, Air Quality 
Criteria for Particulate Matter, must submit the comments in writing by 
no later than January 14, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Send the written comments to the Project Manager for 
Particulate Matter, National Center for Environmental Assessment-RTP 
Office (MD-52), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle 
Park, NC 27711.
    A copy of the Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter (External 
Review Draft) is available on CD ROM from the OAO Corporation, which is 
under contract to the EPA. Contact Ms. Cindy Jenkins, OAO Corporation 
representative, at 919-541-4826, 919-541-1818 (fax), or 
[email protected] to request the document. OAO will need the 
document's title, Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter (External 
Review Draft), as well as your name and address

[[Page 57885]]

to properly process your request. Internet users may download a copy 
from the Internet homepage for EPA's National Center for Environmental 
Assessment. The URL is http://www.epa.gov/ncea/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Dennis Kotchmar, National Center 
for Environmental Assessment-RTP Office (MD-52), U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone: 919-
541-4158; fax: 919-541-1818; E-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is 
updating and revising, where appropriate, the EPA's Air Quality 
Criteria for Particulate Matter. Sections 108 and 109 of the Clean Air 
Act require that the EPA carry out a periodic review and revision, 
where appropriate, of the criteria and the National Ambient Air Quality 
Standards (NAAQS) for the ``criteria'' air pollutants such as 
particulate matter. Details of the EPA's plans for the review of the 
NAAQS for PM were announced in a previous Federal Register notice (62 
FR 55201, October 23, 1997).
    Near the end of the comment period on the external review draft, 
Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter, the EPA will present the 
draft at a public meeting for review by the Clean Air Scientific 
Advisory Committee (CASAC). There will be a subsequent Federal Register 
notice to inform the public of the exact date and time of that CASAC 
meeting.
    The EPA is aware that a substantial number of new scientific 
studies on particulate matter are underway that will likely be 
completed and accepted for publication in time to be included in the 
final criteria document. To this end, the Agency encourages timely 
completion and submission of these studies for publication. Because the 
potential import of many of these additional studies cannot be assessed 
in the present draft, the Agency is requesting that the CASAC's and the 
public's comments on this external review draft focus particularly on 
the aspects of organization, structure, and presentation in the 
document, although comments on provisional conclusions and specific 
details are, of course, welcome.
    Following the CASAC meeting, the EPA plans to incorporate revisions 
to the document in response to public comments and CASAC review of the 
first external review draft, and then to release a second external 
review draft for public comment and CASAC review in midyear 2000. For 
reasons discussed above, the second draft may address a number of 
studies not completed in time for assessment in the first draft. 
Accordingly, the EPA urges that interested parties be prepared to 
review the second draft on that basis.
    Findings and conclusions from the Air Quality Criteria for 
Particulate Matter will be used as key inputs to the preparation during 
2000 of a draft EPA staff paper on airborne particles, which will pose 
possible options for the EPA Administrator to consider in regard to 
potential retention or revision of current PM NAAQS.

    Dated: October 21, 1999.
William H. Farland,
Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 99-28045 Filed 10-26-99; 8:45 am]
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