[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 218 (Friday, November 12, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61637-61640]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-29587]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[OPPTS-00280; FRL-6391-3]


Notice of Availability of FY 2000 Grant Funds for the Support of 
a Pollution Prevention Information Network

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: EPA expects to have approximately $1 million available in 
fiscal year 2000 to fund grant proposals supporting a nation-wide 
network of pollution prevention information providers. The Pollution 
Prevention Act provides funds to States to strengthen the efficiency 
and effectiveness of State technical assistance programs in providing 
source reduction information to businesses. These funds will be 
targeted for applicants that are willing to work as part of a 
collective service providing pollution prevention information to State 
and local governments' technical assistance providers. Grantees will 
collect, organize and disseminate pollution prevention (P2) 
information, make their information available electronically, 
publically report use of their information services, and utilize State 
representatives to guide and evaluate their information services as 
part of a nationwide resource. Grants/cooperative agreements will be 
awarded under the authority of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990.
DATES: Applications must be postmarked by April 10, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beth Anderson, Pollution Prevention 
Division, (7409) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, 
Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M St. SW., Washington, DC 20460, 
telephone number: (202) 260-2602, e-mail address: 
[email protected]. Access information about this grant program at 
http://www.epa.gov/p2.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

A. Does this Action Apply to Me?

    This action is directed to State governments, State programs or 
departments, as well as other State institutions, such as universities. 
If you have any questions regarding the applicability of this action 
consult the person listed in the ``FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT'' 
section of this notice.

B. How Can I Get Additional Information, Including Copies of this 
Document or Other Related Documents?

     Electronically. You may obtain electronic copies of this document, 
and certain other related documents that might be available 
electronically, from the EPA Internet Home Page at http://www.epa.gov/. 
To access this document, on the Home Page select ``Laws and 
Regulations'' and then look up the entry for this document under the 
``Federal Register --Environmental Documents.'' You can also go 
directly to the Federal Register listings at http://www.epa.gov/
fedrgstr/.

II. Scope and Purpose of this Grant Program

    1. Scope--The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. This solicitation 
is made under the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, (the Act) (Public 
Law 101-508) which established as national policy that pollution should 
be prevented or reduced at the source whenever feasible. Section 6603 
of the Act defines source reduction as any practice that:
    (1) Reduces the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or 
contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the 
environment (including fugitive emissions) prior to recycling, 
treatment, or disposal.
    (2) Reduces the hazards to public health and the environment 
associated with the release of such substances, pollutants, or 
contaminants.
    EPA further defines pullution prevention (P2) as the use of other 
practices that reduce or eliminate the creation of pollutants through: 
increased efficiency in the use of raw materials, energy, water or 
other resources, protection of natural resources, or protection of 
natural resources by conservation.
    Section 6605 of the Act authorizes EPA to make matching grants to 
States to promote the use of source reduction techniques by businesses. 
In evaluating grant applications, the Act directs EPA to consider 
whether the proposed State program will:
    (1) Make technical assistance available to businesses seeking 
information about source reduction opportunities, including funding for 
experts to provide on-site technical advice and to assist in the 
development of source reduction plans.
    (2) Target assistance to businesses for whom lack of information is 
an impediment to source reduction.
    (3) Provide training in source reduction techniques.
    2. Purpose of national pollution prevention information network. 
Currently there are few mechanisms or systems to coordinate the 
development, review, and dissemination of pollution prevention 
information among Federal, State, and local agencies, or universities 
involved in promoting source reduction technologies. Access to P2 
information and assistance varies across the United States. In 
addition, not all programs providing assistance to small businesses 
have access to pollution prevention information that may be useful and 
relevant to their clientele. The purpose of this request for proposals 
is to coordinate work among new and existing grantees in order to 
minimize duplication of effort in information collection and synthesis, 
training for the promotion of pollution prevention technologies, and 
establish information standards that will facilitate information 
exchange among centers.
    The development of a P2 information network of regional centers 
would allow State P2 information needs to be addressed on a regional 
basis and allow for improved information exchange among States. 
Coordination of regional centers could facilitate information exchange 
and decrease duplicative research that might be conducted in each State 
by developing systems to: coordinate information needs, determine types 
of P2 information that need to be developed, coordinate the production 
of relevant P2 information, disseminate this information among small 
business assistance providers, and evaluate the effectiveness of the 
information being disseminated in changing business practices to 
incorporate pollution prevention.
    EPA believes that investing in coordinating and standardizing P2 
information collection, synthesis, and dissemination will benefit State 
P2 technical assistance providers as well as other small business 
assistance programs, such as the Small Business Development Centers and 
the National Institutes of Standards and Technology Manufacturing 
Extension Partnerships. Regional P2 information centers could benefit 
by allowing for specialization in expertise, where this expertise can 
be shared nationally. Regional centers could be more responsive to the 
common information needs of the States being served and allow States to 
focus resources on issues unique to each State. EPA believes that some 
of the

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benefits of a coordinated P2 information network could be:
    (1) Improved access to P2 information for all State business 
assistance programs.
    (2) Increased availability of P2 technical assistance to all 
States, through sharing research, synthesis, and training in current P2 
information nationally.
    (3) Increased partnerships among State entities serving small 
businesses by providing a forum for defining and meeting common program 
objectives.
    3. EPA's prior efforts to promote P2 information sharing. On August 
20 and 21, 1992, EPA sponsored a subcommittee meeting of the ``National 
Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology, State and 
Local Programs Committee.'' At this meeting, the delivery of P2 
technical information to State and local technical assistance programs 
was discussed in the context of the national data base, Pollution 
Prevention Information Exchange System and the Pollution Prevention 
Information Clearinghouse that EPA was operating. This initial meeting 
raised issues of information quality, roles for a national 
clearinghouse, and priority information needs or functions for State P2 
technical assistance programs. In 1994 EPA created a website dedicated 
to users of pollution prevention and cleaner production solutions 
called Envirosense. A current description of the site is at http://
es.epa.gov/describe.html.
    In October 1993, EPA funded a proposal from the National Roundtable 
of State Pollution Prevention Programs (now called the National 
Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR)) to ``develop a design and 
management plan for a national network of pollution prevention 
information providers.'' In February 1995, NPPR submitted its final 
report. In this report, based on the results of survey and telephone 
interviews, the functions of an information network that would best 
support pollution prevention technical assistance programs were:
     Make information readily accessible and easy to search.
     Collect and update technical information.
     Identify experts or other sources of information.
     Provide technical information in a synthesized format (which might 
include case studies, process information, bibliography, vendor 
information, etc.).
    In October 1994, EPA funded a 4-year pilot proposal to establish a 
model program for interstate cooperation on pollution prevention 
information sharing. Three organizations agreed to participate in the 
pilot to coordinate information collection, synthesis, peer review, and 
dissemination: Northeast Waste Management Officials Association, the 
Illinois Hazardous Waste Research and Information Center (now called 
the Illinois Waste Management and Research Center, and the Wisconsin 
Solid and Hazardous Waste Education Center. Under this pilot program, 
State focus groups were formed to determine pollution prevention 
information needs. In September 1995, the States in the Northeast 
approved a 5-year plan to aid in the collection, organization, and 
distribution of pollution prevention technical information in the 
Northeast. The Great Lakes States developed a management plan for the 
Great Lakes Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse and set up a 
listserve system (P2TECH) to assist pollution prevention technical 
assistance programs nationwide in finding answers to technical 
assistance problems. Four pollution prevention technical information 
packets were written and peer-reviewed to summarize P2 technical 
solutions for technical assistance providers. These four documents on 
the printing industry, primary metals industry, metal finishing 
industry and metal painting and coating operations are posted on the 
Internet at http://www.wmrc.uiuc.edu/packets/. These three 
organizations also collaborated on three different data bases: vendor, 
bibliographic, and case study data bases.
    4. Existing Regional P2 Information Centers. EPA awarded nine 
grants in response to the first Federal Register notice on the 
establishment of a Pollution Prevention Information Network published 
on February 5, 1997 (62 FR 5393) (FRL-5582-5). The 9 grantees 
represented all 10 of the USEPA Regions. These regional P2 information 
centers are only partially funded by this grant program and represent a 
variety of organizations. The grantees are all State entities (this 
includes State environmental departments as well as universities, see 
Unit IV.1. of this notice-- Applicants). In some cases the grantees are 
also funded by other Federal technical assistance programs, such as the 
Small Business Administration or the National Institute of Standards 
and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership, State and Local 
governments, or their Regional EPA office. Some grantees subcontract 
work to non-profits or to other States for specific activities. 
Grantees vary in the number of States they serve. There are 2 centers 
that each serve 4 States and another center that serves 14 States.
    The first solicitation for this grant program was intended to 
establish new regional centers (where needed) or give additional funds 
to existing centers to: (1) improve communication between centers, (2) 
minimize duplication of efforts in creating and disseminating P2 
information, and (3) promote information standards that would 
facilitate P2 information dissemination nationwide. Over the past 2 
years, grantees have enhanced networking among centers and improved 
nationwide interaction on P2 information projects through monthly 
conference calls, biannual meetings, websites, listserves and 
databases. Frequent communication among grantees has built familiarity 
with other regional resources and their mode of operation. The grantees 
have formed a group they call the ``Pollution Prevention Resource 
Exchange'' (P2Rx). More information about the P2Rx centers can be found 
on the Internet at: http://www.epa.gov/p2/p2rxdir.htm. Each of these 
grantees have developed web sites to improve access to regional P2 
information. The current nine grantees are now in their third year of 
funding. Given the variety of resources and approaches in the existing 
regional centers, this small grant program does not intend to fund all 
of the regional centers' current activities.
    One of the regional centers serves as ``P2Rx coordinator.'' The 
term of the P2Rx coordinator is 2 years. The P2Rx coordinator/regional 
center receives additional funding from EPA, separate from the P2 
information grant to fund tasks such as: facilitating communication and 
consensus among regional centers, surveying centers to collect 
information on specific projects or activities, and cataloguing the 
services and resources available at each center. This coordinator uses 
meetings, conference calls, subcommittees, surveys or white papers to 
help the regional centers to work together in developing activities or 
guidelines to meet their objectives. Over the past 2 years the Pacific 
Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource center has served as 
coordinator for EPA and the grantees. For the next 2 years, EPA has 
funded the Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Information Center 
which will serve as coordinator for current grantees and for FY 2001 
grantees. New grantees will be included in national meetings and 
monthly conference calls. Past experience has demonstrated the 
importance of personal affiliation as well as the usefulness of 
electronic

[[Page 61639]]

communication and web sites to build a national information system. 
Regional centers and their States, who contribute to the regional 
information centers, promote the availability of P2 information and 
provide opportunities for other States to leverage resources. This 
collaboration allows information to be accessed and shared nationally, 
particularly through Internet based P2 information projects.

III. National Program Objectives

    1. Purpose. EPA is inviting proposals from the existing Pollution 
Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx) centers as well requesting new 
applicants, who should coordinate their proposed work with the existing 
P2Rx centers where possible. Proposals should describe how pollution 
prevention information will be collected and organized so that it can 
be easily and quickly retrieved nationally. This nationwide system will 
depend on the participation of individual States as well as regional 
centers to supply P2 information and expertise. EPA is seeking to 
provide more efficient support to P2 technical assistance providers by 
providing for regional centers that have specialized areas of 
information they collect and disseminate from a number of States. For 
example, case studies from each State could be submitted to one 
regional center, key information put into a uniform case study format 
and then disseminated. Currently, State grant funds may be used to 
create P2 manuals for businesses in each State without knowledge of 
similar efforts in other States. Nationwide coordination could allow 
States to build on existing P2 information and share materials, 
databases, or training where applicable. National coordination of 
regional P2 information specialty areas could allow State assistance 
providers to focus resources on priority industries or needs and use 
existing P2 information collected in regional centers for other 
industries.
    Over the past 2 years the expansion of information on the Internet 
has challenged businesses and business assistance providers alike in 
the search for information that is accurate, useful, and timely. The 
growth of information available on the Internet provides both an 
opportunity and a challenge. While the Internet offers a relatively 
inexpensive delivery platform for P2 information (compared to paying 
staff to answer phones or compose and print P2 fact sheets), not all P2 
information customers will use the Internet. At this point it appears a 
nationwide P2 information network must use both electronic 
dissemination as well as people to act as guides that can efficiently 
locate P2 information based on their knowledge of regional, State, and 
electronic resources. As regional centers become more knowledgeable 
about State resources and P2 initiatives, they will be more effective 
in providing information to their State customers. A regional P2 
information center can more efficiently provide resources to State 
technical assistance providers if it is based on personal familiarity 
with the resources available at all of the other regional centers.
    EPA is seeking proposals that will contribute to the organization 
and efficient retrieval of P2 information. Such a system could be based 
on current web sites, enhancing how information is organized on a web 
site, links between web sites, or a shared database. There are many 
ways information could be organized and presented on the Internet: by 
topic, by format of information (such as case studies, fact sheets, 
journal articles), by audience the information is written for, by 
industry or process the information addresses, etc. Presently much P2 
information is organized by industry or service sectors, based on the 
businesses that may need the information. Information is also collected 
and organized based on the Federal, State or Local government needs for 
P2 information, such as the Department of Defense/State P2 
partnerships. Applicants should be willing to work with other grantees 
for the common purpose of facilitating access to P2 information on the 
Internet. Such efforts may include agreements on metadata standards for 
electronic information on the Internet or agreements on electronic 
database structure to facilitate information sharing nationally. 
Applicants may propose tasks supporting their regional P2 information 
activities such as: supporting a web site which targets State or local 
government technical assistance providers, creating databases relevant 
to their regional information needs, or electronically disseminating 
regionally important P2 information. The regional centers should 
continue to operate as hubs for State P2 information collection. 
Applicants may describe other activities which support collecting P2 
information from a number of States. Applicants should include letters 
of support from other States or organizations supporting the proposal. 
Proposals should be coordinated with existing EPA Regional P2 
information centers, where possible.
    2. Required tasks for all proposals-- i. Identification of 
expertise. Applicants should identify the areas of expertise they will 
develop. Proposals should describe the basis and rationale for the 
proposed approach to collecting, organizing or developing P2 
information that can be accessed nationwide, as well as the need for 
such information. Organizing information by industry, process, service 
sector or audience are all approaches that have been used to organize 
P2 information. Currently, the Agency is invested in a variety of 
industry and service sector efforts. Examples of current Agency 
programs addressing key services or industries include: compliance 
assistance centers, the Sustainable Industries program, and the Design 
for Environment program.
    ii. Participation in a voluntary network. Current grantees have 
formed a voluntary network of regional P2 information providers called 
the Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange (P2Rx). P2Rx has acted as a 
forum for the regional centers to exchange information and approaches 
for various regional services. The face to face meeting has played an 
important role in allowing regional centers to learn from each other 
and work collaboratively. EPA will continue to fund a coordinator 
position that will serve to facilitate communication among new and 
continuing grantees. EPA wants to promote a forum for coordinating 
regional P2 information services and projects on a national level. 
Applicants under this solicitation should include activities related to 
participation in national meetings, monthly conference calls, and 
subcommittees. Opportunities to organize P2 information, select 
appropriate areas of expertise and develop cooperative projects can be 
discussed in this forum.
    iii. Reporting on P2 information services. Applicants should 
provide a draft format for reporting use of their information services 
twice a year. Applicants should consider posting grant activities and 
web site usage reports on their website to facilitate communication 
with EPA and States. All grantees should work together to develop 
common metrics that will illustrate each grantee's contribution to the 
P2 information network.
    iv. Customer satisfaction. Applicants should propose some way of 
utilizing State representatives to guide, evaluate, and provide 
feedback on the information services the applicant is proposing. 
Applicants are encouraged to make use of existing regional 
organizations to provide feedback over the course of the grant. Monthly 
conference calls, meetings tied into existing regional meetings, or web 
site comments could be used as a source of customer feedback. 
Applicants should

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clearly identify the customer base they propose to reach.

IV. Eligibility

    1. Applicants. In accordance with the Pollution Prevention Act of 
1990, eligible applicants for purposes of funding under this grant 
program include the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the U.S. 
Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, any territory or 
possession of the United States, any agency or instrumentality of a 
State including State universities and all federally recognized Indian 
tribes. For convenience, the term ``State'' in this notice refers to 
all eligible applicants. Local governments, private universities, 
private non-profit entities, private businesses, and individuals are 
not eligible. State applicants are encouraged to establish partnerships 
with other business and environmental assistance providers in order to 
more seamlessly deliver pollution prevention technical assistance. In 
many cases partnerships can make the most efficient use of Federal/
State government funding.
    2. Availability of FY 2000 funds. With this publication, EPA is 
expecting the availability of $1 million in cooperative agreement funds 
for FY 2000. These awards will be made through a competitive process 
for amounts not to exceed $150,000.00 per year. Proposals may include 
up to 2 years in their schedule and budget.
    3. Matching requirements. Under the Pollution Prevention Act of 
1990, the Federal Government will provide up to half of the total 
allowable costs of the project, and the State will provide the 
remainder. For example, a project costing $200,000 could be funded by a 
grant for up to $100,000 from the Federal government. The State is 
responsible for providing the remainder. State contributions may 
include cash, in-kind goods and services and third party contributions.
    4. Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance. The number assigned to 
this program in the Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance is 66.708 
(formerly 66.900).

V. Applications

    Grant guidance can be obtained by contacting Beth Anderson, Office 
of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Mail Code 7409, Environmental 
Protection Agency, 401 M St. SW., Washington, DC 20460, telephone 
number: (202) 260-2602, e-mail address: [email protected]. Access 
information about this grant program at http://www.epa.gov/p2. Federal 
forms for grant applications can be downloaded from: http://
www.epa.gov/glnpo/fund/appforms.html. Note that this Internet site is 
for the ``Great Lakes Funding Program'' and not all of these forms or 
directions apply to this grant program. Federal forms that should be 
included for this grant program are: Application for Federal assistance 
OMB form 424; Budget information form 424A; Construction assurances 
form 424B: Certification regarding debarment, etc form 5700-49; 
Certification regarding lobbying; and EPA Civil rights form 4700-4. The 
basic contents of a proposal should include:
    (1) A description of the proposed statement of work, including a 
statement of the problems or issues the proposal addresses.
    (2) A description of the tasks that will be carried out, the 
estimated cost of each task and estimated completion dates.
    (3) A description of deliverables that will be produced and 
estimated completion dates.
    (4) A description of the measures or activities that will be 
reported to reflect the effectiveness of each of the proposed tasks.
    (5) A proposed format for biannual reports, including information 
that will be posted on the web site.
    (6) Letters of support from State or local programs which provide 
technical assistance to small businesses.

VI. Process for Evaluation of Proposals

     A national panel, comprised of EPA representatives from both 
Headquarters and the EPA Regions, will evaluate each proposal. 
Acceptable proposals, meeting the eligibility requirements in Unit IV 
of this notice, will be reviewed according to the following criteria:
    (1) Relevance and justification for the proposed pollution 
prevention area of expertise.
    (2) Adequacy of activities that address participation in a 
voluntary network of grantees, measures of customer satisfaction, and 
reporting pollution prevention information services.
    (3) Feasibility of the activities being proposed, taking into 
account the commitments from other States or programs that will be 
participating in the proposal.
    (4) Qualifications and experience of the applicant and the program 
manager in serving regional pollution prevention information needs and 
reporting results under previous grants.
    (5) Appropriateness of the proposed budget for each task, 
deliverables and dates of completion for the activities being proposed.
    (6) Level of additional support for the applicant from other 
sources, including State or Federal funds.

List of Subjects

    Environmental protection.

    Dated: November 3, 1999.

William H. Sanders, III,

Director, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Environmental 
Protection Agency.

[FR Doc. 99-29587 Filed 11-10-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-F