[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 132 (Monday, July 10, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42355-42356]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-17350]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-6732-5]


Scientific Peer-Review Meeting To Review Draft Document on 
Ecological Soil Screening Level Guidance

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of Peer-Review Panel Workshop.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing 
that Versar, Inc., an EPA contractor for external scientific peer 
review, will organize, convene, and conduct an external peer-review 
panel workshop to review the external review draft document titled, 
Ecological Soil Screening Level Guidance. The document was prepared by 
an EPA-lead multi-stakeholder process with participants from EPA (the 
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER), the Office of 
Research and Development (ORD), and the Regions), Environment Canada, 
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Department of Defense 
(DoD), states, academia, industry, and consultants. The EPA will 
consider the peer-review advice and comments in revising the document.

DATES: The peer-review panel workshop will be held Wednesday, July 26, 
2000, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Thursday, July 27, from 8:30 
a.m. until Noon. Members of the public may attend as observers, and 
there will be a limited time for comments from the public.

ADDRESSES: The external peer-review panel workshop will be held at the 
Crystal City Marriott Hotel, 1999 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, 
Virginia. Versar, Inc., an EPA contractor, is organizing, convening, 
and conducting the peer-review workshop. To attend the workshop, please 
register by July 24, 2000, by calling Mr. Amanjit Paintal, Versar, 
Inc., 6850 Versar Center, Springfield, VA 22151 at 703-750-3000 
extension 449, or send a facsimile to 703-642-6954. You can also 
register via email at [email protected]. Space is

[[Page 42356]]

limited, and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-
served basis. There will be a limited time for comments from the public 
during the workshop. Please let Versar, Inc., know if you wish to make 
comments.
    The draft guidance document on ecological soil screening levels is 
available on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/programs/risk/tooleco.htm. A limited number of paper copies are available from 
Versar. If you are requesting a paper copy, please provide your name, 
mailing address, and the document title, Ecological Soil Screening 
Level Guidance. Copies are available from Versar, Inc. by calling Mr. 
Amanjit Paintal, Versar, Inc., 6850 Versar Center, Springfield, VA 
22151 at 703-750-3000 extension 449, or send a facsimile to 703-642-
6954. You can also request a copy by e-mail by writing to 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For workshop information, 
registration, and logistics, contact Mr. Amanjit Paintal, Versar, Inc., 
6850 Versar Center, Springfield, VA 22151, at 703-750-3000 extension 
449 or via email at [email protected].
    For technical information, contact Steve Ells, OSWER, telephone: 
703-603-8822, facsimile: 703-603-9100, e-mail: [email protected]; or 
Randy Wentsel, ORD, telephone: 202-564-3214, facsimile: 202-565-0050, 
e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The purpose of the document is to put 
forward procedures to develop scientifically sound, ecologically based, 
soil screening levels that are protective of the terrestrial 
environment for up to 24 chemicals of concern. As part of the process, 
methodologies and models that use site-specific exposure data to modify 
these screening levels are presented.
    Although several different entities (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 
the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, the Dutch 
National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, and the 
Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy) have developed sets of soil 
screening levels, benchmarks, or preliminary remediation goals for many 
contaminants, EPA has not embraced any specific approach for use 
nationally at all Superfund sites. Although some EPA Regional Offices, 
Federal agencies, states and contractors use one or more of these 
approaches, many do not and instead perform literature searches for 
toxicity data on each of the chemicals of potential concern and develop 
site-specific soil concentrations to be used as screening levels for 
the site under investigation. This repetitious approach can be very 
costly and time-consuming.
    In order to improve national consistency and to conserve resources, 
an effort was made to form a multi-stakeholder process to develop 
scientifically sound, ecologically-based, soil screening levels, and 
many have participated, e.g., EPA, DoD, DOE, states, industry, and 
consultants. This collaborative project is expected to result in a 
Superfund guidance document that includes generic ecological soil 
screening levels (Eco-SSLs) for up to 24 chemicals that are frequently 
of ecological concern at Superfund sites. These Eco-SSLs will be soil 
concentrations that are expected to be protective of the mammalian, 
avian, plant, and soil invertebrates communities that could be exposed 
to the chemicals of concern. These Eco-SSLs will be conservative in 
order to be confident that chemicals that could present an unacceptable 
risk are not screened out early in the risk assessment process. The 
process used to develop this first set of Eco-SSLs can also be used to 
develop additional screening levels for other chemicals.
    The participants produced draft Eco-SSLs for mammals, birds, 
plants, and soil biota. The plant and soil biota values were developed 
from available plant and soil invertebrate toxicity test data. The 
mammal and bird benchmarks were back-calculated from a hazard quotient 
of 1.0 using animal toxicity data and a small number of generic food 
chain models. The lowest reasonable Eco-SSL for each chemical will then 
be used to screen chemicals found at sites. These generic (i.e., not 
site-specific) Eco-SSLs will be used during Step 2 of the Superfund 
Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) process (Ecological Risk Assessment 
Guidance for Superfund; Process for Designing and Conducting Ecological 
Risk Assessments, 1997), when there often are only limited site-
specific data available. These levels represent a set of screening 
ecotoxicity values that can be used routinely to identify those 
chemicals of potential concern (COPCs) in soils requiring further 
evaluation in a baseline ecological risk assessment; they are not 
national cleanup standards.

    Dated: July 3, 2000.
William H. Farland,
Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 00-17350 Filed 7-7-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P