[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 33 (Friday, February 17, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8578-8580]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-2323]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-8034-2]


Science Advisory Board Staff Office; Request for Nominations for 
Science Advisory Board Panel(s) on Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) 
Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office is soliciting nominations for 
nationally recognized scientists to serve on an SAB expert Panel or 
Panels to conduct an evaluation of the complex scientific and technical 
issues that affect the causes, location, magnitude and duration of the 
hypoxic zone in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the priority 
and feasibility of management and control options in the Mississippi 
River Basin and Gulf to reduce it.

DATES: Nominations should be submitted by March 10, 2006 per the 
instructions below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information regarding this Request 
for Nominations please contact Dr. Holly Stallworth, Designated Federal 
Officer (DFO), EPA Science Advisory Board Staff, at 
[email protected] or (202) 343-9867. General information 
concerning the SAB can be found on the EPA Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/sab. For information on EPA's activities related to hypoxia 
in the Gulf of Mexico, please contact Mr. John Wilson in the Office of 
Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds at [email protected] or (202) 566-
1158 or Mr. Daniel Kaiser in the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and 
Watersheds at [email protected] or (202) 566-0686.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Background: A large area of depleted oxygen occurs on the Louisiana 
continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico on an annual basis. EPA is one 
of the Federal agencies with responsibilities over activities in the 
Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico and participates with 
other Federal agencies, state and tribes in the Mississippi River/Gulf 
of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force. In 2001, the Mississippi 
River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force released the Action 
Plan for Reducing, Mitigating and Controlling Hypoxia in the Northern 
Gulf of Mexico (hereinafter called the Action Plan, available at: 
http://www.epa.gov/msbasin/taskforce/actionplan.htm). This Action Plan 
was informed by the underlying science described in An Integrated 
Assessment of Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (hereinafter 
called the Integrated Assessment, available at http://www.nos.noaa.gov/products/hypox_finalfront.pdf) developed by the National Science and 
Technology Council. Six technical reports available at http://www.nos.noaa.gov/products/pubs_hypox.html provided the scientific 
foundation for the Integrated Assessment.
    At the request of EPA's Office of Water, the Science Advisory Board 
(SAB) is forming a Panel(s) to evaluate the state-of-the-science 
regarding the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. The EPA Science Advisory 
Board (SAB) was established by 42 U.S.C. 4365 to provide independent 
scientific and technical advice, consultation, and recommendations to 
the EPA Administrator on the technical basis for Agency positions and 
regulations. This SAB Panel(s) will comply with the provisions of the 
Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and all appropriate SAB 
procedures. Upon completion, the Panel's report will be submitted to 
the SAB for final approval for transmittal to the EPA Administrator.
    The SAB Panel(s) will review all available and relevant 
information, including the Action Plan, the Integrated Assessment, and 
any new scientific literature that has appeared since they were 
released. The Panel(s) will address a variety of complex scientific and 
technical issues that affect the causes, location, magnitude and 
duration of the hypoxic zone, as well as the priority and feasibility 
of management and control options to reduce it. Such issues may include 
the biological, chemical, and physical characteristics of the 
Mississippi River Basin and the Gulf of Mexico; the sources, types, 
amounts, fate, transport, and dynamics of nutrients [nitrogen (N), 
phosphorus (P), carbon (C), silicon (Si)] and oxygen in freshwater, 
estuarine, and marine systems; factors affecting the formation and 
persistence of hypoxia in

[[Page 8579]]

estuarine and coastal waters; and decision science and the economic 
feasibility and efficacy of management options to reduce the hypoxic 
zone.
    Solicitation of Expertise. The SAB Staff Office requests 
nominations of nationally recognized experts in the natural and life 
sciences, decision sciences, economics, engineering, and natural 
resource or environmental management. The SAB is particularly 
interested in nominees who have extensive research or management 
experience with the description, quantification, prediction, mitigation 
and control of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, silicon and oxygen in the 
Mississippi River Basin, Gulf of Mexico, or other riverine, wetland 
estuarine, and marine systems. Expertise is sought in one or more of 
the following areas.
    (a) Chemistry--with emphasis on analyses, sources, fate, transport, 
dynamics and interactions of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, silicon, and 
oxygen in aquatic, estuarine, wetland, and marine systems;
    (b) Engineering--with emphasis on:
    (1) Agricultural engineering (implementation of management 
practices for agricultural runoff, fertilization, and alternative 
cropping;
    (2) Environmental engineering (point and non-point mitigation and 
control practices for nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon from industrial, 
municipal, septic, urban stormwater, and agricultural sources); and/or
    (3) Ecological engineering (constructed wetlands);
    (c) Biological Oceanography and Coastal, Estuarine and Marine 
Ecology--with emphasis on:
    (1) Nutrient sources and dynamics (N, P, C, Si) associated with 
primary secondary and tertiary production, microbial ecology, and the 
development and control of algal blooms in wetlands, estuaries, near 
coastal, and marine environments;
    (2) Studies involving nutrient (N, P, C, Si) removal, 
transformation, and export;
    (3) Energy and essential element flux through ecosystems, 
especially marine microbial food webs;
    (4) Hypoxia and related oxygen depletion phenomena;
    (5) Land use change, watershed dynamics, land-sea coupling, global 
ecology;
    (6) Organic and inorganic geochemistry, biogeochemical dynamics of 
aquatic food chains; biochemical markers of colloidal and particulate 
organic carbon; and/or
    (7) Bio-optics; fine-scale pigment distributions; microbial 
dynamics.
    (d) Limnology, Wetlands and Riverine Ecology--with emphasis on:
    (1) Nutrient sources and dynamics (N, P, C, Si) associated with 
primary production, eutrophication, microbial ecology, and algal blooms 
in the Mississippi River Basin, or other freshwater streams, rivers, 
reservoirs, lakes and wetlands; and/or
    (2) Water quality studies involving nutrient (N, P, C, Si) removal, 
transformation, and downstream export;
    (e) Groundwater and Soil Hydrology--with emphasis on:
    (1) Nutrient dynamics (N, P, C, Si) and wetlands as nutrient sinks 
and sources in the Mississippi River Delta;
    (2) Estuarine physical oceanography; and/or
    (3) Septic systems as sources of nutrients and carbon;
    (f) Chemical, Physical, And Coastal Oceanography--with emphasis on:
    (1) Freshwater discharge and stratification;
    (2) Estuarine and coastal shelf transport, mixing and circulation;
    (3) Global and regional nutrient cycles and their interactions;
    (4) Biogeochemical cycling in estuaries, lagoons, wetlands;
    (5) Dissolved oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics, 
especially in hypoxic zones;
    (6) Energy and essential element flux through ecosystems, 
especially marine microbial food webs; and/or
    (7) Potential for altered salinities at the estuary/shelf boundary 
from proposed Mississippi River redistribution and its importance for 
stratification on the shelf;
    (g) Coastal Paleoecology--with emphasis on interpretation of 
benthic foraminifera as indicators of historical ecological conditions;
    (h) Economics--with emphasis on:
    (1) Agricultural economics of row crops, animal feeding operations 
and their management;
    (2) Natural resource, ecological or environmental economics; and/or
    (3) Fisheries economics;
    (i) Modelling--with emphasis on:
    (1) Hydrologic models;
    (2) Riverine, estuarine, and marine water quality models;
    (3) Nutrient models (N, P, C, Si); and/or
    (4) Systems ecology models;
    (j) Statistics--with emphasis on designing, conducting and 
interpreting complex, multivariate, predictive studies over large 
spatial and temporal scales; and
    (k) Decision Sciences--with emphasis on collaborative decision-
making for natural resource, environmental, or watershed planning and 
management in the Mississippi River Basin, the Gulf of Mexico or other 
aquatic, estuarine, wetland, and marine systems.
    Process and Deadline for Submitting Nominations: Any interested 
person or organization may nominate qualified individuals to serve on 
the SAB Panel(s). Nominations should be submitted in electronic format 
through the SAB Web site at the following URL: http://www.epa.gov/sab; 
or directly via the Form for Nominating Individuals to Panels of the 
EPA Science Advisory Board link found at URL: http://www.epa.gov/sab/panels/paneltopics.html. To be considered, nominations must include all 
of the information required on the associated forms. Anyone who is 
unable to submit nominations using this form, and who has any questions 
concerning any aspects of the nomination process may contact the DFO, 
as indicated above in this notice. Nominations should be submitted in 
time to arrive no later than March 10, 2006.
    The EPA SAB Staff Office will acknowledge receipt of the 
nomination. From the nominees identified by respondents to this notice 
(termed the ``Widecast''), the SAB Staff Office will develop a smaller 
subset (known as the ``Short List'') for more detailed consideration. 
Criteria used by the SAB Staff in developing this Short List are given 
at the end of the following paragraph. The Short List will be posted 
for public comment on the SAB Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/sab. The 
Short List will include each nominee's name and a short biographical 
description of expertise and professional experiences. During this 
comment period, the public may provide relevant information on nominees 
that the SAB Staff Office should consider in evaluating candidates for 
the Panel.
    For the EPA SAB Staff Office, a balanced subcommittee or panel is 
characterized by inclusion of candidates who possess the necessary 
domains of knowledge, the relevant scientific perspectives (which, 
among other factors, can be influenced by work history and 
affiliation), and the collective breadth of experience to adequately 
address the charge. Public responses to the Short List candidates will 
be considered in the selection of the Panel, along with information 
provided by candidates and information independently-gathered by the 
SAB Staff Office on the background of each candidate. Specific criteria 
to be used in evaluating an individual nominee include: (a) Scientific 
and/or technical expertise, knowledge, and experience (primary 
factors); (b) availability and willingness to serve; (c) absence of 
financial conflicts of interest; (d) absence of an appearance of a lack 
of

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impartiality; and (e) skills working in committees, subcommittees and 
advisory panels; and, for the Panel as a whole, (f) diversity of, and 
balance among, scientific expertise and viewpoints.
    Prospective candidates will also be required to fill-out the 
``Confidential Financial Disclosure Form for Special Government 
Employees Serving on Federal Advisory Committees at the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency'' (EPA Form 3110-48). This confidential 
form allows Government officials to determine whether there is a 
statutory conflict between that person's public responsibilities (which 
includes membership on an EPA Federal advisory committee) and private 
interests and activities, or the appearance of a lack of impartiality, 
as defined by Federal regulation. The form may be viewed and downloaded 
from the following URL address: http://www.epa.gov/sab/sge_course/pdf_sge/epaform3110_48.pdf. The process by which the EPA SAB Office 
forms panels is described in the following document: Overview of the 
Panel Formation Process at the Environmental Protection Agency Science 
Advisory Board (EPA-SAB-EC-02-010), which is posted on the SAB Web site 
at: http://www.epa.gov/sab/pdf/ec02010.pdf.

    Dated: February 13, 2006.
Vanessa Vu,
Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
[FR Doc. E6-2323 Filed 2-16-06; 8:45 am]
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