[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 41 (Friday, March 2, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9522-9523]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-3685]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-8282-7; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2007-0108]


External Review Draft, Evaluating Ecological Risk to Invertebrate 
Receptors From PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste Sites

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of public comment period.

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SUMMARY: EPA is announcing a 30-day public comment period for the draft 
document titled, ``Evaluating Ecological Risk to Invertebrate Receptors 
from PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste Sites'' (EPA/600/R-06/162). 
The document was prepared by the Ecological Risk Assessment Support 
Center managed by the National Center for Environmental Assessment 
within EPA's Office of Research and Development.
    EPA is releasing this draft document solely for the purpose of pre-
dissemination peer review under applicable information quality 
guidelines. This document has not been formally disseminated by EPA. It 
does not represent and should not be construed to represent any Agency 
policy or determination. EPA will consider any public comments 
submitted in accordance with this notice when revising the document.

DATES: The 30-day public comment period begins March 2, 2007, and ends 
April 2, 2007. Technical comments should be in writing and must be 
received by EPA by April 2, 2007.

ADDRESSES: The draft document, ``Evaluating Ecological Risk to 
Invertebrate Receptors from PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste 
Sites,'' is available primarily via the Internet on the National Center 
for Environmental Assessment's home page under the ``Recent Additions'' 
and ``Publications'' menus at http://www.epa.gov/ncea. A limited number 
of paper copies are available from the Technical Information Staff, 
NCEA-Cin; telephone: 513-569-7257; facsimile: 513-569-7916. If you are 
requesting a paper copy, please provide your name, your mailing 
address, and the document title, ``Evaluating Ecological Risk to 
Invertebrate Receptors from PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste 
Sites.''
    Comments may be submitted electronically via www.regulations.gov, 
by mail, by facsimile, or by hand delivery/courier. Please follow the 
detailed instructions provided in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section 
of this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the public comment 
period, contact the Office of Environmental Information Docket; 
telephone: 202-566-1752; facsimile: 202-566-1753; or e-mail: 
[email protected].
    For technical information, contact Michael Kravitz, NCEA; 
telephone: 513-569-7740; facsimile: 513-487-2540; or email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Information About the Project/Document

    U.S. EPA's Ecological Risk Assessment Support Center (ERASC) is a 
knowledge center that provides technical information and addresses 
scientific questions on topics relevant to ecological risk assessment 
at hazardous waste sites for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency 
Response (OSWER) and Regional Superfund/Resource Conservation and 
Recovery Act (RCRA) staff. Topics are submitted to ERASC by users in 
EPA program offices and regions. The ERASC is managed by the Office of 
Research and Development's (ORD's) National Center for Environmental 
Assessment and is located in Cincinnati, Ohio.
    The ERASC recently completed an external review draft document 
titled, ``Evaluating Ecological Risk to Invertebrate Receptors from 
PAHs in Sediments at Hazardous Waste Sites.'' It provides an overview 
of an approach for assessing risk to invertebrate receptors resulting 
from exposure to PAHs in contaminated sediments. The approach, based on 
procedures described in the EPA document, Procedures for the Derivation 
of Equilibrium Partitioning Sediment Benchmarks (ESBs) for the 
Protection of Benthic Organisms: PAH Mixtures (EPA/600/R-02/013), 
involves the use of equilibrium partitioning techniques to determine 
exposure/bioavailability and narcosis theory to estimate sublethal 
toxicity of PAHs. Examples of how to use this approach with analytical 
data resulting from the analysis of contaminated sediments are 
provided. The approach offers risk assessors a useful tool for 
assessing the risk of PAHs to benthic invertebrates at hazardous waste 
sites, particularly when used with other contaminated sediment 
assessment methods. The External Review Draft only addresses risks to 
benthic invertebrates because reaching a consensus scientific position 
on vertebrate risk issues is a longer-term prospect.

II. How To Submit Technical Comments to the Docket at 
www.regulations.gov

    Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2007-
0108 by one of the following methods:
     www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for 
submitting comments.
     E-mail: [email protected].
     Fax: 202-566-1753.
     Mail: Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket 
(Mail Code: 2822T), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460. The phone number is 202-
566-1752.
     Hand Delivery: The OEI Docket is located in the EPA 
Headquarters Docket Center, Room 3334 EPA West Building, 1301 
Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center Public 
Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public 
Reading Room is 202-566-1744. Such deliveries are only accepted during 
the Docket's normal hours of operation, and special arrangements should 
be made for deliveries of boxed information.
    If you provide comments by mail or hand delivery, please submit 
three copies of the comments. For attachments, provide an index, number 
pages consecutively with the comments, and submit an unbound original 
and three copies.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-
2007-0108. It is EPA's policy to include all comments it receives in 
the public

[[Page 9523]]

docket without change and to make the comments available online at 
www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided, 
unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential 
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is 
restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to 
be CBI or otherwise protected through www.regulations.gov or e-mail. 
The www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system, 
which means EPA will not know your identity or contact information 
unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an e-
mail comment directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov, 
your e-mail address will be automatically captured and included as part 
of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available 
on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends 
that you include your name and other contact information in the body of 
your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read 
your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for 
clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic 
files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of 
encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses. For additional 
information about EPA's public docket visit the EPA Docket Center 
homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
    Docket: Documents in the docket are listed in the 
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other materials, 
such as copyrighted material, are publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
at www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the EPA 
Headquarters Docket Center.

    Dated: February 22, 2007.
Peter W. Preuss,
Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. E7-3685 Filed 3-1-07; 8:45 am]
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