[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 56 (Friday, March 23, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13789-13790]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-5358]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-8291-2; Docket ID No. ORD-2005-0001]


Draft of Part 2 of the 2007 Release of the Causal Analysis/
Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing a 30-
day public review and comment period for the external review draft of 
Part 2 of the 2007 release of the EPA Web site titled, ``Causal 
Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS).'' The CADDIS 
Web site was developed and prepared by EPA's National Center for 
Environmental Assessment (NCEA) in the Office of Research and 
Development (ORD). NCEA will consider public comments received in 
accordance with this notice when revising the CADDIS Web site.
    EPA is releasing the draft CADDIS 2007 Web site solely for the 
purpose of pre-dissemination peer review under applicable information 
quality guidelines. The draft CADDIS 2007 Web site 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 23, 2007, and ends 
April 23, 2007. Technical comments should be in writing and must be 
submitted electronically or postmarked by April 23, 2007.

ADDRESSES: The draft CADDIS 2007 Web site can be accessed via the 
Internet at http://caddis.tetratech-ffx.com. Enter the username 
``public'' and the password ``public.'' Comments may be submitted 
electronically to the EPA's e-docket, by mail, by facsimile, or by hand 
delivery/courier. Additional instructions for providing comments and a 
description of the portions of the Web site that are available for 
review are provided at the top of the home page of the CADDIS Web site 
and in the section of this notice entitled, SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

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 Vic Serveiss, 
NCEA, via phone: 202-564-3251, facsimile: 202-564-2018, or e-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Information About the Project/Document

    Over 2800 water bodies in the United States are listed by states as 
biologically impaired. For many of these sites, the cause of impairment 
is reported as ``unknown.'' To formulate appropriate management actions 
for impaired water bodies, it is important to identify the causes of 
biological impairment (e.g., excess fine sediments, nutrients, or toxic 
substances). Effective causal analyses call for knowledge of the 
mechanisms, symptoms, and stressor-response relationships for various 
stressors, as well as the ability to use that knowledge to draw 
appropriate, defensible conclusions. To aid in these causal analyses, 
NCEA developed CADDIS. CADDIS is a Web-based decision support system 
that will help regional, State, and tribal scientists find, access, 
organize, and share information useful for causal evaluations of 
impairment in aquatic systems. It is based on EPA's Stressor 
Identification process, which is an EPA-recommended method for 
identifying causes of impairments in aquatic environments. EPA released 
the first version of CADDIS earlier in 2006, after addressing comments 
from the public and independently selected peer reviewers. Current 
features of CADDIS include a step-by-step guide to conducting causal 
analysis, downloadable worksheets and examples, a library of conceptual 
models, and links to useful information sources.
    Two sets of modules are being added to the CADDIS Web site in 
preparation for release of a major revision in September 2007 (CADDIS 
2007). On January 17, 2007, the draft of the first of the two sets of 
modules was released for external peer review and public comment. This 
first set of draft modules included information on six candidate 
causes: metals, sediments, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, thermal 
alteration, and ionic strength.
    This notice invites comment on the second set of draft modules 
being developed for CADDIS 2007. Specifically, comment is invited on 
two additional candidate cause models, altered flow rates and toxic 
substances; an interactive conceptual model for phosphorus; and added 
analytical methods, tools, and databases. Descriptive information on 
ten analytical methods have been added to CADDIS 2007 including scatter 
plots, linear regression, predicting environmental conditions from 
biological observations, and species sensitivity distributions. The 
principal analytical tool added to CADDIS is CADStat; a downloadable 
software package for analyzing data using a variety of exploratory and 
statistical approaches. New analytical databases include a stressor-
response gallery for metals and a tolerance value database. These 
additions improve the capability of CADDIS to diagnose the causes of 
biological impairments in streams.

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

    Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2005-
0001 by one of the following methods:
     http://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, EPA West Building, Room 3334,

[[Page 13790]]

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-
2005-0001. Please ensure that your comments are submitted within the 
specified comment period. Comments received after the closing date will 
be marked ``late,'' and may only be considered if time permits. It is 
EPA's policy to include all comments it receives in the public docket 
without change and to make the comments available online at http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided, 
unless a 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 
in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the EPA 
Headquarters Docket Center.

    Dated: March 20, 2007.
George Alapas,
Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. E7-5358 Filed 3-22-07; 8:45 am]
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