[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 79 (Wednesday, April 25, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20538-20539]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-7893]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-8305-5]


Science Advisory Board Staff Office Notification of a Meeting of 
the Science Advisory Board Homeland Security Advisory Committee

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a 
public face-to-face meeting of the SAB Homeland Security Advisory 
Committee (HSAC) to consult on two developing projects: the Emergency 
Consequence Assessment Tool (ECAT), and the Preliminary Microbial Risk 
Assessment Methodologies (MRA).

DATES: The meeting dates are Wednesday, May 30, 2007, from 9 a.m. to 6 
p.m. and Thursday, May 31, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon (eastern 
standard time).

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at the U.S. EPA Science Advisory 
Board

[[Page 20539]]

Staff Office Conference Room, Third Floor, 1025 F Street, NW., Suite 
3700, Washington, DC 20004.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Members of the public who wish to 
obtain further information about this meeting may contact Ms. Vivian 
Turner, Designated Federal Officer (DFO), by mail at EPA SAB Staff 
Office (1400F), U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20460; by telephone at (202) 343-9697; by fax at (202) 233-0643; or by 
e-mail at [email protected]. The SAB mailing address is: U.S. EPA, 
Science Advisory Board (1400F), 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., 
Washington, DC 20460. General information about the SAB, as well as any 
updates concerning the meeting announced in this notice, may be found 
on the SAB Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/sab.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    EPA's National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) is 
developing an interactive online risk assessment and management 
software tool to provide health advisors and other emergency response 
officials with rapid access to critical information during an 
environmental emergency or training exercise. The Emergency Consequence 
Assessment Tool (ECAT) is designed to assess and provide site-specific 
numeric estimates of health risks for selected chemical, biological and 
radiological threat agents; and identify what response actions might be 
appropriate to mitigate health risks. Additionally, NHSRC is conducting 
research to assist program offices and decision-makers in: (1) 
Assessing the hazard and risk of exposure to highly toxic chemical and 
biological agents after deliberate contamination, and (2) deriving 
decontamination goals for cleanup and re-entry to contaminated 
buildings. One of the most important issues in regards to biological 
threat agents is the development of a risk assessment methodology to 
accomplish these goals. Currently, there is no consensus-based 
methodology for evaluating biological contaminants and establishing 
cleanup levels. To address this gap, the research being conducted is 
evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of existing biological risk 
assessment methods and tools to develop a preliminary incident-based 
Microbial Risk Assessment (MRA) Framework. The preliminary MRA 
framework represents an initial template and decision tool that 
addresses information gathering and decision support activity to 
conduct risk assessment over projected time intervals following the 
incident. The MRA framework is organized to support initial site 
assessment followed by more in-depth hazard and exposure assessment 
methodologies as additional site and hazard information is accumulated 
from the ongoing investigations and sampling analyses. Two primary 
goals of the framework are to address the uncertainties of the many 
unknown variables associated with biothreat agents and deriving 
preliminary acceptable decontamination goals other than ``zero''. In 
the context of deriving safe cleanup levels for biothreat agents, the 
applicability and quality of existing data on biological organisms and 
the research conducted to fill critical gaps in this data are key to 
continued progress in this area. The NHSRC has requested the SAB to 
provide technical advice regarding the development of ECAT and MRA. The 
SAB was established by 42 U.S.C. 4365 to provide independent scientific 
and technical advice, consultation, and recommendations to the EPA 
Administrator. The SAB HSAC will be augmented with other SAB members to 
conduct these consultations through the Chartered SAB. The HSAC will 
provide advice to the Agency on the preliminary versions of the ECAT 
and the MRA and early recommendations for the future development and 
application of both.

Availability of Meeting Materials

    A roster of committee members, their biographical sketches, and the 
meeting agenda will be placed on the SAB Web site at http://www.epa.gov/sab in advance of this meeting. Dr. Kevin Garrahan 
([email protected]) is the technical contact for ECAT and Dr. 
Tonya Nichols ([email protected]) is the technical contact for MRA. 
Access to ECAT and MRA materials will be available on the NHSRC Web 
site: http://www.epa.gov/nhsrc.

Procedures for Providing Public Input

    Interested members of the public may submit relevant written or 
oral information for the SAB to consider during the advisory process.
    Oral Statements: In general, individuals or groups requesting an 
oral presentation at a public meeting will be limited to five minutes 
per speaker, with no more than one hour for all speakers. Interested 
parties should contact Ms. Turner, DFO, at the contact information 
provided above, by May 23, 2007, to be placed on the public speaker 
list for the May 30-31, 2007 meeting.
    Written Statements: Written statements should be received in the 
SAB Staff Office by May 23, 2007, so that the information may be made 
available to the SAB for their consideration prior to this meeting. 
Written statements should be supplied to the DFO in the following 
formats: one hard copy with original signature at the mailing address 
provided above, and one electronic copy via e-mail to 
[email protected] (acceptable file format: Adobe Acrobat PDF, 
WordPerfect, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, or Rich Text files in IBM-PC/
Windows 98/2000/XP format).

Meeting Accommodations

    For information on access or services for individuals with 
disabilities, please contact Ms. Vivian Turner at (202) 343-9697, or 
via e-mail at [email protected]. To request accommodation of a 
disability, please contact Ms.Turner, preferably at least 10 days prior 
to the meeting, to give EPA as much time as possible to process your 
request.

    Dated: April 19, 2007.
Anthony F. Maciorowski,
 Deputy Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
[FR Doc. E7-7893 Filed 4-24-07; 8:45 am]
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