[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 210 (Wednesday, October 31, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61635-61636]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-21446]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

 [FRL-8489-8]


Notification of a Public Teleconference of the Science Advisory 
Board Drinking Water Committee

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office is 
announcing a public teleconference of the SAB Drinking Water Committee 
(DWC) to discuss advisory activities for the coming year.

DATES: The SAB will hold a public teleconference on November 13, 2007. 
The teleconference will begin at 1 p.m. and end at 3 p.m. (Eastern 
Time).
    Location: The teleconference will be conducted by telephone only.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Any member of the public wishing to 
obtain general information concerning this public teleconference or 
meeting should contact Dr. Sue Shallal, Designated Federal Officer 
(DFO), EPA Science Advisory Board (1400F), U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460; 
via telephone/voice mail: (202) 343-9977; fax: (202) 233-0643; or e-
mail at: [email protected]. General information concerning the EPA 
Science Advisory Board can be found on the EPA SAB Web Site at: http://www.epa.gov/sab.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The SAB was established by 42 U.S.C. 4365 to 
provide independent scientific and technical advice to the 
Administrator on the technical basis for Agency positions and 
regulations. The SAB is a Federal Advisory Committee chartered under 
the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), as amended, 5 U.S.C., App. 
The SAB will comply with the provisions of FACA and all appropriate SAB 
Staff Office procedural policies.
    Background: EPA's Office of Water has requested that the SAB DWC 
evaluate three Agency activities in the coming year. To acquaint the 
DWC with these activities, EPA will provide introductory briefings to 
the DWC on: (1) The Aircraft Drinking Water Rule; (2) the Drinking 
Water Draft Contaminant Candidate List 3; and (3) Waterborne Diseases: 
Measures to Link Drinking Water Programs to Public Health Outcomes. The 
Agency will offer these briefings to acquaint the DWC with the Agency's 
activities in preparation for future meetings. Preliminary background 
information on these activities follow.
    Aircraft Drinking Water Rule--Under the Safe Drinking Water Act 
(SDWA), any interstate carrier conveyance (ICC) that regularly serves 
drinking water to an average of at least 25 individuals daily, at least 
60 days per year, is subject to the National Primary Drinking Water 
Regulations (NPDWR). An ICC is a carrier which conveys passengers in 
interstate commerce. The classes of ICCs include airplanes, trains, 
buses, and water vessels. The U.S. EPA is responsible for developing 
and implementing the NPDWRs for all public water systems, including 
public water systems on ICCs. The existing NPDWRs were designed for 
traditional, stationary public water systems, not mobile aircraft water 
systems that are operationally very different. EPA is proposing an 
Aircraft Drinking Water Rule (ADWR) that only addresses aircraft within 
U.S. jurisdiction. However, EPA is also supporting an international 
effort led by the World Health Organization to develop international 
guidelines for aircraft drinking water. The proposed ADWR applies to 
the onboard water system only. The Food and Drug Administration is 
responsible for regulating the watering points that include the water 
cabinets, carts, trucks, and hoses from which aircraft board water. The 
Office of Water has asked the DWC to hold a future consultative meeting 
on this topic.
    Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List Draft Revisions--The 1996 
Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments (SDWA) require EPA to (1) publish 
every five years a list of currently unregulated contaminants in 
drinking water that may pose risks (the Contaminant Candidate List or 
``CCL''), and (2) make determinations on whether or not to regulate at 
least five contaminants from that list on a staggered five year cycle. 
The list must be published after consultation with the scientific 
community, including the SAB, after notice and opportunity for public 
comment, and after consideration of the occurrence database established 
under section 1445(g) of the SDWA. The unregulated contaminants 
considered for the list must include, but are not limited to, 
substances referred to in section 101(14) of the Comprehensive 
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 
(CERCLA), and substances registered under the Federal Insecticide, 
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Developing the Contaminant 
Candidate List is part of the process of identifying water-borne 
threats to public health that need to be addressed by the Agency. EPA 
published and finalized the first CCL (CCL1) on March 2, 1998 (63 FR 
10273). CCL1 contained 50 chemicals and 10 microbial contaminants/
groups and was developed using technical experts who reviewed readily 
available information. EPA consulted with the scientific community, 
including the SAB, on a process for developing the first CCL. EPA 
published and finalized the second CCL (CCL2) on February 24, 2005 (70 
FR 9071). CCL2 carried forward the remaining 51 chemical and microbial 
contaminants/groups listed on CCL1. The Office of Water has asked the 
DWC to peer review the draft CCL 3 at a future meeting.
    Waterborne Diseases: Measures to Link Drinking Water Programs to 
Public Health Outcomes--The EPA Office of Water (OW) submitted a draft 
Measure Development Plan to OMB in October, 2004. As identified in the 
plan, the focus of OW's activities is to develop a health-based 
performance measure built on sound scientific data that relates program 
actions to potential decrease in waterborne disease incidence. EPA's 
goal is to develop long-term measures

[[Page 61636]]

that describe changes over time of disease due to drinking water 
contamination or changes in the occurrence of indicators of waterborne 
disease; the objective is to demonstrate the effectiveness of drinking 
water programs on acute and chronic disease related to microbes or 
other drinking water contaminants. The Office of Water is currently 
developing approaches to the health-based measure to include in the 
Agency's next Strategic Plan with input from the National Drinking 
Water Advisory Council and has asked the DWC to hold a future 
consultative meeting on this topic.
    Availability of Materials: The draft agenda and other materials 
will be posted on the SAB Web Site at: http://www.epa.gov/sab prior to 
the teleconference.
    Procedures for Providing Public Input: Interested members of the 
public may submit relevant written or oral information for the SAB to 
consider during the public teleconference and/or meeting. Oral 
Statements: In general, individuals or groups requesting an oral 
presentation at a public SAB teleconference will be limited to three 
minutes per speaker, with no more than a total of one-half hour for all 
speakers. To be placed on the public speaker list, interested parties 
should contact Dr. Sue Shallal, DFO, in writing (preferably via e-
mail), by November 6, 2007, at the contact information noted above. 
Written Statements: Written statements should be received in the SAB 
Staff Office in accordance with the dates mentioned above so that the 
information may be made available to the SAB for their consideration 
prior to each teleconference. Written statements should be supplied to 
the DFO in the following formats: one hard copy with original 
signature, and one electronic copy via e-mail (acceptable file format: 
Adobe Acrobat PDF, WordPerfect, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, or Rich Text 
files in IBM-PC/Windows 98/2000/XP format).
    Accessibility: For information on access or services for 
individuals with disabilities, please contact Dr. Sue Shallal at (202) 
343-9977 or [email protected]. To request accommodation of a 
disability, please contact Dr. Shallal preferably at least ten days 
prior to the teleconference, to give EPA as much time as possible to 
process your request.

    Dated October 25, 2007.
Anthony F. Maciorowski,
Deputy Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
[FR Doc. E7-21446 Filed 10-30-07; 8:45 am]
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