[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 208 (Thursday, October 29, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55843-55845]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-26093]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0015; FRL-8973-1]


Release of Draft Document Related to the Review of the National 
Ambient Air Quality Standards for Carbon Monoxide

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Availability of draft document for public comment.

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SUMMARY: On or about October 20, 2009, the Office of Air Quality 
Planning and Standards (OAQPS) of EPA is making available for public 
comment a draft assessment document: Risk and Exposure Assessment to 
Support the Review of the Carbon Monoxide (CO) Primary National Ambient 
Air Quality Standards--First External Review Draft. This draft document 
describes the quantitative analyses that are being conducted as part of 
the review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for 
carbon monoxide (CO).

DATES: Comments should be submitted on or before November 19, 2009.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2008-0015, by one of the following methods:
     http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the online instructions 
for submitting comments.
     E-mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail) 
to [email protected], Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-
0015.
     Fax: Fax your comments to 202-566-9744, Attention Docket 
ID. No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0015.

[[Page 55844]]

     Mail: Send your comments to: Air and Radiation Docket and 
Information Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T, 
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID 
No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0015.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: Deliver your comments to: EPA 
Docket Center, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Room 3334, Washington, DC. 
Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of 
operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of 
boxed information.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2008-0015. The EPA's policy is that all comments received will be 
included in the public docket without change and may be made available 
online at  http://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 http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://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 http://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.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://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 material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Air Docket in the 
EPA Docket Center, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC. This Docket Facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 
p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The Docket 
telephone number is 202-566-1742; fax 202-566-9744.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions related to the draft 
document titled, Risk and Exposure Assessment to Support the Review of 
the Carbon Monoxide (CO) Primary National Ambient Air Quality 
Standards--First External Review Draft (October 2009), please contact 
Dr. Ines Pagan, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (Mail Code 
C504-06), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, 
NC 27711; e-mail: [email protected]; telephone: 919-541-5469; fax: 
919-541-0237.

General Information

A. What Should I Consider as I Prepare My Comments for EPA?

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to EPA through 
http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. Clearly mark the part or all of 
the information that you claim to be CBI. For CBI information in a disk 
or CD-ROM that you mail to EPA, mark the outside of the disk or CD-ROM 
as CBI and then identify electronically within the disk or CD-ROM the 
specific information that is claimed as CBI. In addition to one 
complete version of the comment that includes information claimed as 
CBI, a copy of the comment that does not contain the information 
claimed as CBI must be submitted for inclusion in the public docket. 
Information so marked will not be disclosed except in accordance with 
procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2.
    2. Tips for Preparing Your Comments. When submitting comments, 
remember to:
     Identify the rulemaking by docket number and other 
identifying information (subject heading, Federal Register date and 
page number).
     Follow directions--The agency may ask you to respond to 
specific questions or organize comments by referencing a Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number.
     Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives 
and substitute language for your requested changes.
     Describe any assumptions and provide any technical 
information and/or data that you used.
     If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how 
you arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be 
reproduced.
     Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns, and 
suggest alternatives.
     Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period 
deadline identified.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under section 108(a) of the Clean Air Act 
(CAA), the Administrator identifies and lists certain pollutants which 
``cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be 
anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.'' The EPA then issues 
air quality criteria for these listed pollutants, which are commonly 
referred to as ``criteria pollutants.'' The air quality criteria are to 
``accurately reflect the latest scientific knowledge useful in 
indicating the kind and extent of all identifiable effects on public 
health or welfare which may be expected from the presence of [a] 
pollutant in the ambient air, in varying quantities.'' Under section 
109 of the CAA, EPA establishes primary (health-based) and secondary 
(welfare-based) NAAQS for pollutants for which air quality criteria are 
issued. Section 109(d) of the CAA requires periodic review and, if 
appropriate, revision of existing air quality criteria. The revised air 
quality criteria reflect advances in scientific knowledge on the 
effects of the pollutant on public health or welfare. The EPA is also 
required to periodically review and revise the NAAQS, if appropriate, 
based on the revised criteria.
    Presently, EPA is reviewing the air quality criteria and NAAQS for 
CO. The EPA's overall plan and schedule for this review is presented in 
the Integrated Review Plan for the National Ambient Air Quality 
Standards for Carbon Monoxide.\1\ A draft of the integrated review plan 
was released for public review and comment in March 2008 and was the 
subject of a consultation with the Clean Air Scientific Advisory 
Committee (CASAC) on April 8, 2008 (73 FR 12998). Comments received 
from that consultation and from the public were considered in 
finalizing the plan and in beginning the review of the air quality 
criteria.
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    \1\ EPA 452R-08-005; August 2008; Available at: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/co/s_co_cr_pd.html.
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    As part of EPA's review of the primary (health-based) CO NAAQS, the 
Agency is conducting qualitative and quantitative assessments 
characterizing the health risks associated with exposure to ambient CO. 
The EPA's plans for conducting these assessments, including the 
proposed scope and methods of the analyses, were presented in a 
planning document titled, Carbon

[[Page 55845]]

Monoxide National Ambient Air Quality Standards: Scope and Methods Plan 
for Health Risk and Exposure Assessment (Scope and Methods Plan). This 
document was released for public comment in April 2009 and was the 
subject of a consultation with the CASAC on May 13, 2009 (74 FR 15265). 
Comments received from the CASAC consultation (Brain and Samet, 2009) 
\2\ as well as public comments on the Scope and Methods Plan have been 
considered in developing the draft assessment document being released 
at this time.
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    \2\ See http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/
93C1DE17CB957211852575F30071B0BD/$File/EPA-CASAC-09-012-unsigned.pdf
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    The draft document announced today conveys the approaches taken to 
assess exposures to ambient CO and to characterize associated health 
risks, as well as present the initial key results, observations, and 
related uncertainties associated with the quantitative analyses 
performed. This draft document will be available on or about October 
20, 2009, through the Agency's Technology Transfer Network (TTN) Web 
site at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/co/s_co_index.html. 
This document may be accessed in the ``Documents from Current Review'' 
section under ``Risk and Exposure Assessments.'' The EPA is soliciting 
advice and recommendations from the CASAC by means of a review of the 
draft document at an upcoming public meeting of the CASAC scheduled in 
Chapel Hill, NC. Information about this public meeting, including the 
date and location, has been published as a separate notice in the 
Federal Register (74 FR 48536) on September 23, 2009. Following the 
CASAC meeting, EPA will consider comments received from the CASAC and 
the public in preparing revisions to this assessment document.
    The draft document briefly described above does not represent and 
should not be construed to represent any final EPA policy, viewpoint, 
or determination. The EPA will consider any public comments submitted 
in response to this notice when revising the documents.

    Dated: October 15, 2009.
Jennifer Noonan Edmonds,
Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. E9-26093 Filed 10-28-09; 8:45 am]
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