[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 29, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4694-4696]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-01721]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0699; FRL-9905-99-OAR]


Release of Draft Documents Related to the Review of the National 
Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of availability and public comment period.

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SUMMARY: On or about January 31, 2014, the Office of Air Quality 
Planning and Standards (OAQPS) will make available for public comment 
three draft documents prepared as part of the current review of the 
national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for Ozone 
(O3). Two are draft risk and exposure assessment documents: 
Health Risk and Exposure Assessment for Ozone, Second External Review 
Draft and Welfare Risk and Exposure Assessment for Ozone, Second 
External Review Draft, and the third is the draft policy assessment 
document: Policy Assessment for the Review of the Ozone National 
Ambient Air Quality Standards, Second External Review Draft.

DATES: Comments on all documents should be submitted on or before March 
24, 2014.

ADDRESSES: This document is available primarily via the Internet at the 
following Web site: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/s_o3_index.html.
    Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-
0699, by one of the following methods:
     www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for 
submitting comments.
     Email: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (email) to 
[email protected], Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0699.
     Fax: Fax your comments to 202-566-9744, Attention Docket 
ID. No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0699.
     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-2008-0699. Please include a total of two copies.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: 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-
2008-0699. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s policy is that 
all comments received will be included in the public docket without 
change and may be made 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

[[Page 4695]]

protected through www.regulations.gov or email. The www.regulations.gov 
Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means the EPA will 
not know your identity or contact information unless you provide it in 
the body of your comment. If you send an email comment directly to the 
EPA without going through www.regulations.gov, your email address will 
be captured automatically 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, the 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 the EPA cannot read your comment due 
to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, the 
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 the 
EPA's public docket, visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at: http://www.epa.gov/dockets/.
    Docket: All 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 material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Air and Radiation Docket 
Information Center, EPA/DC, William Jefferson Clinton Building, Room 
3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC. The 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, and the telephone for the Air and Radiation 
Docket and Information Center is (202) 566-1742; fax (202) 566-9744.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions related to the draft 
document titled, Health Risk and Exposure Assessment for Ozone, Second 
External Review Draft (EPA-452/P-14-004a; January 2014), please contact 
Dr. Bryan Hubbell, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (Mail 
code C539-07), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle 
Park, NC 27711; email: [email protected]; telephone: (919) 541-
3515; fax: (919) 541-5315.
    For questions related to the draft document titled, Welfare Risk 
and Exposure Assessment for Ozone, Second External Review Draft (EPA-
452/P-14-003a; January 2014), please contact Dr. Travis Smith, Office 
of Air Quality Planning and Standards (Mail code C539-07), U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; 
email: [email protected]; telephone: (919) 541-2035; fax: (919) 
541-5315.
    For questions related to the draft document titled, Policy 
Assessment for the Review of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality 
Standards, Second External Review Draft (EPA-452/P-14-002; January 
2014), please contact Ms. Susan Lyon Stone, Office of Air Quality 
Planning and Standards (Mail code C504-06), U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; email: 
[email protected]; telephone: (919) 541-1146; fax: (919) 541-0237.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

A. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for the EPA?

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to the EPA 
through www.regulations.gov or email. 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 the 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.
     Explain your views as clearly as possible, avoiding the 
use of profanity or personal threats.
     Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period 
deadline identified.

II. Information Specific to These Documents

    Two sections of the Clean Air Act (Act) govern the establishment 
and revision of the NAAQS. Section 108 (42 U.S.C. 7408) directs the 
Administrator to identify and list certain air pollutants and then to 
issue air quality criteria for those pollutants. The Administrator is 
to list those air pollutants that in her ``judgment, cause or 
contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to 
endanger public health or welfare;'' ``the presence of which in the 
ambient air results from numerous or diverse mobile or stationary 
sources;'' and ``for which * * * [the Administrator] plans to issue air 
quality criteria * * *''. Air quality criteria are intended 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 * * *'' 42 U.S.C. 7408(b). Under section 
109 (42 U.S.C. 7409), the EPA establishes primary (health-based) and 
secondary (welfare-based) NAAQS for pollutants for which air quality 
criteria are issued. Section 109(d) 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, if appropriate, revise the NAAQS, 
based on the revised air quality criteria. Section 109(d)(2) requires 
that an independent scientific review committee ``shall complete a 
review of the criteria * * * and the national primary and secondary 
ambient air quality standards * * * and shall recommend to the 
Administrator any new * * * standards and revisions of existing 
criteria and standards as may be appropriate * * *.'' Since the early 
1980's, this independent review function has been performed by the 
Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).
    Presently, the EPA is reviewing the NAAQS for O3. The 
EPA's overall plan

[[Page 4696]]

for this review is presented in the Integrated Review Plan for the 
Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards.\1\ As part of the EPA's 
review of the primary and secondary O3 NAAQS,\2\ the Agency 
has conducted quantitative assessments characterizing the: (1) Health 
risks associated with exposure to ambient O3; (2) welfare 
risks associated with exposure to ambient O3; and, (3) 
associated ambient air quality analyses. On or about January 31, 2014, 
the EPA is making available for public comment two draft assessment 
documents titled, Health Risk and Exposure Assessment for Ozone, Second 
External Review Draft and Welfare Risk and Exposure Assessment for 
Ozone, Second External Review Draft. These documents revise the first 
draft Health Risk and Exposure Assessment (EPA-452/P-12-001; July 2012) 
and first draft Welfare Risk and Exposure Assessment (EPA-452/P-12-004; 
July 2012), respectively.\3\ The draft assessment documents announced 
today convey the approaches taken to assess exposures to ambient 
O3 and to characterize associated health and welfare risks, 
as well as present the key results, observations, and related 
uncertainties associated with the quantitative analyses performed. 
These draft assessments may be accessed online through the EPA's 
Technology Transfer Network (TTN) Web site at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/s_o3_index.html.
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    \1\ EPA 452/R-11-006; April 2011; Available: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/data/2011_04_OzoneIRP.pdf.
    \2\ See http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/review.html for more 
information on the NAAQS review process.
    \3\ These documents were the subject of a review by the CASAC in 
September 2012; 77 FR 46755, August 6, 2012.
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    In addition, on or about January 31, 2014, the EPA will make 
available the draft document titled, Policy Assessment for the Review 
of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards, Second External 
Review Draft. This document will serve to ``bridge the gap'' between 
the scientific information and the judgments required of the 
Administrator in determining whether to retain or revise the existing 
NAAQS for (O3), and, if revision is considered, what 
revisions may be appropriate. This document revises the first draft 
Policy Assessment (EPA-452/P-12-004; July 2012).\4\ The Policy 
Assessment builds upon information presented in the Integrated Science 
Assessment of Ozone and Related Photochemical Oxidants (Final Report) 
\5\ and the two draft assessment documents announced today and 
described above. The second draft Policy Assessment may be accessed 
online through the EPA's TTN Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/s_o3_index.html.
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    \4\ This document was the subject of a review by CASAC in 
September 2012; 77 FR 46755, August 6, 2012.
    \5\ U.S. EPA. Integrated Science Assessment of Ozone and Related 
Photochemical Oxidants (Final Report). U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-10/076F, 2013; Available: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/isa/recordisplay.cfm?deid=247492#Download.
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    The EPA is soliciting advice and recommendations from the CASAC by 
means of a review of these draft documents at an upcoming public 
meeting of the CASAC. Information about these public meetings, 
including the dates and locations, will be published as a separate 
notice in the Federal Register. Following the CASAC meeting, the EPA 
will consider comments received from the CASAC and the public in 
preparing revisions to these documents. The EPA will consider public 
comments submitted in response to this notice when revising the 
documents. The documents that are the subject of today's notice do not 
represent and should not be construed to represent any final EPA 
policy, viewpoint or determination.

    Dated: January 22, 2014.
Mary E. Henigin,
Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. 2014-01721 Filed 1-28-14; 8:45 am]
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