[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 246 (Tuesday, December 28, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73757-73759]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-28080]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0276; FRL-9212-01-OAR]


Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual, 
Revision 2; Reopening of the Comment Period

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of availability with request for public comment; 
reopening of public comment period.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: On June 16, 2021, the Department of Defense (DoD), Department 
of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced for public comment the 
availability of a draft revision document, entitled the ``Multi-Agency 
Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual'' (MARSSIM). A 90-day 
comment period was provided for the draft MARSSIM revision that expired 
on September 14, 2021. A request for an extension to the comment period 
has been received from several stakeholders. EPA is reopening the 
comment period for the draft manual for an additional 45 days.

DATES: The comment period for the draft MARSSIM revision has been 
reopened and now must be received on or before February 11, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2021-0276, to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or withdrawn. The 
EPA may

[[Page 73758]]

publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not 
electronically submit any information you consider to be Confidential 
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is 
restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must 
be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered 
the official comment and should include discussion of all points you 
wish to make. The EPA will generally not consider comments or comment 
contents located outside of the primary submission (i.e., on the web, 
cloud or other file sharing system). For additional submission methods, 
the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia 
submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please 
visit: http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
    You may obtain publicly available information related to this 
action, including copies of the MARSSIM Revision 2, by any of the 
following methods:
    NRC's Agencywide Documents Access Management System (ADAMS): You 
may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public 
Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To 
begin the search, select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.'' Please refer 
to ML21008A572 when contacting the NRC about the availability of the 
MARSSIM Revision 2 draft. For problems with ADAMS, please contact the 
NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 
301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected].
    You may submit your request to the PDR via email at 
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. 
(EST), Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The DOE, EPA, 
and NRC each have a publication number for MARSSIM. They are: For the 
DOE, DOE/AU-0002; for the EPA, EPA 402-P-20-001; for the NRC, NUREG-
1575, Revision 2. A free single copy of the draft MARSSIM Revision 2 
may be requested by email to [email protected].
    The MARSSIM Revision 2 document is also available for download at: 
https://www.epa.gov/radiation/multi-agency-radiation-survey-and-site-investigation-manual-marssim.
    Further Instructions: All submissions received must include the 
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0276 for this rulemaking. Comments 
received may be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, 
including any personal information provided. For detailed instructions 
and additional information on submitting comments, see the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Any of the following points of contact 
for each agency for technical information: DoD: Gerald A. Falo, Phone: 
(410) 436-4852, [email protected], U.S. Army Public Health 
Center, E5158, Room 58, 8252 Blackhawk Road, Aberdeen Proving Ground, 
MD 21010; DOE: Amanda Anderson (EM-3.11), Phone: (240) 702-5556, 
[email protected], U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 
Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585; EPA: Kathryn Snead; 
Phone: (202) 343-9228, [email protected], U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Mail Stop 6608T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 
Washington DC 20460-1000; NRC: Sarah Tabatabai, Phone: (301) 415-2382, 
[email protected], U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop 
TWF 10 A-12 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852-2738. Questions 
concerning the multi-agency document development project should be 
addressed to Kathryn Snead, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, MC 6608T, Washington, DC 20460, (202) 343-9228, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

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

    1. Submitting Confidential Business Information (CBI). The EPA may 
publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit CBI 
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 files on 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 EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-
0276 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. Background

    On June 16, 2021 (86 FR 32034), the Department of Defense (DoD), 
Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced for public comment 
the availability of a draft revision document, entitled the ``Multi-
Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual'' (MARSSIM).
    MARSSIM provides information on planning, conducting, evaluating, 
and documenting environmental radiological surveys of surface soil and 
building surfaces for demonstrating compliance with regulations. 
MARSSIM, when finalized as Revision 2, will update this multi-agency 
consensus document.
    MARSSIM was originally developed by the technical staffs of the 
four Federal agencies having authority for control of radioactive 
materials: DoD, DOE, EPA and NRC (60 FR 12555; March 7, 1995). The four 
agencies issued Revision 1 to MARSSIM in August 2000, and additional 
edits to Revision 1 in June 2001. MARSSIM has not been updated since 
2001; updates prior to 2001 primarily consisted of minor non-technical 
edits. Revision 2 updates the science, clarifies methods, and 
implements lessons learned from over 20 years of the document's use in 
industry.
    A summary of changes in MARSSIM Revision 2 includes the following: 
(1) Added measurement quality objectives (MQOs) and measurement 
uncertainty, (2) expanded measurement methods to include scan-only 
surveys, (3) updated

[[Page 73759]]

survey instrumentation information, (4) added Scenario B (``assumed to 
meet the criteria until proven otherwise''), (5) increased emphasis on 
regulator interface during survey design, (6) improved description of 
the lower bound of the gray region (LBGR), (7) updated references, (8) 
changed English units to International System of Units (SI), (9) 
avoided using the term ``Area Factor,'' (10) included additional 
examples in Chapter 5, and (11) reorganized Chapter 4.
    The public review is a necessary step in the development of a final 
multi-agency consensus document. The document will also undergo 
concurrent, independent, scientific peer review. The draft has not been 
approved by the participating agencies for use, in part or in whole, 
and should not be used, cited, or quoted, except for the purposes of 
providing comments as requested.
    Commenters are requested to focus on technical accuracy and 
understandability. Commenters are also requested to address five 
questions while reviewing MARSSIM Revision 2:
    (1) Do the revisions to MARSSIM provide greater clarity while 
maintaining a practical and implementable approach to performing 
environmental radiological surveys of surface soil and building 
surfaces?
    (2) Are the revisions to MARSSIM technically accurate?
    (3) Does MARSSIM Revision 2 provide useful examples and 
descriptions of approaches to implementing surveys and the statistics 
by which they are interpreted?
    (4) Is the information in MARSSIM Revision 2 understandable and 
presented in a logical sequence? How can the presentation of material 
be modified to improve the understandability of the manual?
    Comments may be submitted as proposed modified text, or as a 
discussion. Comments should be accompanied by supporting bases, 
rationale, or data. To ensure efficient and complete comment 
resolution, commenters are requested to reference the page number and 
the line number of MARSSIM Revision 2 to which the comment applies. 
Enter only the beginning page and line number, even if your comment 
applies to several pages or lines to follow.
    Comments corresponding to an entire chapter, an entire section, or 
an entire table should be referenced to the line number for the title 
of the chapter section, or table. Comments on footnotes should be 
referenced to the line in the main text where the footnote is 
indicated. Comments on figures should be referenced to the page on 
which the figure appears. Figures do not have line numbers. The figure 
number should be included in the text of the comment. Comments on the 
entire manual should be referenced to the title page.
    Title: Draft Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation 
Manual, Revision 2.

Jonathan Edwards,
Director, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, Environmental Protection 
Agency.
[FR Doc. 2021-28080 Filed 12-27-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P