[Federal Register: August 6, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 151)]
[Notices]
[Page 46602-46604]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr06au03-74]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL -7540-6 ]
Science Advisory Board Staff Office; Request for Nominations for
Experts for a Science Advisory Board Panel on Council for Regulatory
Environmental Modeling (CREM) Guidance Advisory Panel
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory
Board (SAB) Staff Office is announcing the formation of a new SAB panel
to provide advice on EPA's interim guidance on environmental models and
development of a models knowledge base, and is soliciting nominations
for members of the panel.
DATES: Nominations should be submitted no later than August 27, 2003.
ADDRESSES: Nominations should be submitted in electronic format through
the Form for Nominating Individuals to Panels of the EPA Science
Advisory Board provided on the SAB Web site. The form can be accessed
through a link on the blue navigational bar on the SAB Web site
www.epa.gov/sab. To be considered, all nominations must include the
information required on that form. Anyone who is unable to submit
nominations via this form may contact Dr. K. Jack Kooyoomjian,
Designated Federal Officer (DFO), as indicated below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Any member of the public wishing
further information regarding this Request for Nomination may contact
Dr. K. Jack Kooyoomjian, (DFO), U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board Staff
Office; 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Suite 6450, Washington, DC 20460;
by telephone/voice mail at (202) 564-4557; by fax at (202) 501-0582; or
via e-mail at kooyoomjian.jack@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Summary: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory
Board (SAB) Staff Office is announcing the formation of a new Advisory
Panel, known as the Council for Regulatory Environmental Modeling
(CREM) Guidance Advisory Panel to provide advice on issues related to
EPA's Interim Guidance on Environmental Models as well as the
development of a models knowledge base. The interim guidance is meant
to outline best practices in the development, evaluation and use of
environmental models that inform the decision-making process, while the
knowledge base is a web-accessible inventory of environmental models
intended to promote transparency in the data, algorithms, assumptions,
and uncertainties underlying models and to enable developers and
analysts to more easily identify information needs.
The CREM Guidance Advisory Panel is being formed to provide advice
to the Agency, as part of the EPA SAB's mission, established by 42
U.S.C. 4365, to provide independent scientific and technical advice,
and recommendations to the EPA Administrator on the technical bases for
EPA decision making. The SAB is a chartered Federal Advisory Committee,
which reports directly to the Administrator.
Background: In its mission to protect human health and safeguard
the natural environment, EPA must often make decisions that attempt to
minimize the potential human and ecological health risks posed by
certain activities (e.g., the release of toxic chemicals to the
environment). EPA uses mathematical models to anticipate possible
future events, and to simulate the behavior of systems where monitoring
data are difficult to obtain or limited due to resource constraints.
In its continuing efforts to assist EPA maintain the scientific
credibility of its decisions, the SAB has consistently recommended that
EPA institutionalize a cross-Agency approach to model assessment and
use. In 1989, the SAB suggested that such an approach would help avoid
the inappropriate secondary use of models and reduce duplication in
modeling efforts for similar applications thereby conserving Agency
resources. In
[[Page 46603]]
subsequent years, the SAB addressed a variety of modeling issues, such
as the need to conduct sensitivity and uncertainty analyses to better
characterize the degree of confidence in model outputs. The SAB further
suggested that EPA should collaborate with internal and external model
users to obtain feedback that will ultimately facilitate continuous
improvement in the Agency's modeling efforts. The EPA's Council for
Regulatory Environmental Modeling (CREM) now seeks input from the SAB
on two efforts the Agency believes will ultimately strengthen the
scientific basis for EPA's model-based decisions: (1) Development of an
Interim Guidance on Environmental Models; and (2) development of a
Models Knowledge Base.
Proposed Charge to the SAB CREM Advisory Panel
Charge Issues Related to the Interim guidance on Environmental
Models: As noted above, the SAB recommended that EPA establish policies
and procedures for the development, evaluation, and use of
environmental regulatory models. The EPA's CREM is drafting interim
Agency guidance on the development and use of environmental models.
These guidelines will ultimately address both policy and science
issues, and EPA now turns to the SAB for advice on the latter set of
issues. With regard to the Interim Guidance on Environmental Models,
EPA proposes the following charge to the SAB:
Charge Question 1: Has EPA sufficiently and appropriately
identified the best practices, such that decisions based on models
developed and used in accordance with these practices may be said to be
based on the best available, practicable science?
Charge Question 2: Has EPA sufficiently and appropriately described
the goals and methods, and in adequate detail, such that the guidance
serves as a practical, relevant, and useful tool for model developers
and users? If not, what else would you recommend to achieve these ends?
Charge Question 3: Has EPA sufficiently and appropriately proposed
a graded approach, such that users of the guidance can determine the
appropriate level of evaluation for a particular model use. If there
are deficiencies in the proposed approach, what would you recommend to
correct it, and why?
Charge Question 4: Has EPA sufficiently and appropriately provided
practicable advice for decision-makers who must deal with the
uncertainty inherent in environmental models and their application?
What additional advice should EPA consider in dealing with uncertainty,
and why?
Charge Issues Related to a Models Knowledge Base: As noted above,
the SAB recommended that the CREM coordinate EPA efforts to collaborate
and seek input from model developers and users both inside and outside
EPA. One mechanism to implement this collaboration is through a web-
accessible knowledge base for environmental models. EPA is developing
such a knowledge base to communicate more clearly the data, algorithms,
assumptions, and uncertainties underlying each model; to facilitate the
use of individual models or the combined use of multiple models; and to
enable developers and analysts to more easily identify information
needs. With regard to the Models Knowledge Base, EPA proposes the
following charge to the SAB:
Charge Question 5: Has EPA identified, structured and developed the
optimal set of information to request from model developers and users,
i.e., the amount of information that best minimizes the burden on
information providers while maximizing the utility derived from the
information?
Charge Question 6: Has EPA provided the appropriate nomenclature
needed to elicit specific information from model developers that will
allow broad intercomparisons of model performance and application
without bias toward a particular field or discipline?
Charge Queston 7: Through the development of this knowledge base,
has EPA succeeded in providing: (7a) Easily accessible resource
material for new model developers that will help to eliminate
duplication in efforts among the offices/regions where there is overlap
in the modeling efforts and sometimes communication is limited? (7b )
Details of the temporal and spatial scales of data used to construct
each model as well as endogenous assumptions made during model
formulation such that users may evaluate their utility in combination
with other models and propagation of error due to differences in data
resolution can be addressed? (7c) Examples of ``successful'' models
(e.g., widely applied, have been tested, peer reviewed etc.)? (7d) A
forum for feedback on model uses outside Agency applications and
external suggestion for updating/improving model structure?
Document Availability: Readers who wish to be introduced to the
substance of this review may find the review documents at: http://www.epa.gov/crem/sab
when they are available. Additional background
information is also posted at the EPA's CREM site: http://www.epa.gov/crem
.
Request for Nominations: Any interested person or organization may
nominate qualified individuals for Membership on the Subcommittee.
Individuals should have expertise and experience in modeling activities
related to one or more of the following areas:
(a) Hazardous waste,
(b) Atmospheric Transport, Transformations and Removal,
(c) Groundwater Hydrology,
(d) Water Quality,
(e) Indoor Air,
(f) Multi-Media Environmental Fate and Transport,
(g) Environmental Management,
(h) Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology,
(i) Epidemiology,
(j) Public Health,
(k) Sensitivity Analysis,
(l) Uncertainty Analysis,
(m) Exposure and Risk Assessment,
(n) Environmental Law,
(o) Decision Analysis,
(p) Economics,
(q) Computer Sciences,
(r) Spatial Modeling,
(s) Model documentation,
(t) Nomenclature for Environmental Models,
(u) Statistics, and
(v) Information Quality Guidelines, Data Quality and Quality
Assurance Procedures.
Process and Deadline for Submitting Nominations: Any interested
person or organization may nominate qualified individuals to add
expertise in the above areas for the Panel. Nominations should be
submitted in electronic format through the Form for Nominating
Individuals to Panels of the EPA Science Advisory Board provided on the
SAB Web site. The form can be accessed through a link on the blue
navigational bar on the SAB Web site, www.epa.gov/sab. To be
considered, all nominations must include the information required on
that form.
The EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office will acknowledge
receipt of the nomination and inform nominators of the panel selected.
From the nominees identified by respondents to this Federal Register
notice (termed the ``Widecast''), SAB Staff will develop a smaller
subset (known as the ``Short List'') for more detailed consideration.
Criteria used by the SAB Staff in developing this Short List are given
at the end of the following paragraph. The Short List will be posted on
the SAB Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/sab, and will include, for each
candidate, the nominee's name and their biosketch.
[[Page 46604]]
Public comments will be accepted for 21 calendar days on the Short
List. During this comment period, the public will be requested to
provide information, analysis or other documentation on nominees that
the SAB Staff should consider in evaluating candidates for Panel.
For the EPA SAB, a balanced advisory panel is characterized by
inclusion of candidates who possess the necessary domains of knowledge,
the relevant scientific perspectives (which, among other factors, can
be influenced by work history and affiliation), and the collective
breadth of experience to adequately address the charge. Public
responses to the Short List candidates will be considered in the
selection of the panel, along with information provided by candidates
and information gathered by EPA SAB Staff independently on the
background of each candidate (e.g., financial disclosure information
and computer searches to evaluate a nominee's prior involvement with
the topic under review). Specific criteria to be used in evaluating an
individual subcommittee member include: (a) Scientific and/or technical
expertise, knowledge, and experience (primary factors); (b) absence of
financial conflicts of interest; (c) scientific credibility and
impartiality; (d) availability and willingness to serve; and (e)
ability to work constructively and effectively in committees.
Short List candidates will also be required to fill-out the
``Confidential Financial Disclosure Form for Special Government
Employees Serving on Federal Advisory Committees at the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency'' (EPA Form 3110-48). This confidential
form, which is submitted by EPA SAB Members and Consultants, allows
Government officials to determine whether there is a statutory conflict
between that person's public responsibilities (which includes
membership on an EPA Federal advisory committee) and private interests
and activities, or the appearance of a lack of impartiality, as defined
by Federal regulation. The form may be viewed and downloaded from the
following URL address: (http://www.epa.gov/sab/pdf/epaform3110-48.pdf).
Panel members will likely be asked to attend a least one public face-
to-face meeting and several public conference call meetings over the
anticipated course of the review.
Dated: July 31, 2003.
Vanessa T. Vu,
Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
[FR Doc. 03-20034 Filed 8-5-03; 8:45 am]
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