[Federal Register: July 13, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 133)]
[Notices]
[Page 40329-40330]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr13jy05-63]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[ORD-2005-0003, FRL-7937-9]
Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection;
Comment Request; Market-Based Stormwater Management in the Shepherd
Creek Watershed in Cincinnati, OH; EPA ICR Number 2178.01, OMB Control
Number
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501
et seq.), this document announces that EPA is planning to submit a
proposed Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB). This is a request for a new collection.
Before submitting the ICR to OMB for review and approval, EPA is
soliciting comments on specific aspects of the proposed information
collection as described below.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before September 12, 2005.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number ORD-2005-
0003, to EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by e-mail to
ord.docket@epa.gov, or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental
Protection Agency, ORD Docket, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington,
DC 20460.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Hale W. Thurston, ORD, NRMRL, Mail
Code 499, 26 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Cincinnati, OH, 45268;
telephone number: 513.569.7627; fax number: 513.487.2511; e-mail
address: thurston.hale@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA has established a public docket for this
ICR under Docket ID number ORD-2005-0003, which is available for public
viewing at the ORD Docket in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West,
Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket
Center 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
Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the ORD
Docket is (202) 566-0226. An electronic version of the public docket is
available through EPA Dockets (EDOCKET) at http://www.epa.gov/edocket.
Use EDOCKET to obtain a copy of the draft collection of information,
submit or view public comments, access the index listing of the
contents of the public docket, and to access those documents in the
public docket that are available electronically. Once in the system,
select ``search,'' then key in the docket ID number identified above.
Any comments related to this ICR should be submitted to EPA within
60 days of this notice. EPA's policy is that public comments, whether
submitted electronically or in paper, will be made available for public
viewing in EDOCKET as EPA receives them and without change, unless the
comment contains copyrighted material, CBI, or other information whose
public disclosure is restricted by statute. When EPA identifies a
comment containing copyrighted material, EPA will provide a reference
to that material in the version of the comment that is placed in
EDOCKET. The entire printed comment, including the copyrighted
material, will be available in the public docket. Although identified
as an item in the official docket, information claimed as CBI, or whose
disclosure is otherwise restricted by statute, is not included in the
official public docket, and will not be available for public viewing in
EDOCKET. For further information about the electronic docket, see EPA's
Federal Register notice describing the electronic docket at 67 FR 38102
(May 31, 2002), or go to http://www.epa.gov./edocket.
Affected entities: Entities potentially affected by this action are
residents of Mount-Airy/Shepherd Creek area of Cincinnati, OH.
Title: Market-based Stormwater Management in the Shepherd Creek
Watershed in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Abstract: The Sustainable Technology Division (STD) of the National
Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) in the Office of Research
and Development (ORD) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
is proposing to conduct a survey of individual property owners in the
Shepherd Creek watershed in Cincinnati, OH. The survey will elicit how
residents value the voluntary implementation of on-site, structural
best management practices as part of a comprehensive stormwater runoff
control policy. The focus will be on estimating the minimum monetary
value the landowner would judge necessary to dedicate a portion of
their property to implementation of best management practices that
reduce runoff.
This data collection is motivated by the current stormwater-related
problems within the United States in general, and in the greater
Cincinnati metropolitan area in particular. Urban and suburban
development changes the natural landscape making it more impervious to
rain and snow. The resulting stormwater runoff is one of the most
significant contributors to water quality degradation in the United
States through larger and more frequent floods, increased erosion of
stream beds and banks, disruption of natural habitat in receiving
waters, and increased pollution loadings of metals, toxics, and
nutrients. Precipitation falls over large geographic areas, and the
resulting runoff will flow across a myriad of parcels with varying land
uses, which are, in turn, under the control of numerous property
owners. Perhaps in reaction to these conditions, stormwater control
policies have concentrated on solutions that build centralized
detention BMPs to temporarily hold excess runoff within the storm sewer
system. An alternative, decentralized approach to stormwater control
would be to distribute BMPs at terrestrial locations throughout the
watershed, thus reducing runoff before it reaches the sewer system.
This approach provides both hydrological benefits of reducing
degradation of receiving waters, which would likely continue due to
discharges from a centralized sewer conveyance system, as well as
potential cost-savings in terms of meeting water quality standards,
habitat renewal, and other environmental goals.
Although the installation, operation, and maintenance costs for
best management practices are relatively well known, these are only a
portion of
[[Page 40330]]
the total costs of BMP implementation. Full consideration of costs
would include consideration of the opportunity costs (e.g., the costs
to the landowner of partial loss of use of property). EPA anticipates
that such opportunity costs associated with BMP implementation would be
borne by individual landowners, and that such costs may comprise the
largest component of total costs associated with runoff abatement. To
better understand the economic potential of implementation of a
voluntary and decentralized runoff control program, EPA proposes to
assess the opportunity costs associated with implementation of best
management practices to abate the adverse effects of storm water
runoff. The proposed survey would provide a means of gathering this
information. It also would ask 10-12 non-invasive demographic
questions, required for the proper statistical analysis of the data.
The survey would be conducted using six (6) groups of ten (10)
residential landowners from the Shepherd Creek watershed. Participation
would be completely voluntary. Residents who wish to participate in the
study would be identified and recruited through a liaison from the
Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District, who is familiar
with the community. The survey would be conducted using a computer
simulated nonuniform-price, sequential auction for the procurement of
best management practices. Participants would be presented with a
selection of best management practices that should be feasible for use
on their actual parcel. Information regarding how each BMP should
perform on their specific parcel, as well as the installation,
operation, and maintenance costs, would be provided to the landowner.
In the computer-simulated auction, participants who wish to implement
BMPs would submit bids that consist of the size and type of the BMPs
and the minimum compensation that the participant landowner would
accept. The goal of the simulation would be to elicit the minimum
compensation levels that individual landowners will accept in exchange
for implementation of the best management practices. This information
would then be used to estimate the minimum compensation that would
likely be necessary to achieve control stormwater runoff through such
on-site, structural best management practices.
Data gathered would be stored on U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) computer files that would protect the confidentiality of
individual participants. Summary results would be made available to the
public. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not
required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays
a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for EPA's
regulations in 40 CFR are listed in 40 CFR part 9.
The EPA solicits comments in this proposal to:
(i) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Agency,
including whether the information will have practical utility;
(ii) Evaluate the accuracy of the Agency's estimate of the burden
of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of
the methodology and assumptions used;
(iii) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information
to be collected; and
(iv) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic
submission of responses.
Burden Statement: The total number of expected participants would
be 60. The cost to participants would be their time, at an estimate
total of 120 hours collectively. EPA would compensate participants for
their participation at a minimum rate of $24.95 per hour. An additional
bonus amount of compensation would vary with their performance in the
auction. This is a commonly accepted practice used in experimental
economics, in order to overcome hypothetical survey bias.
Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources
expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or
provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time
needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize
technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and
verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and
disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to
comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements;
train personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information;
search data sources; complete and review the collection of information;
and transmit or otherwise disclose the information.
Dated: July 5, 2005.
Sally C. Gutierrez,
Acting Director, National Risk Management Research Laboratory.
[FR Doc. 05-13783 Filed 7-12-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P