[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 158 (Wednesday, August 17, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48417-48418]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-16113]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[OEI-2005-2006; FRL-7951-5]


Office of Environmental Information; Announcement of Comment 
Period for Environmental Sampling, Analysis and Results Draft Data 
Standards

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of Data Availability & Comment Period.

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SUMMARY: Notice of availability for public review for a 90 day comment 
period is hereby given for the Draft Environmental Sampling, Analysis 
and Results (ESAR) Data Standards.
    The Draft Environmental Sampling, Analysis, and Results Data 
Standards are a collection of 14 standards that are based on the 
business processes used to collect and analyze environmental data. The 
collection is comprised of an Overview, four primary standards and nine 
supporting components. The fourteen ESAR data standards are designed to 
provide implementation flexibility and improve the exchange of 
environmental data across the nation. States and U.S. EPA completed a 
technical review of these data standards in the Spring of 2004. That 
review lead to the formation of Air, Waste, and Water teams, which 
reviewed the comments and produced this final collection of draft data 
standard documents. Reviewers will see that the standards may not use 
the specific terminology for a given environmental program. In order to 
make the standards work for the broadest audience, terms were 
specifically chosen for relevance to the broadest audience. Similarly, 
the standards do not address all details of each environmental program. 
These standards, when final, are intended to serve as a foundation for 
information

[[Page 48418]]

exchange across environmental media (water, air, waste). Media or 
program specific data elements may need to be added in an exchange.
    Reviewers please note that the draft data standards are based on 
and incorporate related efforts such as other data standards, 
electronic data deliverables, and systems data dictionaries in media 
specific areas including: the EDSC data standard ``Reporting Water 
Quality Results for Chemical and Microbiological Analytes;'' exchange 
specifications such as the ``Staged Electronic Data Deliverable'' 
(SEDD); data dictionaries such as the Air Quality Monitoring System 
(AQS); as well as specifications from the National Environmental 
Laboratory Accrediting Council (NELAC) and the Laboratory Information 
Management System (LIMS).

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before November 12, 2005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Linda Spencer; Environmental 
Protection Agency; 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, MC 2822T; Washington, DC 
20460; Phone: 202-566-1651; Fax: 202-566-1624; E-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: These standards were developed by the 
Environmental Data Standards Council (EDSC). The EDSC is a partnership 
of among EPA, States, and Tribes which promotes the efficient sharing 
of environmental information through the cooperative development of 
data standards.
    The standards are intended for use in environmental data exchanges 
among States, Tribal entities and the U.S. EPA. They are not meant to 
dictate or to limit data an agency chooses to collect for its own 
internal purposes. Adoption of a data standard should not be 
interpreted to mean that revisions to databases or information systems 
are required. What the adoption does mean is that formats for sharing 
data with Exchange Network (EN) partners will change because the 
Exchange Network has adopted Shared Schema Components based on the data 
standards. The SSCs are available on the Exchange Network Web site at 
http://www.exchangenetwork.net.
    The draft data standards and ``Frequently Asked Questions'' 
document can be found on EDSC's Web site http://www.envdatastandards.net/ and are available through the Docket system 
as indicated below.

I. General Information

A. How Can I Get Copies Of These Documents and Other Related 
Information?

    1. Docket. EPA has established an official public docket for this 
action under Docket ID No. OEI-2005-2006. The official public docket is 
the collection of materials that is available for public viewing at the 
OEI 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 Public 
Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the OEI 
Docket is (202) 566-1752.
    2. Electronic Access. You may access this Federal Register document 
electronically through the EPA Internet under the ``Federal Register'' 
listings at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/.
    An electronic version of the public docket is available through 
EPA's electronic public docket and comment system, EPA Dockets. You may 
use EPA Dockets at http://www.epa.gov/edocket/ to view public comments, 
access the index listing of the contents of the official public docket, 
and to access those documents in the public docket that are available 
electronically. Although not all docket materials may be available 
electronically, you may still access any of the publicly available 
docket materials through the docket facility identified in Unit I.B. 
Once in the system, select ``search,'' then key in the appropriate 
docket identification number.

    Dated: August 9, 2005.
Oscar Morales,
Division Director, Collection Strategies Division, Office of 
Information Collection, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
[FR Doc. 05-16113 Filed 8-16-05; 8:45 am]
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