[Federal Register: August 18, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 158)]
[Notices]
[Page 41697-41698]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18au09-42]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-8946-6]
Science Advisory Board Staff Office; Notification of a Meeting of
the Science Advisory Board Drinking Water Committee
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory
Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public face-to-face meeting of the
SAB Drinking Water Committee (DWC) to provide advice on the Agency's
draft Protocol for Microbial Risk Assessment to Support Human Health
Protection for Water-Based Media and to discuss its draft advisory
report on the Agency's supporting analysis for the proposed revised
Total Coliform Rule.
DATES: The SAB will hold the public face-to-face meeting on September
21, 2009 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Eastern Time) and will continue on
September 22, 2009 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Eastern Time).
ADDRESSES: The September 21-22, 2009 face-to-face meeting will be held
at the SAB Conference Center, 1025 F Street, NW., Room 3705,
Washington, DC 20004.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Any member of the public wishing to
obtain general information concerning this public meeting should
contact Mr. Aaron Yeow, Designated Federal Officer (DFO), EPA Science
Advisory Board (1400F), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460; via telephone/voice
mail: (202) 343-9878; fax: (202) 233-0643; or e-mail at
yeow.aaron@epa.gov. General information concerning the EPA Science
Advisory Board can be found on the SAB Web site at http://www.epa.gov/
sab.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee
Act, 5 U.S.C., App. 2 (FACA), notice is hereby given that the SAB
Drinking Water Committee (DWC) will hold a public meeting to provide
advice on the Agency's draft Protocol for Microbial Risk Assessment to
Support Human Health Protection for Water-Based Media and to discuss
its draft advisory report on the Agency's supporting analysis for the
proposed revised Total Coliform Rule. The SAB was established pursuant
to 42 U.S.C. 4365 to provide independent scientific and technical
advice to the Administrator on the technical basis for Agency positions
and regulations. The SAB is a Federal Advisory Committee chartered
under FACA. The SAB will comply with the provisions of FACA and all
appropriate EPA and SAB Staff Office procedural policies.
Background: EPA's Office of Water (OW) is responsible for
protecting human health and the environment from contaminants in water.
To achieve this goal, OW conducts risk assessments that apply
scientific principles and methods to determine the nature and magnitude
of health risks from contaminant exposures. OW performs microbial risk
assessments (MRA) to support new regulations for microbial
[[Page 41698]]
pathogens in drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
MRAs also support the development of health-based ambient water quality
criteria and biosolids criteria under the Clean Water Act (CWA). These
criteria protect against adverse human exposures to infectious disease
microorganisms in recreational waters, shellfish growing waters, and
wastewater biosolids.
Because of the importance of MRAs, OW developed a Microbial Risk
Assessment Framework and is developing a draft Protocol for Microbial
Risk Assessment to Support Human Health Protection for Water-Based
Media to provide Agency guidance for performing microbial risk
assessments. Current Agency risk assessment guidance is geared towards
chemical risk assessment. MRAs do not fit easily within that framework
because of microbial and host factors that do not affect chemical risk
assessments. A separate protocol is needed to help risk assessors
address these factors in a consistent way.
The draft Protocol for Microbial Risk Assessment to Support Human
Health Protection for Water-Based Media will be used as guidance for
preparing qualitative or quantitative MRAs for recreational water
exposures, evaluation of biosolids application to land, and drinking
water regulation development applications. OW may also make the
Protocol available to States, non-governmental organizations, and
international agencies to use in conducting risk assessments related to
water media. In addition to supporting new regulations under the SDWA
and supporting the development of criteria under the CWA, the MRA
Protocol may also be used for a number of different applications such
as assessing the potential human health risks associated with a known
pathogen, determining critical control points for risk mitigation/
control measures, identifying and prioritizing research and
development, assisting in epidemiological investigations, and
determining consequences of management options to reduce risk.
The Office of Water is requesting that the SAB provide advice on
the draft Protocol for Microbial Risk Assessment to Support Human
Health Protection for Water-Based Media and to provide recommendations
on: how to improve the overall approach, the applicability of the
Protocol, the reasonableness of the protocol, the clarity of the
Protocol, the completeness and robustness of the protocol, and the ease
of use of the Protocol for conducting water-based microbial risk
assessments.
The SAB DWC will also discuss its draft advisory report on the
Agency's supporting analysis for the proposed revised Total Coliform
Rule during this meeting. The Committee met previously on May 20, 2009
and on June 9-June 10, 2009 to deliberate on the Agency's charge
questions regarding the supporting analysis. A Federal Register Notice
dated May 1, 2009 (74 FR 20297-20298) announced these meetings and
provided background information on this advisory activity.
Availability of Meeting Materials: The meeting agenda and other
materials, including a link to access the EPA review document(s)
related to the draft Protocol for Microbial Risk Assessment to Support
Human Health Protection for Water-Based Media and draft advisory report
on the Agency's supporting analysis for the proposed revised Total
Coliform Rule, will be posted on the SAB Web site (http://www.epa.gov/
sab) in advance of the meeting. For questions and information
concerning the Agency's documents relating to the Protocol, please
contact Dr. Stephen Schaub at (202) 566-1126 or schaub.stephen@epa.gov.
For questions and information concerning the SAB's draft advisory
report on EPA's proposed Total Coliform Rule revisions, please contact
Dr. Suhair Shallal at (202) 343-9977 or shallal.suhair@epa.gov.
Procedures for Providing Public Input: Interested members of the
public may submit relevant written or oral information for the SAB to
consider on the topics included in this advisory activity and/or group
conducting the activity. Oral Statements: In general, individuals or
groups requesting an oral presentation at a public SAB face-to-face
meeting will be limited to five minutes, with no more than a total of
one hour for all speakers. To be placed on the public speaker list for
the Microbial Risk Assessment Protocol, interested parties should
contact Mr. Aaron Yeow, DFO, in writing (preferably via e-mail), by
September 14, 2009 at the contact information noted above. To be placed
on the public speaker list for the draft SAB advisory report on the
Total Coliform Rule revisions, interested parties should contact Dr.
Suhair Shallal, DFO, in writing (preferably via e-mail), by September
14, 2009 at the contact information noted above.
Written Statements: Written statements should be received in the
SAB Staff Office by September 14, 2009, so that the information may be
made available to the SAB for their consideration prior to the face-to-
face meeting. Written statements on the Microbial Risk Assessment
Protocol should be supplied to the DFO via e-mail to yeow.aaron@epa.gov
and written statements on the draft SAB advisory report on the Total
Coliform Rule Revisions should be supplied to the DFO via e-mail to
shallal.suhair@epa.gov (acceptable file format: Adobe Acrobat PDF,
WordPerfect, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, or Rich Text files in IBM-PC/
Windows 98/2000/XP format). Submitters are requested to provide two
versions of each document submitted with and without signatures,
because the SAB Staff Office does not publish documents with signatures
on its Web sites.
Accessibility: For information on access or services for
individuals with disabilities, please contact Mr. Aaron Yeow at (202)
343-9878 or yeow.aaron@epa.gov. To request accommodation of a
disability, please contact Mr. Yeow preferably at least ten days prior
to the meeting, to give EPA as much time as possible to process your
request.
Dated: August 6, 2009.
Anthony F. Maciorowski,
Deputy Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
[FR Doc. E9-19752 Filed 8-17-09; 8:45 am]
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