[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 208 (Thursday, October 29, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55843-55845]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-26093]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0015; FRL-8973-1]
Release of Draft Document Related to the Review of the National
Ambient Air Quality Standards for Carbon Monoxide
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Availability of draft document for public comment.
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SUMMARY: On or about October 20, 2009, the Office of Air Quality
Planning and Standards (OAQPS) of EPA is making available for public
comment a draft assessment document: Risk and Exposure Assessment to
Support the Review of the Carbon Monoxide (CO) Primary National Ambient
Air Quality Standards--First External Review Draft. This draft document
describes the quantitative analyses that are being conducted as part of
the review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for
carbon monoxide (CO).
DATES: Comments should be submitted on or before November 19, 2009.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2008-0015, by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the online instructions
for submitting comments.
E-mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail)
to a-and-r-docket@epa.gov, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-
0015.
Fax: Fax your comments to 202-566-9744, Attention Docket
ID. No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0015.
[[Page 55844]]
Mail: Send your comments to: Air and Radiation Docket and
Information Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T,
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID
No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2008-0015.
Hand Delivery or Courier: Deliver your comments to: EPA
Docket Center, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Room 3334, Washington, DC.
Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of
operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of
boxed information.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2008-0015. The EPA's policy is that all comments received will be
included in the public docket without change and may be made available
online at http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal
information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed
to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information
that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without
going through http://www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of
any defects or viruses.
Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Air Docket in the
EPA Docket Center, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW.,
Washington, DC. This Docket Facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The Docket
telephone number is 202-566-1742; fax 202-566-9744.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions related to the draft
document titled, Risk and Exposure Assessment to Support the Review of
the Carbon Monoxide (CO) Primary National Ambient Air Quality
Standards--First External Review Draft (October 2009), please contact
Dr. Ines Pagan, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (Mail Code
C504-06), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park,
NC 27711; e-mail: pagan.ines@epa.gov; telephone: 919-541-5469; fax:
919-541-0237.
General Information
A. What Should I Consider as I Prepare My Comments for EPA?
1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to EPA through
http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. 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 EPA, mark the outside of the disk or CD-ROM
as CBI and then identify electronically within 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 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.
Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period
deadline identified.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under section 108(a) of the Clean Air Act
(CAA), the Administrator identifies and lists certain pollutants which
``cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be
anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.'' The EPA then issues
air quality criteria for these listed pollutants, which are commonly
referred to as ``criteria pollutants.'' The air quality criteria are to
``accurately reflect the latest scientific knowledge useful in
indicating the kind and extent of all identifiable effects on public
health or welfare which may be expected from the presence of [a]
pollutant in the ambient air, in varying quantities.'' Under section
109 of the CAA, EPA establishes primary (health-based) and secondary
(welfare-based) NAAQS for pollutants for which air quality criteria are
issued. Section 109(d) of the CAA requires periodic review and, if
appropriate, revision of existing air quality criteria. The revised air
quality criteria reflect advances in scientific knowledge on the
effects of the pollutant on public health or welfare. The EPA is also
required to periodically review and revise the NAAQS, if appropriate,
based on the revised criteria.
Presently, EPA is reviewing the air quality criteria and NAAQS for
CO. The EPA's overall plan and schedule for this review is presented in
the Integrated Review Plan for the National Ambient Air Quality
Standards for Carbon Monoxide.\1\ A draft of the integrated review plan
was released for public review and comment in March 2008 and was the
subject of a consultation with the Clean Air Scientific Advisory
Committee (CASAC) on April 8, 2008 (73 FR 12998). Comments received
from that consultation and from the public were considered in
finalizing the plan and in beginning the review of the air quality
criteria.
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\1\ EPA 452R-08-005; August 2008; Available at: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/co/s_co_cr_pd.html.
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As part of EPA's review of the primary (health-based) CO NAAQS, the
Agency is conducting qualitative and quantitative assessments
characterizing the health risks associated with exposure to ambient CO.
The EPA's plans for conducting these assessments, including the
proposed scope and methods of the analyses, were presented in a
planning document titled, Carbon
[[Page 55845]]
Monoxide National Ambient Air Quality Standards: Scope and Methods Plan
for Health Risk and Exposure Assessment (Scope and Methods Plan). This
document was released for public comment in April 2009 and was the
subject of a consultation with the CASAC on May 13, 2009 (74 FR 15265).
Comments received from the CASAC consultation (Brain and Samet, 2009)
\2\ as well as public comments on the Scope and Methods Plan have been
considered in developing the draft assessment document being released
at this time.
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\2\ See http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/
93C1DE17CB957211852575F30071B0BD/$File/EPA-CASAC-09-012-unsigned.pdf
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The draft document announced today conveys the approaches taken to
assess exposures to ambient CO and to characterize associated health
risks, as well as present the initial key results, observations, and
related uncertainties associated with the quantitative analyses
performed. This draft document will be available on or about October
20, 2009, through the Agency's Technology Transfer Network (TTN) Web
site at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/co/s_co_index.html.
This document may be accessed in the ``Documents from Current Review''
section under ``Risk and Exposure Assessments.'' The EPA is soliciting
advice and recommendations from the CASAC by means of a review of the
draft document at an upcoming public meeting of the CASAC scheduled in
Chapel Hill, NC. Information about this public meeting, including the
date and location, has been published as a separate notice in the
Federal Register (74 FR 48536) on September 23, 2009. Following the
CASAC meeting, EPA will consider comments received from the CASAC and
the public in preparing revisions to this assessment document.
The draft document briefly described above does not represent and
should not be construed to represent any final EPA policy, viewpoint,
or determination. The EPA will consider any public comments submitted
in response to this notice when revising the documents.
Dated: October 15, 2009.
Jennifer Noonan Edmonds,
Acting Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. E9-26093 Filed 10-28-09; 8:45 am]
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